Quote, unquote.

"It's none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way." - Ernest Hemingway

I have to keep reminding myself that I'll always be learning how to write. Even commercially and critically successful writers admit to their learning processes. One of the ways I've committed to learning is my writing group: They teach me, not only how to get better in my writing, but how to accept differing opinions and readings of what I write. I've committed to learning how to filter through reactions to my writing, learning how to separate my feelings and attachments to my writing from the objective evaluations of the writing.

Someone said that being a writer is like having homework for the rest of life (albeit homework you love, homework that makes everything else less tedious), and it's true. And it's important to remember that the point of homework is to practice, to understand, and to learn.