Talent or No

Do all great writers have talent? Must one have a pool of talent to draw upon in order to be great at something (writing, in this case)? As far as I’m concerned, talent is somewhat overrated.

Here’s how I see it. Talent gives you a head start. It also lets you develop a skill easier than others. But talent does not equal success, nor does no talent equal failure. Talent or no, you need to work hard at what you’re doing. Talent is the difference between tearing words from your gut or pulling them from your overcoat pocket (paraphrased from Charles Peguy).

A lot of people say that talent is necessary, though it must come together with work and luck. I do not fully agree on this. Yes, you need to have some kind of aptitude with words, being able to string them together in coherent sentences, but in most cases, this can be learned. Writing is a skill, rather than an innate ability. Some people will have the extra head start in the form of , say, language proficiency. However, it isn’t necessary.

Not having talent will make things a lot harder, so a lot of people will give up. It will take time to catch up to those already running at full speed while you’re still trying to walk. But in the end, determination and persistence can pull you through.

On the other side of this spectrum, I think that you need to love what you do. You can’t force yourself to be a writer. If you do, you’ll never succeed in the way you want to. But perhaps the love for writing is your talent expressing itself.

All I know is this. Never give up because something is hard or because you think you aren’t good enough. If you keep at it, you get better, no matter what your innate abilities might be.

I, for one, realise that I don’t put enough time into my writing. I don’t work hard enough. I often give up for the day when a plot hole seems too wide to cover. But I’ll keep on trying. Working harder and getting further. I can only get better.

Tweet

Crafting a Story : Secondary Character

Today, I’ll talk about our secondary character, Jasmine.

Jasmine grew up in a poor neighbourhood and eventually got mixed up with the wrong crowd, i.e. Irwin. She agreed to help him rob a store by posing as a hostage, but in a shocking twist of events, Henry manages to grab the gun and shoot Irwin, thus “saving” her. This let Jasmine see another side of the world and hope for a better future. Perhaps she felt horrified that Irwin was just killed. Either way, she falls in love with Henry, who has thus become her saviour, not only saving her from her “hostage” situation, but also symbolically saving her from a bad life. Eventually, Henry gives in to her advances, but she goes to great lengths to conceal her history with Irwin – as it would create conflict between her and Henry. When the ghost of Irwin starts haunting her and Henry, her secret comes out and Henry, in an act of anger, locks her out of the safe bunker and she is killed, abandoned by both the men in her life.

Jasmine will be regretting her decisions all throughout the story, from getting mixed up with Irwin at the start, to not telling Henry the truth sooner, at the end. Thus, she’ll be second-guessing every move she makes and endlessly obsessing over decisions she made. All in all, she’ll be a pretty jittery character, one is is doing everything she can to keep everything stable, thinking too hard on things and so forth.

However, Jasmine grew up in a rough neighbourhood and had learned to act out in certain ways to defend against ruffians. She couldn’t be a softie, per se. But, after she meets Henry, she tries to act the way a higher class woman should act in order to impress him.

Therefore, the Jasmine that Henry knows is not the same Jasmine that she really is. Eventually, when the pressure gets too much (such as when her secret is found out) she will drop her mask and revert to her old self. This on its own will shock Henry and therefore agitate him even further, allowing his anger to get the better of him.

Lastly, Jasmine’s attitude towards Irwin will be one of fear. She feels guilty about what happened, but hoped to put it behind her (maybe she spoke to a psychiatrist) but when he pops up again and she realises it’s him, the pressure will be on and she’ll start acting out. Fear will be a powerful motivator, even more than Henry’s approval. She will be the first to realise Irwin’s intentions (or at least guess correctly) and she will be the reason Henry and she survives the first lethal attacks.

That’s everything I need for now. Next week, I’ll summarize the story, so I can see the entire scope of where it will take me.

Tweet

Stories for Sendai Release

I’ve always had a soft spot for Japan, so when the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent disasters hit them, I really wanted to help. However, I was pretty much broke, and any contribution would have been, as put so nicely below, puny.

What really hit me was how the Japanese people reacted after the disaster. They didn’t run around, looting and pillaging. They moved in an orderly fashion, following the directions given. Really a great example to follow.

When J.C. announced the creation of Stories for Sendai, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. So I thought and thought, trying to come up with something. I think I wrote three stories before I got one that seemed right to me. I sent it in and waited.

I was really glad when I heard that my story had been accepted. This is my first published work, and I’m glad that it can be connected with such a noble effort.

Yesterday, Stories for Sendai was officially released. If you haven’t bought a copy yet, go over to Amazon (or whichever place also sells it; i.e. Take2 if you’re in South Africa) and get yourself one. You get 19 short stories and a poem, plus you get to help the people of Japan. A bargain if I ever saw one.

Anthology Information:
One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded hit the city of Sendai in the Tohoku region of Japan on Friday March 11. The magnitude 9.0 quake unleashed a deadly tsunami that slammed into Japan's east coast, leaving a swathe of devastation in its wake. Thousands of people lost their lives, and many are still missing or injured. Thousands more have been left homeless and destitute.
As a testament to the generosity of the world's citizens, emergency appeals have been swiftly set up in the aftermath of the quake, but I'm sure many of you, as we did, had the same thought: our donations seem so puny. There must be some other way we could make a difference!

With that in mind, Stories for Sendai was born!

Here’s a link to Amazon for the print and the Kindle editions.

Finally, there is even a prize draw!  Email a copy of your receipt to storiesforsendai (at) ymail (dot) com, and be entered for a draw for cool prizes! Here’s what’s on offer:

1 x $10 or £10 Amazon gift voucher

1 x First Chapter/Query/Synopsis Critique by Michelle Davidson Argyle!

2 x First Chapter / Query / Synopsis Critiques by J.C. Martin!

2 x e-book copies of CELESTIAL SEDUCTION by Jessica E. Subject, donated by author!

1 x ebook copy of MIDDLEWITCH MAYHEM by Heather Parker, donated by author!

Tweet