Talent Versus Mediocrity

Procrastinating from finishing up Ch5 of my new manuscript. That involves working a few Dell Pencil Puzzles. My faves are the anacrostics. They're hard, though. Do you do puzzles? Do you do them in pen? I do. Sometimes, especially with the anacrostics, I have to write really dark over my mistakes!

I just finished a quotation puzzle with a great quote by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes.) Here it is: "Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius."

Have you ever recognized genius in your field of pursuit? I have. I've picked up a book to read and gone, "Wow. This writer is great. What the heck am I doing, calling myself a writer? There's no way I can ever be this good."

On the flipside, have you ever known a very mediocre writer who thinks he or she is great? She typically either doesn't listen to critiques or makes excuses for why she isn't going to change her chapter (ex: "Everyone but one critiquer loved that little plot twist.") This type generally doesn't understand her rejection letters, either, and brushes them off with "Well, obviously the editor didn't get what I was trying to do." Instead, if she'd only listen to the editor's advice, she would improve her writing.

Egos are pretty powerful things. What is yours like? Are you talented but you feel mediocre next to genius, so you tell yourself, "I'll never be at that level" and don't bother to push yourself? Or are you mediocre, and happy with that? Whichever you are--talented or mediocre--what if we went to the next level? What if the talented writers pushed for genius level work, and the mediocre for talented? Man, could we ever put some powerful books out there!

How long did it take Edison to invent the light bulb? It took me fifteen years to sell a print book. Who knows what all I'll have learned in the next fifteen? Gee, I sure hope I've improved fifteen years' worth by then. ; )