I plan to write something soon about what I’m learning about writing these days, but until then, I’ll just quote from this Haruki Murakami interview the role of talent, focus, and endurance in writing. It’s a perspective that Carol Dweck would love.

In every interview I’m asked what’s the most important quality a novelist has to have. It’s pretty obvious: talent…. The problem with talent, though, is that in most cases the person involved can’t control its amount or quality…. Talent has a mind of its own and wells up when it wants to, and once it dries up, that’s it….

If I’m asked what the next most important quality is for a novelist, that’s easy too: focus—the ability to concentrate all your limited talents on whatever’s critical at the moment. Without that you can’t accomplish anything of value, while, if you can focus effectively, you’ll be able to compensate for an erratic talent or even a shortage of it….

After focus, the next most important thing for a novelist is, hands down, endurance. If you concentrate on writing three or four hours a day and feel tired after a week of this, you’re not going to be able to write a long work. What’s needed of the writer of fiction—at least one who hopes to write a novel—is the energy to focus every day for half a year, or a year, or two years….

Fortunately, these two disciplines—focus and endurance—are different from talent, since they can be acquired and sharpened through training. You’ll naturally learn both concentration and endurance when you sit down every day at your desk and train yourself to focus on one point.