Can I Really Become a Novelist Even Without Talent?

No matter how much I think about it, I don't think talent did it.
-Hwang Borum

Hwang Borum, an author who jumped into a full-time writing career even before publishing her first book and lived like a writer, eventually becoming one. She says that writing novels doesn't seem like something talent did. However, looking at the immense popularity of <Welcome to Hyunan-dong Bookstore>, one might question if she truly lacks talent. Was she just trying to appear knowledgeable, or did a masterpiece naturally emerge from her enjoyment of writing?

Following the phenomenal popularity of <Grit>, the myth of talent seems to have faded somewhat, but many still remain fixated on 'talent.' Even though I've personally moved beyond the talent myth instilled in me from a young age, I still find myself contemplating the realm of 'talent' occasionally.

While I haven't lived a hundred years yet, so I don't know what the right answer is, but if you say you can't write a novel because you lack talent, you truly won't be able to. And if you disregard the talent myth and just focus on your path, you'll truly walk your own path. Furthermore,there's a saying that genius cannot surpass those who work hard, and those who work hard cannot surpass those who enjoy it.

People become what they believe they will be.
-Anton Chekhov

Ultimately, people become what they believe they will be. Just as Anton Chekhov said.

▶ I just focused on bringing it to a conclusion since I had started writing. In other words, the completion of the story. The completion of the story was up to me, so I just had to believe in myself.

▶ At that time, I thought of it more as writing a story than writing a novel.

▶ Thinking of it as writing a story made me feel like I could do it. Stories, I love stories.

▶ Seeing and reading stories was like following someone's life.

▶ I think writing novels was an extension of this kind of play. The only difference from the past games was that this story started from me.

▶ Just like I've always done, I create various versions of the story by rolling the ball of the story around freely. Among them, the process of selecting the version I liked the most and writing it down in Korean, the process of clearly revealing the vague image in words, that's how I came to write a novel. No matter how much I think about it, I don't think talent did it.

-Hwang Borum, Simple Life, Yeollimwon