Talent

The unpopular opinion is that you need to practice at what you want to excel, to work hard at it over and over again. I've heard from several of my readers that no matter what you enjoy doing, doing it on a deadline for a living sucks the life out of your creativity. And while those with no practical application or experience have the gall to disagree with those those who do, I wonder what they're really think is going to happen. They live as if life were a get-rich-quick-scheme.

On one hand, someone on my FL posted today that technological tools seem to be taking art right out of the hands of the artist, while another long-time reader believes that art doesn't require even an ounce of talent, simply the right technological tool.

You! Hit that director in the face, really fucking hard!

As for myself, I belong to the former camp of thought. I don't believe some tool will mystically pull stories from my brain, or that the moment someone hires me (based on my...lack of a portfolio?) that a switch will be flipped in my head and for the first time in my dull, uninspired life I'll become instantly creative. Case in point, I've used this blog in the past to write little fictional stories. They've all sucked.

I don't read the script. The script reads me.

So I've been writing fanfic that sucks. Its not easy because I'm unaccustomed to it, but its good to have a captive audience which will read it. And I hope, through practice, that I will improve.