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The T Word
There's one major misconception about what it takes to write successful fiction. That's talent and what part it plays in this whole game.
It's important to realize that writing stories is different from the other arts. In music you need a special ear, in painting a special eye. Both are inborn talents. In writing, your life experience and life skills are writing skills. You have a full set of emotions and plenty of experience to draw on. That doesn't mean you have to write about yourself, but even if you're inventing a Martian you're creating it from what you know and what you have inside.
You don't need to know how to play the guitar or paint a beautiful landscape to get along in the world, but you have to know how people behave and how to act yourself to survive. So, writing stories is an acquired skill not an inborn talent.
For the purpose of writing and selling your stories talent is irrelevant. Don't let yourself use lack of talent or lack of ability as an excuse. That doesn't mean that talent doesn't exist. If we're talking about The National Book Award, The Pulitzer Prize, or The Nobel Prize, then personal brilliance or genius or talent enters in. But, you don't need that level of ability to write successful fiction. What you have is plenty.
All of that's good, but it can also be bad. It's a two edged sword, because fiction is the stuff of life, but it's not life itself. It feels real, but you can't just break off a piece of reality and stick it on the page.
Fiction is a focused, concentrated, dose - one that captures the essence of reality, but is not reality itself. So, you have everything you need already, but you have to learn how to use it. How to use it is the craft and technique of story - the heart of this course .
© Copyright 2000-2001 Jerry Cleaver
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