I need advice on talents

Lach

Hi H/A I need some help. Recently, I've been trying to discover what my talents are. I think I have a natural talent for verbal communication. The problem is that I have ignored it my entire life. When I was much younger I loved to write, but for some reason I just stopped trying. I coasted through school and didn't develop any skills or gain the knowledge I'd need to use this talent. And now I'm about to graduate with a degree in business.

I don't want to keep ignoring this. What advice can you guys give me? How can I develop my writing skills? Should I stay in school and get a nother degree? Is this something I could just figure out with practice or by reading books? Has anyone here been in a similar situation?

I'm not really sure if I'm asking the right questions, but I hope the little story helps.

Yehoshua

Well, I think the best advice I can give in regards to learning how to write better is to read a whole bunch, in many different styles and voices.

It should be noted, though, that "talent" is misleading, and people aren't usually just born with magical abilities to do things super well, so it will take a lot of time and effort to hone a craft regardless of a natural predisposition to a given field.

EggyToast

If you feel your talent is in verbal communication, I'm confused why you then talk about non-verbal communication (writing).

And I'll echo what Yehoshua said -- talent accounts for some, but rarely is anyone just naturally good at something. More realistically, it's that people who appear to be good at something actually just really like what it is they're good at, so practicing (for them) is fun and rewarding. Someone who enjoys math is going to delight in a math course and learning new material, whereas someone who despises math is going to find it difficult, even if both end up doing equally well at the end.

As for your particular talents, I find that it's best to learn by doing and then researching. Find out if something interests you by getting moderately involved, and then see where that could lead. In the case of writing, start writing something and then, when you've gotten to a point where you feel it's "finished" or you would like to expand on something, start looking around for various writing tools.

Lach

EggyToast wrote: »

If you feel your talent is in verbal communication, I'm confused why you then talk about non-verbal communication (writing).

And I'll echo what Yehoshua said -- talent accounts for some, but rarely is anyone just naturally good at something. More realistically, it's that people who appear to be good at something actually just really like what it is they're good at, so practicing (for them) is fun and rewarding. Someone who enjoys math is going to delight in a math course and learning new material, whereas someone who despises math is going to find it difficult, even if both end up doing equally well at the end.

As for your particular talents, I find that it's best to learn by doing and then researching. Find out if something interests you by getting moderately involved, and then see where that could lead. In the case of writing, start writing something and then, when you've gotten to a point where you feel it's "finished" or you would like to expand on something, start looking around for various writing tools.

Thanks. Sorry about the verbal writing nonsense. I'm thinking about taking a few mass communication classes. In journalism maybe. I think that's a good way to get involved.