How do you know if you've got talent or not?

Question

I like to write short-stories. But what is the difference between fiction and b.s.? Can you write stories in first person?

Answer 1

There are so many helpful answers (other than the first one, which was clearly tongue-in-cheek) here that I have little to add.

However, practice practice practice is very important. If you are serious, set aside some amount of time each day for writing. Disciplined practice is much more important than raw talent.

Getting honest critiques from capable writers is very important; a local writers' club is best if you can find one. You'll probably also find people on-line who would be willing to take a look at some of your writing if you e-mailed it to them.

And finally, writing a novel in the first person almost certainly dooms it to failure. For short stories, you can do anything you wish, but you should practice writing from various standpoints.

By the way, fiction is BS. Good fiction is good BS. Best of luck to you!

Answer 2

You can write stories in first person. Why not.

Anything you can do well, it comes naturally, and usually have a passion for or atleast an interest in is a talent. Things you accell in. Me, it is not spelling. lol. But i can draw and paint with ease. Some may be working with numbers, others the ability to transfer thoughts and feelings into words on paper, with out loosing the effect or the feeling.

The difference between fiction and b.s. is whether it makes sense. Believable. You can even take b.s. and turn it into somthing believable by simply elaborating it. Adding more information or detail to make it sound more possible, rather than impropable. Hope this helps. Have a good day!

Answer 3

It takes hard work. You should ask many people what they think of it, and then you can make a decision. But that's not all that matters. If you really love writing, you should keep on writing even if you are not that good. People who do that will eventually become the masters of their craft, becuase their love for it alone will cause them to work hard and achieve wonderful results. But if you want a judgemnet, ask many people and average out the results.
Yes, you can write stories in first person, and although those can be wonderful books, they are extremely hard to write. You have to abandon your own personality altogether and become someone else, just to get in the thoughts and feelings...and then you have a book to write! It is very hard, but those can be the books that readers connect with the most. So, you are taking a risk, but it may pay off, because readers like how first-person gives them intimincy with the character. However, it also limits your descriptive ability...in third-person, you can describe everything...in first-person, you have to describe only what the character sees, because you ARE the character. See?
I hope this answers your questions.

Answer 4

Your question implies that that you don't read a lot. If you did you would already know that of course you can write stories in the first person.

Your friends and family are the worst judges of your work (unless, of course, they happen to work in the industry!). They want to love your work, and therefore will be blind to it. Ever have a new parent show you pictures of their "beautiful" new baby, and think "GOD! That thing looks like a troll!"

The same blindness applies to writing.

In order to identify whether or not your own work is good, you first need to be able to identity good writing in others. Which means you need to read. A Lot. Read classics. Read modern bestsellers. Read quirky books by unknown small presses. Read. Read. Then read some more. Eventually you will start to notice similarities between books you enjoy and books you do not.

Then, you need to be able to separate yourself from your own work. This is the hardest thing to do, because we all want to believe we are brilliant. But the fact is not everyone is meant to be a good writer. Just like not everyone can be a doctor or an actor or a rocket scientist or a musician. You MUST be willing to be honest with yourself, identifying your own strengths and weakness. Does what you write have the same qualities as those books you enjoy? Or does it more closely resemble those books you didn't like?

Answer 5

Writing is about 10% talent and 90% discipline. A lot of talented writers NEVER sit down and write unless someone stands over them with a baseball bat. Because that's a social no-no, we'll never know what they could have written.

The only writers we know are the ones who actually sat down and wrote, then submitted their work to publishers and actually got published. This takes discipline and tenacity.

You have the discipline because you are actually writing. You probably have the talent because you are continuing to write.
Keep at it.

As for writing short stories in first person, go ahead. Even novels can be written in first person, but they have to be REALLY good to sell that to publishers. Short stories are more forgiving of the first person point-of-view.

I suggest you get CHARACTERS & VIEWPOINT by Orson Scott Card. It's a really good read and you'll learn a bit more about the writing craft.

Answer 6

Writing is, believe it or not, more of a learned skill than a talent. If you are pretty good at writing, you can always learn how to make yourself better, read some good writing books, check your library for some. The same principles apply for all book writing, so you could read a book on how to write a novel and use that information for your short story. Just remember, the key way to make your story believable is to make the reader care about the characters, if the character is hurt, we are hurt, if the character laughs, we laugh, whatever happens is the characters world becomes true to life and we believe it, no matter how fantastic!!!

Answer 7

Read your stuff after "forgetting" about it for awhile. If it makes you cringe, you need to work at it some more. If you think it needs a lot of editing, that doesn't really tell you anything, yet. But, if it, or major parts of it, surprise you with how good it is...you have talent.
First and foremost, you have to please yourself, and later, you find the audience (if that's what you want).
Yes, successful first person stories can be written, but they are very difficult to write. They tend to be less popular/liked as those written in third, because the story has to be really intriguing to sustain the reader's attention.
(I've read a couple stories written in second person, which fit in with the overall weirdness of the story. It's a technique that should be used sparingly, though, in my opinion.)

Answer 8

If any of the dozens of absolutely terrible stories I've read from people who claimed to be the next Tolkien and King are any indication, then it's difficult to judge yourself on talent.

It thusly stands on the shoulders of those around you to judge your abilities, I don't say I'm talented, but I do think I'm not untalented. I've been told by friends and teachers that I'm good, and I was put in a group of the straight-A students even though I was more of a straight-C student based solely on my creative writing.

Answer 9

I've wondered this myself (as a short story writer and sometime poetry writer...)
I think you can never know whether you have talent, but by looking back on things you've written/created, you'll see whether your efforts were any good.

Don't fool yourself into thinking just because something is popular that its creator was talented. There's many examples where that is not the case. There are also many examples where artists/writers die penniless, but are thought to be very talented after their death.

Answer 10

You can write stories however you choose, whichever feels right to you - first person point-of-view (pov) or third.

The best way to determine if you are creatively talented is to join a local or online critique group. These people in the critique group are not friends or family so ideally they will give you honest, constructive criticism on your work. Also, if you can take creative writing courses, your instructor will give you feedback.