Skills? What Skills?

To pinpoint one, yet alone five is a lightly daunting task but to answer this, I would have to start by saying as a child, I had imagination, an immense amount.

When I made it to the fifth grade, my teacher had us read books and then follow that up with our reason for liking or not liking the book. And that is where one could say the interest in writing came about. Then, however, I had no skill with nouns, verbs, adjectives, commas and the like. I just wrote words onto paper (no computers then and thank god for erasers!).

From then to now, I would say is where my skills honed. The following is in no order/preference.

1) Continued my education in English, my number one focus for a degree.

2) I would write (in the beginning) on subjects I felt people had a common interest in.

3) To better my writing, I read dozens of other author's. I focus on one or two areas in writing, but it never hurt to branch out, try something outside the box.

4) Maintaining a daily ritual of how many hours I write a day and keep within those hours. I'll do research if necessary/needed.

5) Take chances. Branching out, doing something never before tried.

Would these be considered skills? To me, not really. These seem more like life-learning experience to master a craft that in truth can never be mastered as writing is an ongoing, ever changing, alway evolving experience.