When he writes, he struggles, testing each word and sentence against every rule he can remember, thinking that he must come up with the right answer, the perfect words, before he touches the keyboard. He believes this is how experienced writers write they just do it without thought or effort because they understand grammar. Writing as Magic Writing is powerful stuff. To many beginning writers, it seems impossible such intense experiences could be created through plain craftsmanship and hard work. There has to be more to writing, the beginner thinks, than poring over a word processor or typewriter, trying one word, then another, then another, then moving the sentence, then cutting it, then bringing it back somewhere else.
Real writers sit, ponder a moment, and write genius.
Words flow from the gods onto the paper. Perfect sentences coalesce from nothing. Good writing comes through magic, and the magic of writing is talent, a talent with which some are born and some are not. The ailing writer who believes writing is magic is often worse off than the ailing writer who believes it's science. With science, there's at least a chance the writer will eventually catch on, which encourages her to study, listen, and keep trying to decipher the rules.