Writing: Talent or Learned?

This morning I received my normal (5 days per week) email from my best friend. His question to me this morning, in response to my recent prolific amount of blogging, was: do you just get "lost" when you are writing? What I mean by that is, do you get some sort of daze where it all just pours out? It certainly appears to be a gift.

My response:

I sometimes think the words flow more easily on the blog because - often - those words are fueled by anger at the stupidity of society. Sorry, couldn't resist. The blog is normally a response to something specific, where writing a novel is a combination of so many things - inspiration, creativity, plot, characters, start, finish, etc. So, writing a blog entry is normally much easier than writing twelve chapters of a book. I do, however, get lost in my writing, both blog and otherwise. It's not necessarily a 'daze'; but rather a transition to a different place. I really can't think of accurate words to describe the experience. I do think writing, no matter what other people might say, is a gift, a talent. Anybody can learn to write (heck, we all learn to write at some point), but not everybody can write well. I know, I'm probably not explaining it properly. I can play the piano - I took the requisite lessons, I practiced. I just don't play very well. My sister, on the other hand, is a proficient piano player. She took the lessons, practiced, but she also has talent. I think that the prolific writers (authors, some bloggers, journalists) have an inborn talent that transcends the writing everybody learns in school. Does any of that make sense?

So, my question to the few people that actually read this blog: is writing learned or is it a talent, i.e., is it inherent?

S