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Kennyc--always happy to meet a fellow Okie! (I'm an Okie by adoption, having moved here when I was 16 and lived here on and off for years before settling down here for good 7 years ago).
You're right, though, that some people are born with abilities, a story to tell, and an original way to tell it. Very rare. Some might cite Christopher Paolini, of Eragon fame, though in some ways he states my case: when we're young, we emulate everything we read, and I think he read and read and then transcribed a lot of Tolkein. I wonder what he might have written had he waited a decade or two to publish. But there are exceptions to the rule, I'm just not one of them, and I bet most people aren't (in the composing world, some composers, like Leos Janacek, really didn't get down to business until their 60's!).
But Katsunami, I don't think you have to have read everything--and if you do something that someone else has done (but don't realize it), that's not a sin. No one can be original, after all. The point is reading a lot and digesting what you've read, and marrying this with your own ideas and life experiences. I think a lot of young people devour everything they get their hands on and almost regurgitate it on the page. Then it's very obvious. But simply composing in a given genre will undoubtedly give rise to certain genre hallmarks or common themes: I mean, even Tolkein borrowed liberally from folklore and myth--but he had digested it to the point that he knew how to refashion it in his own image.
The fun of being a professor is that you get to live in other writers' words/worlds and teach them to the next generation. I almost consider their books MY books as I teach them. The dangerous side effect is that it makes you even more eager to write your own ideas down and shape them into something memorable. My works will never be great or probably never even sell very much, but it's the journey, not the destination. At my age, 40, I simply enjoy writing and seeing where it takes me. I'm ready to share with others much more than ever before, but it's not the overall goal. When I was 18 and first started trying to publish, the idea that I wouldn't publish creatively until I was 40 would have floored me. I probably would have given up. Youth!
I'm sure you're not having a mid-life crisis, but in America, where you're expected to graduate college by 22, have a $100K job by 24 with a house and kids, and be well on your way to retirement by 35, I think a mid-life crisis is inevitable in one's 30's! When do people get to enjoy life and express themselves beyond mowing their lawns or buying a new tie for the Christmas mixer? I think writing is a great escape valve and a way to have a rich, inner life without destroying one's marriage or leaving one's job. I'm glad so many people are finding their way back to it! It certainly saved me!
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