“Good”. “Talent”. These words were up for discussion at Nathan Bransford’s blog today.
Nathan gets reams of comments on every post, and I told myself in no uncertain terms — stop reading the comments! You don’t have time. You’re supposed to be WRITING A NOVEL. But what a lovely avoidance technique, just a comment or two. It’s like eating those evil Halloween treats — candy corn — just one, just one more, just two, soon I have an upset stomach, or in the case of blog comments, soon I’ve run out of time to write.
Today, reading all the comments was time well-spent. It was interesting to notice various definitions of “good” and “talent”, but those definitions aside, here are two excerpts that made my day, my week, possibly my year:
One commenter quoted Faulkner responding to a question on the elusive concept of “talent”. I only captured the bit that struck me: The most important thing is insight, that is to be–curiosity–to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does, and if you have that, then I don’t think the talent makes much difference, whether you’ve got it or not. Isn’t that what drives us all to write? Isn’t that where stories bubble up and get their death grip on us, from that wondering: why?
The second comment that thrilled me is from Lydia Sharp of The Sharp Angle: I feel every writer has an audience out there somewhere, they just have to find it.
Doesn’t that keep you going? It does me.
Yes, that’s a great quote! And very true I am certain.
And I suppose the “finding” can be kind of fun.
Thanks for posting those links, Cathryn.
Love the Faulkner quote, too. I agree, in that I write sometimes to comprehend the world around me — the real world or the imagined world of the fictional characters who run through my mind (that sounds a “off,” but as a writer, I bet you know what I mean).
I do!
Yes, Lydia Sharp´s quotation is encouraging.
On the other hand I am participating in an online writing course right now with several hundred participants. Many of them are great, but still there are some who do not seem to be cut out to write fiction.
Maybe they’ll discover that through the course.
You have a point there
I think everyone has a need to express themselves, whether it comes from just releasing angst, to the far flung notion of celebrity seeking. However, apart from that, it is another thing to do so in a way that interests other people. To write is not so much a medium to express oneself, but to bring along a reader to where they themselves have felt as if their thoughts and desires have been expressed.
You’re right about that, Nathan. You would think, if it’s celebrity-seeking, a reality show would do.