Photo taken by Max Bender on Unsplash.
Sifting through the advice Haruki Murakami has given on writing was beneficial. A lot of his advice hit close to home for me: Consistency is necessary to keep momentum and motivation, discover how a story will go as it’s written, and give new meanings to words. These are all things I’ve struggled to do, despite overflowing with ideas. However, Murakami’s comment that a writer is either born with the talent to write or has to work extra hard to receive a morsel of talent made me roll my eyes. “Talent” is the result of hard work across the board. Very few people are actually born with an innate skill to write.
I think most of what we perceive as “talent” is the result of a person being born into an environment that helped them develop a stronger foundation faster. This is possible by having more resources (books, tutorials, internet, et cetera), role models in their family, and/or any circumstance that would kick start their writing journey early on and keep them motivated for a long period. Let’s not forget that some are simply faster learners than others, too.
Regardless, writing skills become ingrained in us as we keep practicing, improving what our writing looks like even at its lowest point or most rushed state. We almost never see everything a writer has done to become as skilled as they are; we only see the present version or end result of their writing. Sometimes this leads to comparison, or the faulty idea that some people were just born to write, which is why I sort of hate the notion of talent. Anyone can become a good writer; they just have to work for it. It’s how so many of our favorite writers became who they are.
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