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| Effort | 39% | 674 votes | Total: 1738 votes | |
| Insight | 61% | 1064 votes |
Effort
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Add to FavoritesInsight is an intangible gift. Effort is a more definable, and tangible transaction. It is easy to attribute the more difficult achievement, insight, to greatness in anything, especially writing. But in order to gain great insight, great effort must be made. Insight is the serendipitous event where enlightenment comes from having the prepared and open mind, and it takes a lot of examination, learning, taking in of information and practice to have such a mind.
The great writer may have begun to write later in life, after having been exposed to unusual or grand events in life and in the world, or after the disturbing and arduous process of interviewing those who have done the same. It follows then, that the writer would give the impression of having some unusual, unattainable gift of spark of brilliance, when he or she actually has a significant lifetime of incredible processes.
The great writer may be younger and blessed with a stellar education, unusual experiences in life, or unusual skills or abilities in observing and processing what is going on around him or her. The great young writer may have developed some insights before the writing began, or may develop insight as the writing is re-read, edited and developed.
Insight comes from many processes, including the intuitive process. But insight can come from learning how to develop the intuitive process into a more reliable set of cognitive skills. Also, insight can come from non intuitive processes, such as studying a situation, being closely involved enough to develop deep understandings, clearly identifiable feelings, and far more well developed perceptions than someone who has not had the experience.
A reader who did not directly witness events or complete the detailed study is grateful for the great writing which grabs the heart and mind with clarity and brilliance. But intuitive processes are far easier to use in attributing impossibility to work that anyone and everyone has the native ability and wit to accomplish, given the proper cognitive tools, experience and training.
But the bottom line is that any writer relies on writing ability, storytelling ability, and do it yourself editing abilities to put the whole work of art together and in a form that has a good organization, use of language and flow. In that process, insight happens and the work is re-worked in order to incorporate the new conceptual frameworks, epiphanies, and intellectual breakthroughs that come from the process of translating thoughts and memories into words, music, or any form or symbolic expression.
Doing the art changes the artist, and the changed artist improves the art.
Learn more about this author, Elizabeth M. Young.
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Insight
It would seem that great writers rely more on insight than effort.
Having said this, I also want to say that it is with great effort that they can mold their insights into something that can be read and enjoyed and that has many layers for the reader to sift through and still derive joy from without being overwhelmed by the insight.
It is the insight that makes the writer great, this is true. But what makes the writer truly great is his or her ability to capture or harness that insight and make it take shape in the form of a great story.
Authors like Phillip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, J.K.Rowling, John Twelve Hawks, J.D.Salinger, they transport your mind into new spaces of thought, and then they give you fantastic tales, tales of everyday life and the underpinnings of it, or tales of far far away or strange worlds right under our noses.
But what makes these authors, and others like them so great is their ability to tell us a story. To use the characters, to develop them to the point where we care and are interested in them, and wait with baited breath for the next sequence of events.
Really great writers make their work seem effortless, but truly the more effortless it seems the more effort was put into the work that we will have realize.
I have coined the term for this process, and it is called final product syndrome.
Final Product Syndrome happens when we look or scrutinize something without a working knowledge if how things run, and just assume that it was an effortless enterprise.
Many writers go for years without money or acknowledgment, and many have died poor and were shunned or berated while living.
Most writers have a great deal in common with comedians. They are sad, dramatic characters who can express feelings we all have in ways that we cannot or choose not to.
The ability to harness insight, which one must work to have too, and then to actually marry it to effort to shape and create an amazing story, this is a rare thing indeed.
After all, the very nature of a writer is to take their experiences of life and utilize them to get the public listening to their point of view.
These life experiences become insights, and these insights when shaped through great effort become a story, and there are many times when stories change the fabric of our thoughts, and how they shape the world.
A brilliant writer without that insight, that extra-special level of awareness that makes a person touch millions of people with the very human stories and characters, just becomes a sad excuse for a writer.
At the end of the day, the great authors rely on insight more than on effort, because while effort can get you but so far, it is that flame, that insight that makes the difference between someone who is a really good writer and someone who is a great writer.
Learn more about this author, Thaxton Lewis.
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