Writer's Block

I'm a bit of a reader, you could say.  I don't have any real preference.  I'll read just about anything, plays, novels, travel, fiction, cooking, even children's except books that are guaranteed to make me cry...I don't do sad.  In my reading, I've begun to notice just how good some writers are and that just makes me jealous.

It always floors me that someone can take some relatively simple words and create something beautiful.  I attempt to use 10-pointers and not to use the mundane so often but most authors can do what they do without the 10-pointers.  How exactly does one learn to do that or is that just a skill you're born with?  I suppose you can learn, since there are oh so many creative writing programs in universities around the world.  However, I'm fairly certain most were born that way, because I've been trying to learn for a while now and I haven't really gotten anywhere. 

Writing was never my thing.  I was much better at it than trigonometry, but I wasn't the girl with a notebook full of clever story starters.  But in recent years, I've become genuinely envious of writers such as Tolkien, John Rogers, Bill Bryson, or Stephen Fry.  Crafting a well-timed joke or explaining some far-off land so the reader feels that they are there or compiling an entirely new language for characters in your story, are unbelievable talents that I'd give my left arm for. (It would have to be my left I suppose, because I'm right handed and what's the point of being able to write well if you can't actually write...)

I suppose this was a bit of a tangent.  I was reading a short story today by Joyce Carol Oates and these thoughts just popped into my head.   There's just not much more to say than how in the world do I get some of that talent and how in the world am I ever going to accomplish anything if all of these talented people keep occupying my time with their talents?!