Can one become a great writer without being intellectually gifted? Any example?
I was reading about psychometrics and how general intelligence is a really strong predictor of success in several areas, and more specifically, how language and math skills are highly correlated. This really struck me, seeing that i heard several times people saying that they were bad at math but good at writing or vice-versa. This also make me really depressed because i always thought that good writing was a form of self expression that had a deeper meaning and was depended of several non quantifiable human characteristics rather than a pure measurable skill.
If you're sub 105 IQ you should resign yourself to menial labour or just kill yourself and stop wasting my resources desu
Alexander Brooks
>they fell for the IQ meem
Robert Lewis
>resign yourself to menial labour >resign
Manual labour is the most noble of work though.
Mason Wilson
>how language and math skills are highly correlated
Just anecdotally, this seems incredibly wrong.
Anyway, IQ tests are pretty problematic things. They're basically discredited too btw. Intelligence is vastly more complex than something that can be measured by a test and assigned a number.
Austin Robinson
Don't try explaining. It's the same breed of autism that makes kids bend statistics and quote 10000 "sources" on a hentai forum.
Chase Sanchez
As an anecdote, the only guy I know who writes and studied Math nah fuck this why should I tell this shit
Nah it's just that he has won some minor short story contests and shit but I've read some of his shit and it ain't that good. He's witty sometimes tho. He doesn't write fantasy or shit (although some of his stories are kinda scifi) but his style and humor remind me a little of Terry Pratchett. But his style and prose are quite standard desu. Now he has started some kind of poetical group with other guys from our city and, as far as I know, it's still about absurd humor that can make you chuckle at first, but doesn't really differ from some painstaking pasta-banter from Veeky Forums. So 100% of the mathematicist writers I know are mediocre.
Josiah Ramirez
prolly can but by personal experience youll have to work harder, and that will so much time and energy from other aspects of life that you will end up being an incomplete human, and possibly a failure. Whoever most people spend their days playing shitty videogames or working menial Jobs, this argument might not stand in times of such procrastination.
James White
Depends on your goals, standards and levels of pretentiousness but since the mainstream market for literature works on the pretense of the customers being part of the implicit iamasmartperson in-group you inherently have authority figures to please and opinions to conform to and those dictate that high (verbal) intelligence is what makes a great writer. At least i believe this to be the case because it coincides with good abstract reasoning skills which is essential for symbolic creative expression and good writing the way we know it is like the Ferrari of symbolic creative expressoin (and math is like the amphibious 4x4) because of the sheer multiplicity of symbols which becomes something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then you have stuff like adequate use of a hilariously inflated large vocabulary, getting the common denominators of the human condition right (because shekels) and soo on and intelligence generally helps with that stuff.
I think it pays to ask yourself where you would stand if it wasn't for the cognitive dissonance that arises when you fail your so called masters. Ask yourself who are you trying to please here and why? And finally why don't you "just" write and see what happens anyways?
Kayden Garcia
What gave anyone the right to judge your creative expression from a position of authority anyways? Only I know how accurate and good my writing is to me, same for you and your writing. Becoming a great writer becomes therefore a question of conforming (being able) to the stuff I mentioned above and yes you need a gift/talent and early high culture education and all that stuff.
(I disagree that mainstream culture could be any other way)
David Gutierrez
Jane Austen was a woman, Faulkner a redneck, Bukowski didn't even know what poetry was and Chaucer couldn't spell. But they all managed to put their creativity into practice.
If you're not gifted, we'll still read you just as we donate to the poor and help the sick. You'll not be great or a genius, but you'll be read and loved...unconditionally
Levi Robinson
"bad at math" usually means lazy.
It's possible to have a high iq and be "bad at math"
If you are actually trying and you are bad at math still, probably rip you are retarded and won't be good at writing either
Colton Barnes
It means how good you are at IQ tests.
Jason Baker
If you already browsing Veeky Forums, my comrade, you shouldnt worry about your intelect
Easton Hall
Because i am already retarded?
Benjamin Thompson
Well, IQ obviously helps. A complete assessment measures verbal intelligence among others, though, with another type of intelligence being mathematical. So a high general IQ doesn't necessarily entail high verbal intelligence. And then there's having something to say, which is again obviously not about IQ at all. Oftentimes, having something to say means being passionate about something. There's also a trend at least among moderately elevated IQ-scores (~115-126) to harbour apathy and nihilism. That poses a challenge to the creation of good literature. And in the end, good literature is not the author's own. Although the author organises his own discursive mind through himself, he requires the good fortune of having interlocked in such a way with the collective mind that he has the reservoir required to synthesise good literature.
Sebastian King
I have an IQ of 75 and I'm working on a novel. Do what makes you happy OP
Ayden Jackson
Sorry I meant 175
Grayson Harris
x doubt
Samuel Rivera
>175 IQ >doesn't know punctuation
Noah Edwards
Sounds like you have finally found the best excuse to not write OP.
I mean, what could be a better excuse not do to do something than an IQ test?
Alexander Cook
It's also potentially the most satisfying.
A handmade garden shed is a million times more tangible than a novel.