Talent Is Worthless
Let's stop worshipping it
Nathan, my high school classmate, was absolutely fabulous in his writing.
He kept winning writing contests. Everyone praised him for his raw skill and talent.
To say I was jealous was an understatement.
I was a different kind of student. I got mostly As in English, but my writing skills were ordinary. I was just good at taking exams.
In contrast, Nathan was truly outstanding. He was way above everyone else in our year.
He was the definition of a supremely talented writer.
When Talent Fails
A couple of days ago, I was reading Jane Friedman’s book, The Business of Being a Writer.
Friedman interviewed a professor of writing, and asked him if there was anything that distinguished successful writers from the rest.
He answered that the successful students were the ones who continued to write, even after graduating and without the pressure of school deadlines.
In fact, he found that the most talented students weren’t necessarily willing to put in the time and work to become successful.
When I read that, I couldn’t help but be curious about Nathan. I searched for his LinkedIn.
He was originally an English major in university, but he later switched to become a software engineer.
There’s nothing wrong with software engineering, but when I tried to look him up on Google and Amazon, I couldn’t find any books or even blog posts by him.
Maybe he published under a pen name, or decided not to show anyone his work.
But if he had truly given up on writing, that’s so sad. I hope that he will return to it again someday. It’s never too late to pick up the pen once more.
When the Writer with Average Talent Excels
As I mentioned before, my writing skill was ordinary. I was nowhere near as accomplished as Nathan.
Yet, I never stopped writing. Even when I literally had zero readers, I kept going.
From the age of 20, I began writing daily, mostly fiction. And I’ve kept up that habit for 13 years now.
For fiction alone, I’ve written more than 3.5 million words. This includes 22 finished book drafts, 1 self-published novel, and 17 short stories.
At the moment, I’m working on some serial fiction. My main series is at 29 chapters so far.
Now you might think: quantity doesn’t mean quality!
That’s true.
So let me share some of the feedback I’ve gotten for my stories.
Wonderful and Touching Comments From Readers
Lucien said that he normally doesn’t like high fantasy, but he loved my story, Anastasia the Nonbinary Dragon! And he was excited to read more.
He even compared my writing style to Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender’s Game.
For my science fiction novel, my friend Shawna said my writing reminded her of Roald Dahl.
Another reader, Sam, told me that they felt so seen in my nonbinary character’s story. They said that they were crying at work as they read it.
On Royal Road, a web novel site, my story got slammed by a ton of 1-star ratings, which surprised me because this story was so well received on Medium and Tapas, two other writing platforms.
Perhaps they didn’t like that my protagonist used ze/zir pronouns. Medium and Tapas are more trans-friendly platforms, after all.
Yet, to my pleasant surprise, a reader, Harry, wrote me an enthusiastic 5-star review. He said that all those who gave me poor ratings, must be jealous that they couldn’t write like this.
Harry came to comment from time to time, pleading with me to keep writing and not drop the story, since it was very good.
Recently, he told me that a ton of people downvoted his 5-star review for me. That was frustrating and he said that there are so many trolls on Royal Road.
He suspected that people here were just sexist, and once again he urged me to keep going, to not be discouraged by these naysayers.
Wow, I was quite touched by how much this reader, who is a complete stranger, kept defending me and asking me to keep writing.
Rising Recognition and Achievements
As time went by, I gained more and more recognition for my writing, both fiction and nonfiction.
I’ve been invited to interviews as a writer. I got offers to write and edit for publications. And influential writers have shared my work with their readers.
Moreover, I won second place in this poetry contest.
Lately, Medium staff reached out to me out of the blue to commission me to write a short article on pronouns, and they paid me $300 for the piece.
It’s awkward to “brag” about my accomplishments. But my point is that even if you were just an ordinary student with average writing talent, you can still persevere and become better and better.
In contrast, if you’re like Nathan, you can be super talented, yet give up on writing after graduation, and end up with nothing.
It’s never too late for the Nathans to come back and write again, however. I sincerely hope my classmate will return and publish some fantastic stories for us!
What do you think? Do you know classmates who were exceptionally talented in writing? If so, are they still writing and publishing today, or have they sadly given up?
Love this article! Happens in music too.
You dont understand how much this has helped me. Sometimes, all you need is a little bit of encourgement to which I have received. Thank you so much for sharing.