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Questions and some more questions



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Fri Sep 25, 2015 7:51 am
Storygirl95 says...



Hey, everyone.
This is kind of a serious, deep question, but I thought I'd ask it anyway. I'm not so sure there's really an actual answer either.
I was just curious, at what point do you know if you're a "good" writer?
Obviously it's all very subjective and is a matter of opinion, but there is obviously something to it or authors wouldn't become famous.
You also become a better writer with time and practice, and I know writer's with natural "talent" that are not as good as others who work harder.
But, as I'm sure you've all encountered, if you care about writing you have to wonder if you have what it takes.
This isn't a thread for validation on my part, more of a simple(or not so simple) question.
Do you think that there's a lot of talent that just goes undiscovered? Or do you think there's some sort of secret to being an author? Is it born talent, hard work, or a mixture of both.
And if you don't have it, can you gain it?
Let me know what you guys think!
This concludes another session of deep thoughts past midnight with the night owl.
Johnny was a chemist's son but Johnny is no more, for what Johnny thought was H2O was H2SO4. :wink:
  





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Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:13 pm
Holysocks says...



I'm not sure that there's a point where you stop and think "I've got this DOWN"- or maybe you do, but generally it's on a good writing day, when everything's flowing lovely and you're all hyped. After that day, it'll probably go back to "am I actually any good? actually?" and the roller coaster will continue. I don't think getting published is the answer, either; we're always going to question our talent and whether or not we're actually good.

Yes I do think talent goes undiscovered; how about those writers too terrified to even submit their work to an agent, or even show their family? I've heard it said that in publishing, you're trying to find a match with a publisher- your work is not necessarily bad because you get a rejection or two-hundred, it's just that you haven't found the right one yet, and some improvements wouldn't hurt. ;)

I suppose I can't really answer your questions, but could I sugest some books that might help you out? Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, and On Writing by Stephen King are both really good. They're like self-help books for writers- both on the craft and on life.

Hope this helped somewhat!
Last edited by Holysocks on Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:14 pm
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Vervain says...



Honestly, I don't think "talent" has anything to do with it -- and I don't think that writers, really, will ever know if they're "good enough" or not. And that's a good thing.

To give you a short answer, I think that if writers ever "knew they were good" or thought they were good enough, they would stop working. They would stop improving, and they would start stagnating, and that is the death of literature. That's where you start repeating the same message with the same characters in different skins, because "I wrote that good enough". That's where you stop exploring new avenues of thought and new ways of writing things, and you stop tampering with your style, and you become one of Those Authors who cares more about their money and their own ego than their work and the meaning behind it.

This isn't a "100% of the time this will happen" scenario, but it's a highly likely one. I've seen this happen to a ton of people -- whether in writing or other fields -- where all their progress just comes to a dead halt because they think they're "good enough" to pass by.

Writing, to speak in school terms, is not an easy A.

There may be people who are naturally good at it. The problem with them is that, in their early years, they aren't encouraged to improve. If they start writing young, oftentimes they're not treated like their peers, and their writing efforts are put on a pedestal -- and they stagnate.

If there's talent that goes undiscovered, then it's probably deservedly ignored. Talent, some mysterious thing you're born with or whatever, means nothing -- skill, and the work that comes with it, is everything.

Skill is everything that you learn and you apply to your writing. Skill is work put in to develop your voice, to figure out how to make things interesting, to look at everything with a different set of eyes to judge yourself and say "I can improve this". To equate talent with skill is fallacious; you may be born with talent, but you work with skill.

Unskilled work -- work that is merely "talented" -- is often rough and new.

To bring in an analogy, think of whittling figurines out of wood. When you first start whittling, while you may be good at finding the figurine in the wood, your edges are going to be rough and your curves are going to be blocky. Or, while you may be good at finding just the right angle to use to get the right shape, you mightn't be good at recognizing the shapes inherent in the wood. This is because, even though you might be talented, you're unpracticed and unskilled.

Let me say this: I've met a ton of talented people in my life. I've met a select few skilled at what they were trying to accomplish, be it writing, music, art, handiwork, mathematics, science.

A final statement: Not all "good" authors are famous; not all famous authors are "good".
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Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:11 pm
Storygirl95 says...



I can see what you're all saying.
My goal is to write something that even just one person will remember for a long time. Now, it could be 7 million people and I'd be ecstatic of course, but even that one or a few is satisfactory for me.
I guess it sounds like I'm on the right track. I don't write to get published, more because I just can't not write or the characters will make me go insane.
Being a writer is weird sometimes because you always question yourself. Some days I really fall in love with things I've wrote, and then sometimes I don't even want to look at them. I have to resist the urge to pull them from places sometimes.
I appreciate all of your responses! You guys always give me so much insight.
It's reassuring to know I'm not the only one who feels this way.
Johnny was a chemist's son but Johnny is no more, for what Johnny thought was H2O was H2SO4. :wink:
  





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Sun Sep 27, 2015 4:00 am
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Kale says...



Constantly questioning yourself isn't limited to just writing. It's part of the growing process for pretty much everything in life.

With that said, Ark nailed the difference between talent and skill on the head. Talent only counts if you hone the skill to back it up, and the only way to gain skill is through diligent practice. A skilled person will always be better than someone who coasts on talent alone.
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