How A Talent Grows

Just had to share with you the major revelation I've had over the last few days, and in no way do I wish to make it sound like I'm full of myself, because I'm not. It's purely an observation.

In a nutshell, I really seem to be becoming a good writer.

It sort of started improving when I began going back through and editing "Saviour" long before publication. I had already read it through three or four times, especially when starting work on Book 3 around 2007. (hereafter for ease of writing this post,  I'll refer to the pending book 3 by an abbreviation of it's working title of "The Creature Within": TCW.) But following some major life changes early in the 2000's, including a near-fatal car accident, job upheavals and night-shift, marriage and on-coming children, I hadn't actually written as such for almost five years leading up to it. However when I started going over "Saviour" line by line a year or so ago, I suddenly became aware of having a tight, detailed writers eye. I could see which sentences were good, which were not so good. I started adding entire sections and sentences to it, and removing or re-arranging others. And the sections I added were better than the sections already in place. Eventually it sort of seamed together and became the book it is now, (probably still not finished to an independent critic's eye!).

And then of course as mentioned, in 2007 I started on TCW, and found that the ideas flowed out near complete, straight from brain to hand to screen, with little to no post-editing required. It was a bit of a shock at first, but then I just put it down to life experience and the exciting storyline I had concocted. TCW is almost finished now, but I placed it on the back-burner while I concentrate on Book 2, "Convolutions". "Convolutions" was a storyline I had the idea for around twelve years ago, but I could just never get it off the ground, hence the premature investment in TCW. There weren't enough facets or angles to work with and I just could not seem to cohere the patches I had. I think I had about three hundred words on it, then simply gave up.

That was my eighteen/nineteen year old writing self.

And nowadays? Well, after publishing "Saviour" on a whim, prayer and a moments notice, it occurred to this clever duck that one could not publish Book 1 followed a few months later by Book 3, with no Book 2 to fill the gap. I may only be a writer, but I can count! And don't worry, I checked; there was no way I could effectively wiggle TCW to become Book 2. I just hadn't set it up that way. So, with a couple of new ideas floating around in the cloud, and my original idea to play with, I sat down and started writing. Now, only five months later, I have a mammoth 44, 403 words as of tonight, and that's from a bloke running a full-time business and a 4-kid family who only writes for two-three hours before bed! Not bad, I reckon. And I've so far got a smashing story to boot. Terrorist cells and religious extremists, new aliens, high paced ground ops, starship dog-fights and some heavy-handed lady-authority from Franklin's wife, who joins the universe officially for the first time. If I can pull together enough to keep it running for the next 40,000, it's going to be a cracker!

So, a person really can just improve in a talent without necessarily putting in massive amounts of time or practice, even with a five year gap between stints. I guess that is the difference between a talent and a skill. A skill is something you need to learn, focus on and practice in order to get it perfected, whereas a talent is something you're born with, that naturally grows with age and experience, becoming evermore honed simply by enjoying and sharing it. You build your skills, while you grow your talents.

So, the moral? Find your talent, whatever it may be, and allow it it to grow. Who knows? Someday you may turn out to be a singing handyman-business running author with four kids and a happening dream, just like me! Heck, that could very well be that elusive "meaning of life."

Best of luck and thanks for reading,
Till next time,
-Damien.