The Susan Boyle Story

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (and I discovered today that many classmates indeed do), you’ve heard of Susan Boyle. I watched the video on YouTube around this time last week when the story popped up on one of the UK newspapers I read online and was teary-eyed and touched. Since then, I’ve watched her story explode all over the world and the blogosphere, and Susan Boyle has traveled the talk-show circuit, feted and praised for her voice and for showing us not to judge a book by its cover. I accepted that angle of her story, nodding my head in agreement that we’ve been conditioned to place an emphasis on the correlation between beauty and talent despite the multitude of people filling up celebrity rags who have no talent but happen to be attractive.

However, when my professor used the video of Susan Boyle to make a point in her lecture I saw her story from an entirely different angle. From the hosts’ condescension to the eyerolls and smirks from Simon Cowell, the giggles and catcalls from the audience, I’m sure Susan Boyle knew what everyone thought of her appearance and her (lofty to them) ambitions. But she went along with it all, smiling and chaffing with the hosts and the judges. Then she opened her mouth and sang.

Most people are focusing on Susan’s voice, but the real lesson and inspiration is that Susan ignored the derision because she knew she had a great singing voice. She knew what she looked like compared to the female judge, and all the famous women of yesterday and today. But she didn’t let it faze her. She knew her talent and knew that the opinions of others would never, ever take away her God-given, fantastic talent. That’s something that everyone must learn to achieve, particularly writers.

I have to say that in this publishing industry, the negative outweighs the positive. We’ve learnt to be “humble” because of all the horror stories passed around of “arrogant, delusional” writers who query agents and editors thinking they are the best thing since sliced-bread–and some even go on to (gasp) self-publish and “inflict” their delusions upon a mass audience. We’re told that the business is so “subjective” that the there’s an equal chance of both the best and worst of writers never selling to NY. We’re told to never give up, all the while someone inserts an aside that maybe you should put away that book you’ve been writing for the past five years and work on something else–as truly good writers are prolific. We’re told that we have to run the gamut of industry professionals in order to be considered a good writer, that we’ve got to go this particular route to write well and/or sell. And so on and so on.

All of the aforementioned things can be wise advice–if handled right–but to me it all looks like subtle ways to undercut one’s confidence. Susan Boyle breezed into the audition (yes, she has probably spent years honing her voice) and sang her heart out, ignoring the proper packaging of a good singer. With writing, this is comparable to an assured, confident author knowing their strengths and not letting anyone or anything–agent or editor–, the Market, writer friends, past experience, etc attempt to take the tiller. I myself have been long insecure of my vision and my talent because of outside influences that pushed and pulled at me. So I’m going to do like Susan Boyle and know what I can do, what I can bring to the table, and what I can accomplish despite the somewhat deceiving exterior (an example, an “unmarketable” setting).