‘Talent is like personality, it responds to how it is treated’
Writer Rachel Cusk on showing up for your talent
When it comes to becoming a successful writer, how much is talent, and how much is hard work?
From my own experience, I feel my self-doubt about writing creeps in most in moments when I’m uninspired to write. Making it worse is the huge gulf I imagine between the high expectations I set for my writing and my actual writing. Or as Neil Gaiman phrases it: “You think there’s literature, and there’s the stupid scribbles that I’m doing.”
I can’t depend on talent and inspiration to show up when I need it. So I’ve learned over time to ignore the self-doubt and the lack of inspiration as best I can, and just keep writing through it all.
Successful writers of all kinds often talk about talent as a personality. For example, Isabel Allende describes writing talent as a fickle muse when says: “Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.”Her remark points to the essential relationship between developing a consistent practice and developing talent.
To quote Neil Gaiman again, he seems to share Allende’s idea:
“You have to write when you’re not inspired. And you have to write the scenes that don’t inspire you. And the…
