[writing] because I'm special

Nice little post over on Writing and Rambling about talent.

I'll tell you a secret. I'm talented. At a bunch of stuff - singing, drawing, sewing, writing. I'm a little bit naturally good at all those things, and one of the worst things that I've had to face up to in deciding to follow my writing path, is that talent will never be enough. It's a good reason to choose a path, it's certainly helpful if you happen to have a little head start at what you want to do, but talent, by itself, will get you nowhere.

It can, in fact, be a stumbling block, as you come to the end of what raw talent can buy you and you start having to work for things. Because you've coasted on talent up til that point, you now have to teach yourself all the lessons that the less talented already know - hard work, understanding disappointment, staying optimistic, determination. There is the temptation to give up, to say "well, I lost interest," and then go off to pursue one of the other things that you are a little bit good at. This is what I did with acting, although I think that I had a lot less talent there than I was willing to admit.

I'm not going to do it now. I love writing, even when it's hard, and the words won't come, and I look back over a nearly-complete manuscript and I see all the places where things are ugly and wrong and shallow and undeveloped... even when I face all the work that's to come, and I know that the "fun" part of writing this book is pretty much over, I still want to do it. I'm willing to learn.

Thanks, talent. I can take it from here.