Talent

So, I have this friend. Who I think is pretty amazing, and does a great job at anything she tries to do. She seems to do things so effortlessly, whether it's selling products to customers or writing her own story or creating beautiful things.

And she blogs - don't worry, I won't link it if you don't want me to - and in her latest entry, she's feeling untalented. Because her boyfriend has a natural affinity with music, and everything he tries, she says, he does better than her (doubt it).

But I don't think it's the case. Like, certain people I blackmail with my possible tantrums would call me talented, but I don't think I am any more than anyone else. I love writing, and I can't not write (tried, failed. Failed BADLY) but although I think I'm okay, I know people far better than me. Like, one of my NaNo friends sent me her synopsis for a competition we've both entered, and her storyline blew me away. Her 500-word, one page synopsis drew me in. And there's a possibility I could say "I'm not talented because my synopsis isn't like hers!" and I did think it for a second, but … we're writing for different people. We're writing different stories, in different genres, from different viewpoints, in different styles. It's ridiculous comparing our stories, because hers is Fantasy, and sounds a little bit like 'If Stardust involved Greek Mythology' (it is that good) and mine is, well, Lambrini and Carter. My best-friends-that-live-in-my-head. If she were writing my story, would it work as well? If I was writing hers, would I have her impact? You just can't know.

And talent is a parlour trick. You need to practice it just as much as anything else. That's the secret, that's all there is. Like, I used to be okay at drawing, but you should see me wield a pencil now. I've forgotten the skill involved. I didn't hone it. But writing, I do that near enough every day. I beat NaNo on day 26, I beat 100k in 100 days already (It's day 59. I'm meant to have 59, 000 words written for the challenge. I have 115,225). Okay, sometimes I'm not writing Lamb and Carter. I'm having a teeny break from them, now I've finished book three (book four scares me. Book four is the game changer) but I blog on here pretty much every day. Sometimes, like with the recaps, it takes me days to post, but every day I'm on my laptop.

Because if you do something over and over again, you get muscle memory. You adapt, you learn the tricks, you learn how to get faster, to make the connections quicker, to adapt it to similar situations. I wrote 4,242 words yesterday that could count to my totals. I've written about 2,000 today that can't. I feel like I'm talking all the damn time!

So no, he's not necessarily more talented. He practices his guitar, and his fingers remember the chord changes quicker because they've done it so much. He can draw sketches the way he did because he probably doodles all the time. Has he tried writing? Because I'm sure you'll trump him at that (but just in case, keep practising). Don't be jealous that he can sing, because hardly anyone can sing well anyway, and instead of feeling upset about it … make him serenade you! Just, without songs about how you look like a goose.

That's not to say that people can't be talented. Talent is often the little spark that gives you the joy needed to involve yourself in the endless practicing, the moment where you go 'I don't completely suck at this!' But measuring your talents against others? That's a good way to go down a path of self-destruction. It's just damn hard not to try to see where you fit in ...