Developing Other Talents to Help Your Writing

To be honest, I don't have many talents. There are a very small amount of things that come naturally to me. So if you're one of those people who plays sports, acts, sings, paints and still has time for weekly volunteer opportunities, you might just want to leave and not mention it lest I turn red in the face and feel compelled to slap you in envy. It is perhaps because of this reason that I have dedicated so much time and effort into writing. My lack of options has given me the incentive to become great in this area of talent. It's a good motivation I suppose, but sometimes I wish I could do more things. And through trial and error, I have discovered that it's helpful and healthy to at least try your hand at other talents. To me, these other endeavors will always be secondary, but they can aid you in your writing in more ways than you might think.

Two years ago, I tried my hand at acting. It was something I thought I might be good at. However, I have since learned that I'm much better at improvising than delivering deliberately. To be fair, I only participated in drama for two years, so I didn't push my limits by any means. Acting is fun, but saying someone's else lines that I didn't write, is difficult for me. Even so, learning to adhere to other characters and learn how written movements can translate into real life, gave me techniques and insight for dialogue and character quirks.

Last year, my mother put me in a painting class (against my will). See, my father is a brilliant artist (you can check out his website here), so my mother along with strangers, assume that it must be in my blood too. I was adamant about the fact that I have as much visual arts talent as a kindergartener, but she insisted that I get my feet wet. And guess what? I turned out to be right! I'm an awful artist. But I already knew that. So really, it was a good learning experience for knowing which things I'm terrible at! How encouraging.

The only other talent that comes naturally to me besides writing, is singing. Now, I'd like to think that I'm a better writer than a singer (at least I hope so), but singing is the talent that other people see. When I was little, my elementary school music teacher would give me solos and strangers have said to me "Oh, you should be a singer!" To which I always replied, "no thanks". But when I entered high school, I decided to explore singing a little more. I began singing on a worship team, and the encouragement I received gave me confidence that maybe I didn't just sound good in the shower. So last year, I joined choir, and I'm loving it so far. Of the other things I've tried, it's definitely the most up my alley.

But how has singing helped me? Well other singers will agree that when you sing, you think about a lot of things. Your tone, articulation, pitch, volume, and overall sweetness of sound. And when you think about it, good writers should be considering the same things when writing. It's not all about how nicely it flows, there are many other factors to increase the quality.

I share this with you as someone who was once guilty of sticking to one thing. I'm glad I have explored other talents and I would encourage you to do the same for the reasons I have mentioned. It also can provide new writing material!

How have your other talents aided your writing? Let me know in the comments!