the writer’s urge to ask your friends “do you wanna see a little somethin’ i’ve been working on?” when the little somethin’ you’ve been working on is 800 words and ends in the middle of a sentence
to the writers who struggle to focus who deal with mental illness who work several jobs who write words slowly slowly who need lots of encouragement who write the books they need but can’t find who are proud but anxious about their work
I once received a DM comprised of just that sentence. Nothing else. No constructive criticism or any reason as to why this person clearly agreed with my own view of myself.
For someone who has never told anyone in their real life that they write anything, reading something like this from an anonymous user only solidified in my mind the fact that this person was right.
I’m not a good writer.
After an embarrassing amount of minutes passed, in which I thought about deleting every story I ever posted, I decided to delete the message instead. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean I could delete the feelings it caused or change the fact that I’m not a good writer.
Two weeks went by and I didn’t write anything, let alone post. Then I received a comment on a story I had posted three years prior, one I’d written after a death in our family. The comment read, “Thank you for sharing this heartfelt story. I really needed this. I just lost my mom and this really got me today.”
I stopped thinking about being a good writer after that. I thought instead, “what if I had deleted my stories and that one person three years later hadn’t read it that day?”
Here’s what I realized: no one is a good writer.
Good means to be approved of, but stories aren’t created from approval. They’re built from life experiences, feelings, and emotions Therefore, the impact of anyone’s story isn’t good or bad. It’s a million other things.
Heartfelt.
Sad.
Funny.
Inspiring.
Romantic.
So to all the story writers out there, hold your head up, write what is in your heart, and never doubt that there isn’t at least one person out there that needs to read your story.
So, no.
We’re not good writers, but why would we want to be?
And if that person is just yourself, that’s okay too. I mean it, literally the only reason I started writing is that no one was writing what I wanted to read, and let me tell you, my writing may be a mess, but it’s a lot of fun for me to read. :)
If you start comparing your writing to someone else’s and it’s starting to affect your confidence as a writer.
If you are afraid to use words like “said” or “looked” because they’ve told you they are not good enough.
If you think you should force yourself to make an outline or plan ahead just because you’ve been told you have to.
If you feel your characters are not interesting or flawed enough, just because they don’t fit someone else’s requirements of what a fictional should be.
If you are too focused on writing in a certain way to actually enjoy the process of writing.
If nothing you write seems good enough because it doesn’t fit certain standards.
If you feel like youare not a good writer because none of those “tips” and “advices” work for you.
Write whatever you want, however you want. Not matter how shitty you think your writing is, I promise you someone will absolutely love it.
I justwanted to make very clear that I don’t hate writblrs. In fact, I think some of them can be a very useful source of writing tools (websites, apps…) that can help improve your writing.
But as a writer myself who has been struggling to find my own voice and color, it doesn’t help to have someone tell you how they think you should write. Because nine out of ten times, you are so tired and frustrated with your lack of progress and improvement that you will actually start to consider if they are right. Maybe you are the one doing it wrong.
During one of your writing sessions, instead of doing what has worked for you so far, you will force yourself to write the “right” way only to end up with a piece that doesn’t sound like you, doesn’t represent you. And the vicious cycle of self-doubt and frustration will start all over again.
It has happened to me too. It’s happening to me right now. When you want to write a story so badly but you can’t seem to put it into words, you will try to find a solution anywhere. I’m just saying you don’t have to.
It took me a while to realize this myself, but in the end you just have to write. It’s going to be terrible, it’s going to be boring, but it’s going to be written. And that means you can always save it and put it away and work on it a week, a month, even a year later.
Allow yourself to be terrible, guys.There’s nothing wrong with you or your writing. It’s just how this shitshow works.
