So I again didn't realize it was Tuesday yesterday. I love the Christmas / New Year stretch, but I think my ordinarily impeccable sense of date and time goes haywire and becomes truly peccable.
Now for Tactless Tuesday, on time-delay. The FCC requires a delay in my blogging now because I'm just that hardcore. (cough) Ahem. Anyway.
Today's message: you're not trying to be a writer; you are a writer.
At the risk of sounding like some cornball, "power of positive thought" message, I do believe that the terms in which you regard yourself have a powerful impact on you. Many of us recognize that the boy who thinks he's dumb can get himself caught in a spiral of failure. Most of us even seen how the girl who thinks she's unattractive can pull her entire presence down through low expectations for herself. Some of us might even acknowledge that the sports team who knows from day one that they're shooting for middle-of-the-pack in the standings can often doom itself to playing below .500.
A lot of unpublished or little published writers, however, don't notice when they do it to themselves. "I'm trying to be a writer." "I'm working on becoming an author." "I mess around with stories."
Hold the phone!
Are you writing?
Then you're a writer. You're an author. And you're writing stories.
I'm all for pushing yourself to publication, but I think too many young-in-the-profession writers get themselves mired down by focusing on their potential rather than embracing their actual and helping it become even more. I know I did this for a long time, and I can't adequately describe for you the impact that it had on my confidence and my writing ability when I stopped being timid about it and just started calling myself a writer.
I'm not an aspiring writer. I'm a writer aspiring to publication.
I'm not struggling to become a writer. I'm struggling to become a full-time, self-sustained writer.
I'm not trying be an author. I am an author.
And if you're writing, so are you! Don't trap yourself!
Freedom!
.Nevets.
Why, thanks peccable William Wallace.
ReplyDeleteThe way you define yourself can end up defining you. True.
In a related field, the way you wear your clothes can determine how people see you in them. I know I wore some crazy haircuts and outfits in college, but I wore them with confidence and was accepted.
Thank you so much for writing this post. It's really kicked my arse into being a writer, as opposed to telling people I'm trying to write.
ReplyDeleteAhhh, it's so easy to understand this, but to actually embody it is another story. It is what I currently strive to rework about myself.
ReplyDeleteB, many thanks for the peccable William Wallace bit. Those are the sort of thing that, when I write them, amuse me, and I always wonder if even one person notices them. So thanks for the validation. lol
ReplyDeleteIcy, glad it helped. I'll hold you to it! :)
And, Deb, I found for myself, it started with the really little things like how I described myself on my blog profile and things like that. It flows pretty well once you get it started.