Sadly, you might correct.
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Innate Talent vs Monkeys on Typewriters
- Thread starter Meadow337
- Start date
I'd buy it if I could get a signed copy. I'm a sucker for signed stuff.
PrincessFiona60
Member
I used to be a creative writer...now I'm in a different setting and have become more technical, my gift for gab does not shine through. However, if you hand me a Math problem (honest, I have studied Math a lot more extensively than I ever did writing) I'm lucky if I can remember which finger to use to count with.
However, my sister, a year younger is a huge Math Wizard and couldn't write herself out of a paper bag. Yes, she knows the words, she knows how to string them together grammatically...but she cannot put them together so you would want to read them.
However, my sister, a year younger is a huge Math Wizard and couldn't write herself out of a paper bag. Yes, she knows the words, she knows how to string them together grammatically...but she cannot put them together so you would want to read them.
David H. Webb
kickbox
I must say the topic caught my interest.
I love writing and am passionate about it. I got some stick on this site once and haven't been back much although I do believe criticism can be a good thing. I love the comment by Vincent Peale that, "Most of us would rather be ruined by flattery than saved by criticism".
All this talk about the same words and verse improving over time gives one hope.. I object to criticism when people haven't even read the book.
That isn't worth anything, but honest critics I will always listen to.
I love writing and am passionate about it. I got some stick on this site once and haven't been back much although I do believe criticism can be a good thing. I love the comment by Vincent Peale that, "Most of us would rather be ruined by flattery than saved by criticism".
All this talk about the same words and verse improving over time gives one hope.. I object to criticism when people haven't even read the book.
That isn't worth anything, but honest critics I will always listen to.
Meadow337
Former Moderator
that's why I was inclined to agree with the ppl who said that no amount of positive reinforcement will save some one who just can't BUT I think where it might make a difference is if that positive reinforcement came at the right moment in your life ie BEFORE you have a chance to form a negative opinion about your abilities.
There are obviously limitations to its effect. Thinking positive isn't going to make a blonde turn into a brunette or vice versa, but I think the power of belief to generate a reality shouldn't be dismissed either.
Ai nil bastardo carborundum!
Love your quote SO true!!!
Practice she does indeed make ... well not always perfect but certainly better. Belief in yourself helps a lot too.
PrincessFiona60
Member
I used my sister and I purposefully...both children raised by the same parents. One is better at writing, one is better at Math. We received the same encouragement from both parents in all our endeavors. But, you will never make me a Mathematician or my sister a Writer. The basic innate talent needs to be there.
BeerWench13
Active Member
The mind is a powerful thing and I believe in the power of positive thinking. However, I also feel that a basic talent as well as desire must be present to become adept at anything. As my basketball coach used to say, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. You can know all of the rules and all of the plays, but you must also be able to perform them well."
Meadow337
Former Moderator
well doesn't that prove my point? I assume you are both successful in the areas of your talents? Encouragement at the right time = success IF the talent is there. But at the same time no amount encouragement will compensate for a lack of talent, even though you would still be the best you could be at it with encouragement.
Hugh
Member
By the time I was seven years old I remember having a typewriter and a dictionary. The adults in my life back then also started me on the Hardy Boys series and before I was even ten years old they were getting me cheaply bound reprints of literary classics. So forty years later you would expect that I'd be a literary genius, but the truth is I don't write worth spit.
Now a big part of that was the drug detour I took in my teens that lasted well into my 30's. Holding down left-brain type jobs to pay the bills probably killed, or at least knocked unconscious, my creativity. No amount of telling myself how great I am will win me literary acclaim or put me on the New York Times best seller list.
However, what about this? I just want to throw out a little idea here - let's say instead of telling yourself how great you are, why not ask questions about how great you could become instead? Is it possible, if you ask yourself repeatedly, "How can I become a great writer?" that your brain will work on the question and eventually find an answer? Of course you would still have to put in the time pounding your keyboard. But while your fingers are busy pounding out awful prose your brain just might be working quietly in the background on the question you've repeatedly posed to it.
Now a big part of that was the drug detour I took in my teens that lasted well into my 30's. Holding down left-brain type jobs to pay the bills probably killed, or at least knocked unconscious, my creativity. No amount of telling myself how great I am will win me literary acclaim or put me on the New York Times best seller list.
However, what about this? I just want to throw out a little idea here - let's say instead of telling yourself how great you are, why not ask questions about how great you could become instead? Is it possible, if you ask yourself repeatedly, "How can I become a great writer?" that your brain will work on the question and eventually find an answer? Of course you would still have to put in the time pounding your keyboard. But while your fingers are busy pounding out awful prose your brain just might be working quietly in the background on the question you've repeatedly posed to it.
pontalba
Well-Known Member
You know....I like it Hugh. That idea seems to run parallel with the notion/factoid that sometimes when we have a problem and 'sleep on it', quite often we wake up with the answer, or at least a darned good start to the answer.
Meadow337
Former Moderator
Ok now that I have had a few days to mull this thought over in the back of my mind. I think that firstly by saying 'how great can I become' you are already self-limiting the outcome because you will answer that with your preconceptions about how great you can become. The concept behind positive thinking / affirmation is to over-ride those preconceptions we have formed whether by our thinking or by listening to other people's negative perceptions of us. And what we think, is what we are. "I think therefore I am" is to some extent literally true.
Before there are squawks of protest - there are definite limitations to the entire concept. Wealth, a new car, a best selling novel or a 30" waist are not just going materialize from thin air just because you think positively about them, but in terms of how you think about yourself it definitely does make a difference.
As a concept for problem solving - I can't fault it. I use it myself. I do it for writing, basically anything I'm thinking about or question I have. I just tuck it away in the back of the old noggin and wait for the answer to work its way round to the front of my consciousness again.