Quote:
Originally Posted by N. Matheson
I think it's become apparent what I desire is simply impossible. If I'd been born 400 years ago maybe, but what I want is to be as skilled and versatile as those poets were. But I do not think I have that talent, nor is it even achievable.
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Talent is as talent does, but I'll bet on hard work over natural talent every time. Writing is a craft; it can be developed. And it's not as if the poets of the past didn't put in the work, or progress in their skill and style over time. You can see the differences between, say,
Titus Andronicus and
Hamlet. And while we have 154 published sonnets by Shakespeare, we have no idea how many sonnets he wrote and decided not to publish because they weren't ready or just for practice or not very good or he didn't feel like it, or, or, or...
Maybe you'll be as skilled as some of those greats if you're willing to work for it. And even if you're not as skilled as them, who knows what wonderful things you might write along the way? But you definitely won't be as great as they are -- or even as great as
you could be -- by giving up and refusing to try.