Sometimes, we need a kick in the ass.
Reading about writing is not writing.
You and I must write!
But it’s not easy.
Sometimes, we need a kick in the pants.
While reading the novel The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, I came across a wonderful tough love message for any writer or artist.
The main character, David Martin, is speaking to a young aspiring writer who has asked him to look at her writing.
When she seems disappointed by his assessment, he tells her this:
“Isabella, if you really want to devote yourself to writing, or at least to writing something others will read, you’re going to have to get used to sometimes being ignored, insulted, and despised and to almost always being considered with indifference. It’s an occupational hazard.”
A moment or two later, she asks him, “Then do you believe I have potential?”
His answer to her question is perhaps the best kick in the pants, tough love message for writers, artists, and even athletes, that I’ve had the pleasure of reading.
“I think you are talented and passionate, Isabella. More than you think and less than you expect. But there are a lot of people with talent and passion, and many of them never get anywhere. This is only the first step toward achieving anything in life. Natural talent is like an athlete’s strength. You can be born with more or less ability, but nobody can become an athlete just because he or she was born tall, or strong, or fast. What makes an athlete, or artist, is the work, the vocation, and the technique. The intelligence you are born with is just ammunition. To achieve something with it you need to transform you mind into a high-precision weapon.”
She asks him, “Why the military metaphor?”
He answers, “Every work of art is aggressive, Isabella. And every artist’s life is a small war or a large one, beginning with oneself and one’s limitations. To achieve anything you must first have the ambition and then talent, knowledge, and finally the opportunity.”
So now, dear readers of this newsletter, it’s time to face the music and dance.
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Ken West is the author of the books Capitalism WIIFM, Get What You Want, Your Life Zones, Achieve Your Purpose, Your Ego: It’s Your Salvation, Not Your Original Sin, and Fresh Squeezed Flash Fiction. He is also the author of the recent booklet, Mandatory National Service: A Threat to Liberty.
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The quotes by Carlos Ruiz Zafón come from his novel, The Angel’s Game, which is the second in his The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series of four novels. I am currently reading The Angel’s Game and have finished his first in the series, The Shadow of the Wind. I intend to read them all. Highly recommended.
