How do writers write?

Following the maze of blog links, I occasionally read a blog by a woman I simply don't know. I know her by reputation.

As I read one of her blog posts on U2, I was so profoundly moved that it literally seized my lungs for a moment. What beauty when you not only find yourself locked to the page, but it is a struggle to draw a breath until you reach the end.

The thing about witnessing talent like this, is that it's also deeply depressing. How, I've always wondered, does anything get written? How is it that people can read the most amazing things from other people, and yet not freeze solid when they attempt to write their own story? How is it that they are not struck dumb by their ineptitude? Are they really so certain of their own ability that they're never afraid their writing will become invisible, or worse, a parody in comparison? When a writing effects me, I am immediately humbled and shamed by my own inability to complete a thought. Something that moves me deeply moves me just as steadily towards complete silence. If I can't express myself to the degree these people can, what right do I have to go on speaking?

(And I know in my heart that the world would have been a better place if Nicholas Sparks had felt the same way.)

When I try to coax words into a thought, I feel like Adam Sandler screaming at a golf ball "That's your home...are you too good for your home!" There's something that goes here, right here...what is it? One word that will quantify this feeling and thought. Most days I simply can't find it. All of us have access to the same words, how is it that some people know exactly where each one belongs? I've always wondered if maybe it is that, for them, life out here is just a feeble imitation of the larger one inside their minds. Whether it is clarity or a need for clarity that guides them so well, I don't understand either...which is why they can do what they can, and I cannot.