A Perfect Story?

I was once asked by a fifth grader about writing a "perfect story." How do you do it, he wondered. How do you make the words sound so ... well ... perfect.

I'm willing to bet a lot of kids think this way about the books they read. They just wonder how on earth an author makes writing seem so easy. The fact is, and I'm paraphrasing Mark Twain here, easy reading makes for hard writing. There is no such thing as a "perfect" story, of course, but we are all entitled to our opinions about which stories or books seem wonderful--and, yes, even perfect--to us.

It starts with a little inspiration, a dash of self-confidence, a smidgen of skill, and a WHOLE LOT of hard work. That's the "secret formula" to creative writing (or any kind of art, come to think of it). No short cuts exist; if they did, I'd like to think I would have found one by now. Writing, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.  

Would we want it any other way?