Writing Talent: Fact or Fiction?

Some say that writing is a talent, that it comes from that first moment you take a breath as a babe. You might not know the talent is there, but there it lies within you, waiting and hoping for just the right moment to reveal itself.

Others say, talent isn't born, but rather, it's something you develop like planting seeds in the spring knowing that with conscientious work, the harvest will come in the fall. Writing takes work.



Allow me to step into a little of both worlds.

While I feel writing is surely something God given, I also know (from experience, mind you) that talent without development is never talent.

It's more like the story in the Bible. You know the one. One person is given ten talents, another five, and yet another, one. The first two develop their talents and are given more, the last one is so afraid of losing it that the talent is buried in the cold, dark earth.

Fear keeps us from doing a lot of things doesn't it?

Will we ever be a good enough writer to be published? When is that first book really going to come from us? And once we've published, how long is it going to take us to really make a living at it?

Never, if we don't work on it. If we give up too soon or lose the faith necessary for achievement.

The fact of the matter is, your writing life and my writing life are really lives of fiction and dreamland until we we do some work. We dream yes, but in the dreaming we are always writing.

And that's a fact.

Kathryn