I’ve been asked if writing is a natural gift or if it can be acquired or learned.

Of course it always helps to have a bit of natural skill but that’s true of everything, not just writing. People born with the skill needed to throw a ball toss it with more ease than those who had to practice. But both can do it well. The same thing applies to writing.

With this one caveat:

Even if you are a born storyteller, styles change. The kind of stories people enjoyed reading a hundred years ago may not be the kind most people enjoy reading today. Life is now faster and stories had better not take too long to get to the point or readers will stop reading.

So even if you were born with the gift of storytelling, craft is important and so is practice. And more practice. And still more practice.