The terms "talent" and "skill" is often be banded about. I see many young writers, new writers who speak in awe of someone's talent. This is often followed with "I'll never be that good" or "I wish I was that talented." It's easy to get disheartened in the creative arts. When I was young, my writing would suffer every time I read a great book. As the wow factor of the book faded, it would be replaced by a bitterness in myself and my work. This led to my own novel festering away alone as I refused to "waste my time" on it. Thankfully, I grew out of that bad habit and while I do still read books that wow me, they are now just a measuring stick by which I can gauge my own development and know what I am aiming for.