Are you ready to answer the question? It’s a simple one. It’s the question that will reveal once and for all whether you’re an artist or not.
Are you afraid?
I’ve received many emails, letters, and even a few postcards, expressing the same thing: “I want to be a writer.”
Many of the senders go on to ask the inevitable question: “Am I good enough?”
I’m glad they asked. After all, if we’re honest, you and me, we’ve been there at some time or another, too, wondering the same question writers have been wondering for centuries…
Update: I have teamed up with award winning book cover designer, Alexander von Ness, to offer, in addition to the prizes already offered, an all-in-one book cover design package for 1st place. That’s a $500.00 value! If you do not have a book ready you can hold onto the voucher for up to 5 years or gift it to another author. See the rest of the prizes below.
All Writers have experienced doubt. None of us are free from never being doubtful about our ability to create work that matters. If you’d like to share your story about dealing with Writer’s Doubt, and in the process help others realize they’re not alone, enter this contest!
I’ve been stuck lately. Way stuck. Lost in the Amazon jungle, stuck. And that’s stuck, my friends. If you need to use the word stuck five or six times within your first few sentences, then that’s, well, pretty stuck.
I hate to admit it, but I’ve been without a fresh idea to write about for months. But that’s all changed, because I’ve rediscovered a well kept secret.
Last year I ran a contest about becoming a writer. I asked people to write their story about the moment when they knew they were a writer. The stories came in like a flood. It was amazing. The stories were motivating and inspiring.
But this year, I want you to take it one step further…
Okay, seriously, the first thing you need to do is step away from that thought, slowly. Go ahead, step away. It’s going to be okay. – I mean it. Really. It’s going to be okay.
Rejection is not deadly. It just feels that way. You’re a writer and if you, well, write and send your work out, you’re going to be rejected at some point. It won’t kill you, I promise. It will hurt like hell, but it won’t kill you.
What follows is a short, adapted excerpt from “Writer’s Doubt.”
The below post is a short excerpt from Writer’s Doubt. (Some of the content in the book has changed due to rewrites and editing, and this excerpt was adapted for use as a stand alone blog post.)
Everyone has a story to tell, including you.
The dangerous part of writing and sharing our stories isn’t always the writing itself or even the story, it’s more about how it may affect others, and how they might react to it. It’s dangerous, because honesty always is.
I’m pleased to announce that my new book Writer’s Doubt is now available on Amazon in Kindle format!
Whewwww! That was a long needed sigh of relief and of accomplishment. Writer’s Doubt has been in the works for almost 4 years and I’m delighted to have it finished, but in some ways it’s also a feeling of loss because I no longer get to open the latest draft and continue working on it. It’s finished. It’s not just mine anymore, now it’s yours, too.
There were times when I thought I’d never finish it, much less publish it. I did both. I overcame doubt, and so can you!
When I was in my early twenties and an up and coming pool player I thought in order to be the best, I needed to know everything about billiards. I thought I needed to know how the tables were made, what the balls were made of, and even the ins and outs of cue design.
Then, one day, while in the pool room sitting in a lounge chair “reading” a book on how to make billiard tables, my mentor tapped me on the shoulder and snapped me out of a daydream. Truth was, I had drifted off because the book was boring and I wasn’t really interested in building tables. “Why are you reading that?” He asked, and I told him. What he said next was life-changing.
Note: This post was inspired by a question from a reader about what to do about insulting comments posted on her blog. I’d love to hear your take in the comments.
For those who disagree with other points of view but are incapable of presenting their arguments free of insults, my suggestion is to improve your vernacular, because it’s completely and utterly lacking of any value.
That’s an insulting statement, isn’t it?
