Talent vs. Tenacity

I have known many extremely talented writers who were never published.

I have known writers who struggled -- who were marginally talented but kept plugging away even after being demolished by critique groups and editors.

These marginally talented (and in some cases not very talented at all) writers who stuck in there and kept at it were published.

So I ask myself: is it more important to be talented or driven? Of course, the best option is to be both. To have a fire in your belly and skills at your fingertips.

You can be as talented as all get-out, but if you don't apply your butt to the chair every day and your fingers to the keyboard, chances are very great that you will never be published.

The ones who break my heart are those who are super talented and lazy. A guy I knew in college fit this bill. What talent he possessed! But he lacked follow-through. You have to finish something and send it to a publisher or agent. No one is going to come knocking at your door asking for your manuscript. (Although that did happen to Margaret Mitchell ala Gone with the Wind!) This guy could have been published and secured an agent if he only had presented something outside his circle of friends and relatives.

Then there are those who never get around to writing. They have super ideas and even interesting plots, but they never put them on paper. "I have a great idea for a novel in my head." "Oh, I have a plot. It's all up here in my brain." Wonderful. Now how do we get it out of your brain? 

The writers I've come to admire are those who just didn't know how to surrender. They plugged on and on. Learning from sound criticism and shrugging off depression when their writing didn't receive the glowing reviews they expected.  Writers who read other written work and grew from it. Writers who managed to write something every day because they understood that something was better than nothing.

As for me, I suppose I've always been in love with the written word and I'm a confirmed romantic. From the time I could write a full sentence, I wrote love stories. I had notebooks full of them by the time I was in high school. Most of them were pretty awful, but I'd enjoyed writing them and I'd gotten better with each one. Yes. I was tenacious at first and, from repetition, I became talented. The spark was always there in me, but it was up to me to fan the flames. As an adult, I knew I wanted to be published someday. Sure, I could impress my mother and daddy with my writing, but I mainly wanted to impress strangers with what I'd written. I won acclaim here and there and always made good grades in English, journalism, etc. It all helped me reach my goals, but what really got me my first publisher contract was not giving up.

So, let's raise our virtual glasses to the bulldogs among us -- those inspiring individuals who grab hold of a dream and simply won't let go. Cheers!