Writing: Talent vs. Good

An author friend posted a link on Twitter to an essay focused on the differences between talented writing and good writing. It's an interesting read, and one I'd like to discuss a bit at length here, if you don't mind reading it over so that you can be better informed as I discuss it.

Done? Good.

This is an interesting debate, mainly because in my opinion, so much of the debate rests in an area that's a matter of personal taste. One person might read a story and think, "That was an awesome, incredible book." Another might read it and think it was drivel. As far as I'm concerned, both people can be right at the same time. It's art, and that's how art rolls, folks.

Case in point: The Great Gatsby. Dan Wells and I had an epic Candy Land duel a year or so ago over whether or not Gatsby is a great piece of literature. I love that book and think it's brilliant? Dan? Not so much. (Candy Land says I'm right, though. So there.) But seriously, we can both be right. Both positions are defensible. In the end, it's like having an argument over vanilla vs. chocolate. (Although why are we even arguing? Chocolate wins, easy schmeasy.)

If two English grads can't even agree on good old F. Scott, how can we hope to have a real debate over talent vs. good writing. According to the article, good writing is well constructed and passable. It's readable. It conveys a message accurately and efficiently. But it lacks that certain "something" that only truly talented writers have.

Hogwash, as far as I'm concerned, and I'll give you another good reason--we can't even all agree on what's bad writing.

Next case in point: The DaVinci Code. Tons of people will do their best to deride it, but it sold boatloads of copies, and it made Dan Brown a huge figure in pop literature. Is it "bad"? Is it "good"? It all depends on the measuring stick, and that measuring stick is going to have different numbers on it, depending on whose it is. Telling someone they like "bad" literature seems like a really base thing to do. It cuts a person to the core, dismissing their judgement. I'm against that.

So Talented vs. Good seems like a non-debate to me. I do think the terms both have merit, but I look at them in a different light. Talented writers are good right off the bat. It comes easier to them. I think of it in the same terms as I thought of musical ability in high school. Some of my friends were clearly just better players at an instrument than others. They didn't have to work as hard to be as good, if that makes sense. Other people could get to that same level, but they had to work harder to get there.

In the end, I just keep asking myself, "Does any of it matter?" To me as a reader, does it matter if I find one particular author talented and one just plain good? Not really. What's the difference? I'll read what I want to read, when I want to read it. Period.

To me as a writer, does it matter? No. All the worrying in the world won't make me one iota more talented than I might be otherwise. All that I can control is how much effort I put into my writing. What I do to make myself better. Better--that's the word I can focus on. I want to be a better writer tomorrow than I am today. That's something I have control over. Whether at the end of that process, I started out as good or talented or whatever . . . none of that matters.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Cleaning Out the Netflix Queue

My Netflix queue has gotten out of control. Big time. It's well over 200 titles long, and that's just kind of ridiculous. It doesn't help that a lot of titles on there are ones that have been on there for years. I've found that once I pass over a title often enough, I stop thinking of it as a "potentially good movie"--even though I obviously thought it would be a good movie at some point in time. After all, I was the one who stuck it on that list in the first place, right?

So I'm weeding out the list. It's taking some time, and I'm having to do it over the course of several days, just because I don't have that much free time available to me right now, and this feels an awful lot like work.

I've started by taking off the low rated movies. If Netflix thinks I'm going to give it less than three out of five stars, then the odds are low that I'll every actually want to watch that movie. There will always be something I want to watch more. So off it goes! Then I'm taking off the ones that I'm not dying to see--that I know Denisa has no desire to see, either. We watch almost all of these movies together, so unless something's "Must See" for me, it needs to go off that list if I know Denisa isn't going to want to watch it.

Through this approach, I've been able to get the list down below 200 now. That's progress, right? I'm not sure where I'll go from here. Part of me is really close to just deleting the whole list and starting from scratch. Limit myself to a queue of about 10 or so in instant and DVD, respectively. Then I could let myself add another 5 movies once 5 of the movies that are on the list get watched.

Anyone else out there a Netflix junkie? How do you decide what to watch when? All ideas are welcome!

Diet Update: Week Thirteen

Another week in the record books. I've been doing this diet for something like 90 days now. That's a lot of days. No wonder I'm sick of it. (I particularly miss baking, which is usually a quick and easy way for me to do something with my hands and feel creative for an hour or so. Hard to do that and stick to my diet, though, so I've refrained for the most part.)

More free meals at the cafeteria this week, but the good news is that those days are gone. School's out for summer, and the cafeteria is closed. :-) I should be settling back into some regular eating habits, which will help the diet tremendously.

Exercise hasn't been quite as consistent--at least not in an "this is really exercise and hard work" sort of vein. I've stacked some wood, done some yard work, and gone fishing with TRC multiple times. The good news is that I'm doing a much better job of doing something physical each day. It's just not necessarily helping me lose weight. Then again, I'm not exercising to lose weight. I'm losing weight and exercising so that I feel better and get sick less often. And in that respect, things are going great. I have yet to get really sick for days at a time since I've started this program. Yay for that.

And now, to numbers. I'm ecstatic to announce I'm 193.8 pounds this morning. That might seem like a random number to you all, but it's of great significance to me. It's the very border of "Normal" on the BMI scale. That's right, folks. As of this morning, I'm officially normal again. No longer overweight. 24.9.

This means the diet has transitioned from a "don't be overweight" goal to one of "be more firmly planted in the 'normal' category goal." A subtle shift, perhaps, but one with meaning to me. From here on out, the main goal is to not get back into that overweight category. My ultimate goal is 178 pounds--so that I can have plenty of buffer room. I'd like to settle in at 185. So there's still a ways to go, but I'm definitely making progress.

Yay for that.

Movie Review: Star Trek Into Darkness (Spoiler-Free)

Besides having one of the harder to understand titles this summer (Is it "Star Trek Into Darkness" or just "Into Darkness"? I really can't tell . . . ), the latest Star Trek movie was one I've been very excited to see. JJ Abrams did a great job with the first one, in my opinion, and I've liked his stuff overall. Plus, Benedict Cumberbatch. Win, right?

So I went to see it by myself, knowing that Denisa and I won't be in theaters until MC is old enough to get babysat. (I've vowed never to be the parent with the screaming baby in the theater. I've stayed true to that vow for two kids, and I'm not about to go back on it with the third.)

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, although I think I might be seeing lens flares for the next few weeks. (Seriously, JJ. Tone down the lens flares. It'll still look futuristic without them--promise.)

The plot is simple: Star Trek. I don't want to give away any more than that. If you liked the first JJ Abrams flavored Trek, you'll like this one. If you're a long-time Trekkie . . . I don't know what you'll think. It depends on what sort of a Trekkie you are. Some of you will love this. Some will loathe it. But if you're That Sort of Trekkie, you're going to see it one way or another, so I suppose my review doesn't matter.

There are twists and turns. Nods to original Trek movies and episodes. One minor complaint I'd have is that because I was familiar with the original material, it was pretty easy to guess what was going to happen--right down to how certain scenes would play out and be blocked. But even then, I enjoyed the spin those scenes took, and so it was all groovy more or less.

The action scenes are very explodey. It's an exciting movie through and through, so top marks for that. This is definitely one of those movies where paying some to see it on a big screen is worth it. Three and a half stars out of four. Definitely check it out.

(And in other news, I really want to do some mashups of movies. What I mean is Cumberbatch is going to be playing Smaug later this year. How awesome would it be to have Smaug be the villain of Star Trek Into Darkness? And then you have Sylar as Spock, Shaun as Scottie, Harold as Sulu--see where I'm going here? Best. Movie. Ever.

Is technology far enough on that we can make this happen? Now? Make it so!)

On Emergencies and Tragedies

So while I was at my library meeting yesterday, someone had a seizure or a stroke--I'm not entirely sure which. It happened suddenly, with no warning at all. I hear they're feeling better, which is a relief, but it was--needless to say--a pretty upsetting experience for all involved. And it's been something I keep going over in my mind. Which means I need to write about it to try and understand it a bit better. Bear with me, or skip today's post. Your call.

It's so easy to live life with certain assumptions in place. Assumptions about continued health. No serious accidents. That we are more or less in control of our fate. Experiences like the one I witnessed yesterday go a long way to disrupting your willingness to make those assumptions, at least for a few days.

When you get down to it, life is full of risk. There's always the risk of tragedy striking at any time and at any place. I've seen this happen in my life and in the life of my friends--particularly now that Facebook is around and I'm in touch with so many more people on a daily or weekly basis. I've seen friends lose children, lose jobs, lose their health. I've seen friends disappear from a social network, only to find out a month or a year later that they died. In an instant, everything can be different.

I remember when I was living in Utah, Denisa and I were staying with my aunt and uncle. It was on the agreement that should my cousin need to move back to live with them, Denisa and I would need to find a different place to live. I really didn't handle that uncertainty well at first. The idea that at any moment, I might be forced to scramble to find alternatives. And I basically asked my aunt "what if I have to move out tomorrow?"

Her answer has stuck with me. She just shook her head, shrugged, and said, "What if a meteorite strikes the house? What if we have a fire? What if you get in an accident?" Her point was clear: we can spend all day worrying about the "What ifs." There are tons of things to worry about, after all. So many ways life can just be changed forever in a moment. But if you're focused on all those what ifs all the time, then you're never going to get any real living done. You'll be too focused on preparing for every eventuality that you miss out on all the opportunities to be happy.

This isn't something I do too well with. I don't like change. I don't like it when things don't go according to plan--even little things. If I have a plan for an evening, and it gets altered, that upsets me. I'm that kind of a guy. But I'm beginning to learn that it's a waste of time to worry about every eventuality. Something might pop up. I can worry about it when it does.

At the same time, I do think it's important to live your life as much as you can when you can. Enjoy the happy times, because there will be sad times that come along, too. Trying to prepare in advance for all the potential sad just makes you miss out on the happy.

And that's my deep thought for you today. Go out and do something you enjoy this weekend or this evening. Spend time with friends, family, or on yourself. Time is like money. You can only spend it when you have it. Saving some is good, but save too much too often and you can end up never having the chance to enjoy it.