Have you ever known someone so
talented that they did not know that what they did was special? I mean someone
that did something so easily that they didn't know it was difficult.
Every now and then I meet someone
that is so good at something that they do not know it is difficult. It could be
any talent from tying knots, carving, drawing, speaking, writing, cooking,
foreign languages, swimming, singing, hiking, shooting, tracking, gymnastics,
.....
Sometimes they have been born with
the talent and do not know that what they do is difficult because it never has
been for them. Other times it is experience that makes them good at it, but
they have been doing it so long they seem to have forgotten the struggles to
get it right.
As writers we are always learning our
craft. Students are often urged to extend their envelope, expand their
horizons, try something new, different, difficult. Good advice.
In school, teachers, perhaps with
some justification, were always telling me to try harder. But the army taught
me that sometimes you can try too hard and the effort becomes
counterproductive. In advance training we were allowed off to go into town on
Friday nights as long as we passed Saturday morning inspection. Our floor
gathered together, decided what needed to be done and what needed to be doubled
checked before inspection. We did it and went out Friday night. The sergeant on
the floor below decided his men didn't deserve Friday night off until they
earned it by passing inspection. Each inspection they failed, he had them clean
later into the evening and roused them earlier and earlier in the morning to
clean. They didn't pass very many inspections, if any. We passed all of ours.
Abraham Lincoln advised folks to
always grab problems by the smooth handle. Why make things more difficult for
yourself than need be?
Max Brand was probably the most well
known of the twenty some names that Frederick Faust wrote under. He wanted to
be a classical poet and worked very hard at that. For an extended period of
time he published the equivalent of a book a month and a short story per week.
His westerns and many of his characters like Dr. Kildare, Dr. Gillespie, and
Horseman Destry have entered the fabric of American literature and culture.
Kate Braverman is an incredible
talent. Fiction, non-fiction, you name it as long as it is experimental, she
writes it. Her list of books and inclusions in anthologies is long (see
www.katebraverman.com ).
I kept thinking what wonderful things
she could write if she would relax.
Instead of writing for the ten most intelligent people she knows, write
for the rest of us. Who did Shakespeare write for? Write what is easy for her
and know that there is value in that too.
