Talent and Skill

I’ve been involved in a couple of discussions lately about writing, and it’s been interesting to see how different people view the act of writing a piece of fiction. To some, it’s almost a Zen experience of getting in the groove before one can write. For others, it’s more mechanical, more deliberate, something learned. The way folks from both sides talk about the writing experience is so different, that it sometimes comes across as the ‘Zen’ side saying it’s way is superior to the rest of us poor schlubs.

I know that’s not the intent of the folks on that side, and I think it has more to do with the difference between innate talent and having to work hard at something. Folks with an innate talent for something (and we ALL have talents in something) tend to think that EVERYONE does what they do in the same way. Because it’s easy for them, they have a hard time understanding why it’s so difficult for some one else. This is natural.

Over at elsieaustin’s LJ and in a friend’s Yahoo group we’ve been discussing this, and the following example was given in the Yahoo group-

Aaryk said:
Practice does NOT make perfect unless you have criticism.. PERFECT practice makes perfect. Otherwise you continue to repeat and reinforce bad habits.

ElsieAustin said:
Actually, I'm going to disagree with you--at least about this particular thing. When you're learning to play the violin you have to have someone standing over your shoulder, correcting your posture, fine-tuning the places you put your fingers, or else you do learn it wrong--you reinforce the bad habits. But writing isn't like that. First of all, there are just so many different opinions about what's a good habit for a writer and what's not, but more importantly, being in a state of mind to be a writer isn't something you learn by rote.

Having worked at both writing and music, I can say that there are more similarities there than not. Both have rules, things that MUST be learned in order to perform well. In both you have people with innate, natural talent who are able to take those rules and run with them in ways most of us never will. For instance, while I needed some one standing over me, correcting me, teaching me to play the cello, I doubt Matt Maher needed it to the level that I did, and once he learned the ‘rules’, even less, but he STILL went through years of formal study. Why? He’s obviously a talent to whom music comes naturally, why would he NEED years of study under people who are likely not as innately talented? Because you still need some one to correct you when you get sloppy (something I think that happens to the naturally talented more), and to encourage and push you further than you thought you could go. That’s the skill side of it.

Writing is the same. Even natural writers need to be well grounded in the rules, and have some one to tell them when they are overusing a certain element, or aren’t working up to their potential. Otherwise you cannot do more than you are today. The axiom that you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes is true, even here.

She went on to say-

It's something you can only learn by doing it over and over, and you can't get in that state of mind when you're scared you don't have any real talent. You have to believe in your own ability to be able to do it at all. Generally, even if you do something you're not completely satisfied with, you recognize the things you want to change the next time all on your own, and each time you try again, you get closer to being able to express that dream.

Like most things in life, writing takes a combination of talent and skill to do well. Skill is that which can be taught, and improved upon over time. Talent is what you bring with you when you start. Even the most talented, without some training to develop the skills, will only be mediocre, and never get better. Even the ‘greats’ still need editors to ‘look over their shoulders’ to point out what could be dome better.

So, this is not to dismiss ‘Zen and the art of writing’ but hopefully to get the point across that innate talent will only get you so far if you don’t have the skills to back it up, and even those folks with very little talent can make up for it to a large degree by honing their skill.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s not an either/or situation, but rather a both/and one. Or, in the words of the infamous (for my generation at least) commerical~

You got peanut butter on my chocolate…No, you got chocolate in my peanut butter!


EDIT- I just realized that there's another part to this equation.

DISCIPLINE

You can have all the innate talent, great skill, but without the discipline to sit down and work at it (whatever 'it' is) it will still never get done. That's my problem. Great ideas, I know how I want to say them, it's just getting them out of my head and somewhere they can be seen (if only by me). I'm a bit like Richard Bach this way, he puts it-

I do not enjoy writing at all. If I can turn my back on an idea, out there in the dark, if I can avoid opening the door to it, I won't even reach for a pencil. But once in a while there's a great dynamite-burst of flying glass and brick and splinters through the front wall and somebody stalks over the rubble, seizes me by the throat and gently says, "I will not let you go until you set me, in words, on paper."

-From the introduction to Illusions

That pretty much sums up my writing style!