Four Fears, Talent & Time - #005 - Talent

The 6 things that stop people writing

Part #005: Lack of Talent

This is probably the trickiest of all the six things that stop people writing as it’s the most subjective.

For example, one person might love what you write and another loathe it. The former will appreciate your talent and the the latter think you don’t possess an ounce of it.

So one simple way to boost your perception of your talent is just to find the people who like reading your stuff.

From an objective perspective, however, there’s a bunch of really practical things you can do to improve and hone your skills as a writer.

The first three might not normally be associated with the literary arts but they are as follows:

1. to get regular exercise
2. to eat the right things
3. to breathe using your diaphragm

Each of these increases the nutrients reaching your brain which in turn facilitates increased interactivity between your neurons. By the way, the exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous, a brisk walk with diaphragmatic breathing is enough – this is why I recommend writers should be dog owners. And when you walk, if you can, look up not down – it makes a huge difference.

Now onto the skill of writing itself … here’s my top seven tips

1. don’t join a writing group
2. learn how to Mind Map (properly)
3. learn a new word every day  – e.g. Word of the Day from Dictionary.com or from Visual Thesaurus
4. write something each day & have an Artist’s Date per week – see Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way site
5. when you read something you like, spend a little thinking about what you like about it
6. then plagarise, copy and emulate a style you like
7. don’t hide your reviews away, pin them on your wall, post them on your web site, Tweet them

Finally remember the best way to hide your talent is not to write anything at all … and that your talent is a gift and natural endowment, not to be hidden under a bushel or suppressed by any of the four fears in this series.

In any case, it should be remembered that these fears are only there to give us the indication that there’s something we need to tackle and embrace.

… you can see the first on Fear of Ridicule here here
… the second on Fear of Failure here
… the third on the Fear of the Unknown here
… the fourth on the Fear of Success here
… the sixth on the Lack of Time here