For the Eleven-Year-Old Lurker

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"The writer's gift usually manifests itself fairly early.  The adolescent
writer-to-be finds himself or herself *compelled* to write.  These young
people also are usually voracious readers.  First they read everything that
comes to hand; soon they find themselves seeking out what they feel to be
*theirs*.  In spite of all obstacles, they track down what they feel to be
their own:  from all periods of written literature.  *Words* are their
passion; they intoxicate themselves with words.  And almost immediately they
begin to find their own idiosyncratic rhythm and pulse, to which the words
may be fitted.  They imitate others, naturally.  But what they are looking
for is their own voice and their own words.  So, very naturally, they come
upon the writer's second necessity:  the mastering of technique.  That
battle never ends."

--Louise Bogan, "Journey Around My Room"

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