Ultimately, I'm not even sure what talent looks like when it comes to writing and storytelling (which probably means I don't much). In any case, yes, practice is the only thing we can really control. So long as we're showing up diligently, we can safely forget the rest. Wishing you the very best of luck with your own practice...
Tim, your story sounds familiar. I wish someone could have told me a long time ago what I was doing right. Critical parents, “Such a shame you aren’t living up to your potential, you’re so talented”. Later, as an adult, I made sure to sneak that last little factoid into every conversation. But then someone dropped the bomb, something I wish I'd heard a long time ago. “Talent is ZIP without ability." I was shocked. Isn't ability a given?? (happens when you don't belong to a writer's group). And another thing I began to realize through much “pain and suffering”: without a game plan, without discipline (nasty word), I was constantly second-guessing myself, stopping and starting, over and over again. So all this so-called “talent” and I had nothing to show for it—nothing I wanted anyone to see anyway—and that realization beat me into the ground. Where I needed to be. Everyone starts at ground ZERO. Everyone. So now I’m starting over but for the first time in my life I don’t feel like an imposter. I feel like I’m really, truly getting somewhere.
"Talent is ZIP without ability." I'd not heard it framed that way before, but that's exactly what I'm getting at, yes. Worrying about talent (or lack of it) is at best a huge distraction. Dedication, resilience, patience, trust - these are the sort of attributes we need to be developing in order to do anything well. I'm very glad to hear you're making progress. Best of luck!
Thanks. I'll take this. I have no idea any more how much 'talent' I have, but what I do have is practice. Even if it's just half an hour a weekday, for years. With the books on writing craft mounting up. If writing is about talent then I probably had some at some point, but probably not as much as others. If it's about work then I might have a shot and creating something worth reading one day.
One of my favourite books on writing is Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I think he speaks for the vast majority of us when he says:
"Writers who aren’t blessed with much talent—those who barely make the grade—need to build up their strength at their own expense. They have to train themselves to improve their focus, to increase their endurance. To a certain extent they’re forced to make these qualities stand in for talent. And while they’re getting by on these, they may actually discover real, hidden talent within them. They’re sweating, digging out a hole at their feet with a shovel, when they run across a deep, secret water vein. It’s a lucky thing, but what made this good fortune possible was all the training they did that gave them the strength to keep on digging. I imagine that late-blooming writers have all gone through a similar process."
It's very generous of you to go on replying to my entirely self-reflective comments on your substack. I saw R.F. Kuang (a repulsively talented writer) name-drop this book recently. Now I'm going to have to read it sometime. What an awesome quote. Though it also smacks of a talented writer using their skills to romanticise the idea of working at writing until you get good... XD Maybe I'll be a late-blooming writer--though in the trenches of work, parenting, and OCD I often I fear my best writing is behind me!
This paragraph probably best encapsulates my current attitude towards writing:
"Holy shit, it’s Kazuo Ishiguro! Is there any way in heaven or hell you can beat Kazuo Ishiguro? Everyone had been small fry up till now--this is the real deal. This is a shot at true glory. But you’ve come this far--you’ve earned this right. Maybe, just maybe, you can beat him. The bell. This time your manuscripts are filmed and projected onto a screen as you type. Kazuo Ishiguro immediately begins writing a highly sophisticated and yet simultaneously accessible literary short story. You sit mesmerised by his sentences. They are concise, precise, moving, funny. How in the world can you ever beat this? No! Don’t give up! You take a deep breath and begin to type the first thing that comes into your head. You don’t look at Kazuo Ishiguro’s script any more, you just lose yourself in the flow of your own writing. Time is called and you look at what you have written. You have written a pretentious piece of second person present tense meta-fiction about someone writing about themselves writing about themselves in a short story writing tournament. It’s shit. Kazuo Ishiguro wins and the applause is a storm. You can’t win ‘em all, but at least you tried, and it was fun trying."
Well, your stack is also having another no doubt intended and totally legitimate effect which is that it is making me want to read Shadow of the Wolf... I struggle to read big books in the current season of life because I tend to fall asleep reading, however I have discovered there is an audiobook which the Audible sample indicates is deliciously narrated...may need to give it a go sometime...
Ultimately, I'm not even sure what talent looks like when it comes to writing and storytelling (which probably means I don't much). In any case, yes, practice is the only thing we can really control. So long as we're showing up diligently, we can safely forget the rest. Wishing you the very best of luck with your own practice...
Tim, your story sounds familiar. I wish someone could have told me a long time ago what I was doing right. Critical parents, “Such a shame you aren’t living up to your potential, you’re so talented”. Later, as an adult, I made sure to sneak that last little factoid into every conversation. But then someone dropped the bomb, something I wish I'd heard a long time ago. “Talent is ZIP without ability." I was shocked. Isn't ability a given?? (happens when you don't belong to a writer's group). And another thing I began to realize through much “pain and suffering”: without a game plan, without discipline (nasty word), I was constantly second-guessing myself, stopping and starting, over and over again. So all this so-called “talent” and I had nothing to show for it—nothing I wanted anyone to see anyway—and that realization beat me into the ground. Where I needed to be. Everyone starts at ground ZERO. Everyone. So now I’m starting over but for the first time in my life I don’t feel like an imposter. I feel like I’m really, truly getting somewhere.
"Talent is ZIP without ability." I'd not heard it framed that way before, but that's exactly what I'm getting at, yes. Worrying about talent (or lack of it) is at best a huge distraction. Dedication, resilience, patience, trust - these are the sort of attributes we need to be developing in order to do anything well. I'm very glad to hear you're making progress. Best of luck!
Thanks. I'll take this. I have no idea any more how much 'talent' I have, but what I do have is practice. Even if it's just half an hour a weekday, for years. With the books on writing craft mounting up. If writing is about talent then I probably had some at some point, but probably not as much as others. If it's about work then I might have a shot and creating something worth reading one day.
One of my favourite books on writing is Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I think he speaks for the vast majority of us when he says:
"Writers who aren’t blessed with much talent—those who barely make the grade—need to build up their strength at their own expense. They have to train themselves to improve their focus, to increase their endurance. To a certain extent they’re forced to make these qualities stand in for talent. And while they’re getting by on these, they may actually discover real, hidden talent within them. They’re sweating, digging out a hole at their feet with a shovel, when they run across a deep, secret water vein. It’s a lucky thing, but what made this good fortune possible was all the training they did that gave them the strength to keep on digging. I imagine that late-blooming writers have all gone through a similar process."
It's very generous of you to go on replying to my entirely self-reflective comments on your substack. I saw R.F. Kuang (a repulsively talented writer) name-drop this book recently. Now I'm going to have to read it sometime. What an awesome quote. Though it also smacks of a talented writer using their skills to romanticise the idea of working at writing until you get good... XD Maybe I'll be a late-blooming writer--though in the trenches of work, parenting, and OCD I often I fear my best writing is behind me!
This paragraph probably best encapsulates my current attitude towards writing:
"Holy shit, it’s Kazuo Ishiguro! Is there any way in heaven or hell you can beat Kazuo Ishiguro? Everyone had been small fry up till now--this is the real deal. This is a shot at true glory. But you’ve come this far--you’ve earned this right. Maybe, just maybe, you can beat him. The bell. This time your manuscripts are filmed and projected onto a screen as you type. Kazuo Ishiguro immediately begins writing a highly sophisticated and yet simultaneously accessible literary short story. You sit mesmerised by his sentences. They are concise, precise, moving, funny. How in the world can you ever beat this? No! Don’t give up! You take a deep breath and begin to type the first thing that comes into your head. You don’t look at Kazuo Ishiguro’s script any more, you just lose yourself in the flow of your own writing. Time is called and you look at what you have written. You have written a pretentious piece of second person present tense meta-fiction about someone writing about themselves writing about themselves in a short story writing tournament. It’s shit. Kazuo Ishiguro wins and the applause is a storm. You can’t win ‘em all, but at least you tried, and it was fun trying."
I don't consider it generous - I truly appreciate your engagement with these posts! And yes, I know the feeling above. Yet we keep going... : )
Well, your stack is also having another no doubt intended and totally legitimate effect which is that it is making me want to read Shadow of the Wolf... I struggle to read big books in the current season of life because I tend to fall asleep reading, however I have discovered there is an audiobook which the Audible sample indicates is deliciously narrated...may need to give it a go sometime...