Paraphrasing here, but I know George Saunders has basically said that he attributes his success as an author not to any ability to crank out excellent drafts on

Paraphrasing here, but I know George Saunders has basically said that he attributes his success as an author not to any ability to crank out excellent drafts on the first try (and tbh I mildly distrust anyone who claims they can do this), but to having the stomach to sit with crummy first drafts and refine them over and over until the final edited product is good. Even for someone who's spent years cultivating a razor-sharp ear for language (which is a skill in itself!), the act of creation still involves the brute force of patience and persistence and plain old time. I find it pretty motivating, actually. "Natural and magical talent" as a frame of reference is less accommodating to bad days and false starts and crummy first drafts; a combination of persistence and honed skills, on the other hand, gives you the freedom to try things and fail and then gradually make them better—without the shadow of that initial failure looming over you and undermining your so-called "natural talent."