I Am A Writer. Right?
What makes a writer?
I have been writing stories for as long as I can remember.
My first ever story was called 'Home sweet home' and I was 7. I faintly remember it being about a hedgehog that travels and realises that there's no place like home. I know right, pretty deep for a 7-year old :P
I never stopped writing. I wrote stories during different stages of my life about all sorts of topics. Of course, I found my way into fanfiction and wrote countless stories (I have a nice total of over 100 stories from my fanfiction days. A collection of short stories and long ones). I once even attempted poetry. I also found my way to NaNoWriMo and now I finally decided that maybe it was time to start working towards an actual book. The dream I always had.
But what makes a writer? I rarely refer to myself as a writer. I would usually go for the term 'a person who writes' or say that I am writing a "book". Ridiculing to the outside world what I really want to do and what I have been dreaming of for years. I do take myself serious and I would never dare ridiculing or not taking my manuscript serious towards myself. But then why do I do it towards others?
Surely if I keep ridiculing things towards other people, they will never take me serious?
Yet calling myself an 'author' or a 'writer' is a thing I find very hard. It feels to me like ridiculing all those authors that are actually authors, if I do. Not to mention that I am in no way even close to doing what the people I look up to have done. I don't even consider myself in the same playing field. It seems so out of my own league. I don't believe that I am good enough. I don't believe that people would like it. I will always believe bad comments a thousand times more than the good ones (as I'm sure we all do).
"You are a writer, you just need to write."
A great example of this is what I am currently experiencing. In my head I had planned on sending my current manuscript to a few publishers (once that accept unsolicited manuscripts) already. That thought sprung to mind almost two months ago and the amount of publishers I have sent to so far is zero. Just like now, I found a publisher that for one whole week is opening up for unsolicited submissions, which started on the 5th of May. I decided that I would send mine in too. Two days later, I am still sitting behind my computer freaking out and wondering if I should send it in because I'm not sure it's good enough.
Maybe it's because it's my first time and I feel like I have no idea what I have to do or which steps in the publishing process (let's say writing process as I'm nowhere near publishing) I have to make or what I should or shouldn't do before I submit something, no matter how much I read about it.
Maybe it's because I'm scared of only getting rejections, or being told what I have always feared: that it's crap. That I am crap.
Maybe I just want to do another thorough edit and make it the best I can.
Maybe I'm just procrastinating.
Maybe I'm just scared.
Maybe I shouldn't try this at all.
Maybe I ain't a writer after all...
Maybe, maybe, maybe....
What makes a writer?
It's a question I ask myself often.
At what point are you allowed to refer to yourself as an author?
Because words have a meaning and if you toss them around too much, the way people toss around other words, it will loose part of its meaning.
But then something happened.
I bumped into Jeff Goins' book: You are a writer (so start ACTING like one).
Boy, it has had quite an impact on my way of thinking. Even if it's a wavering impact at best, it's a start. I have to add that I'm only three chapters in so far but that it's already helped a lot. Hopefully when I finish reading, I will have this entire new look on my work, but for now let me share the most significant piece of advice I've come across so far, and which has really helped so far.
Jeff Goins mentions in his book the following statement:
"[...] So, I asked him, "when do you really become a writer? is it when you got an agent? when you sign your first book contract? when you sell 100.000 copies?" He said it was none of that. The truth was much simpler. When do you become a writer? "When you say you are," he said."
I AM A WRITER.
One of the more simple suggestions in this book has really made the most impact.
Goins tells you to grab pen and paper and write down, physically write down, the words 'I am a writer'. He also adds to do this on a daily basis and for as long as you need until you actually believe it yourself.
"Before others will believe what is true about you, you'll have to believe it yourself."
I want to say that the physical act of doing it on paper already makes a much bigger difference than doing it on a computer. The way you are aware of writing it, not just typing it in on keys.
"Believe you already are what you want to be. And then start acting like it."
I have to say - and I know it probably sounds slightly silly but don't diss it until you tried it - every day that I wrote it down, there was a shift in my behaviour. I wrote more, I was more productive and more inspired.
I had a few times where I forgot or didn't have time to write down: I am a writer.
I noticed that during those days I wrote much less or not at all.
It's what Goins says in his book: you have to believe it and then start acting like it. I always thought that I already believed in myself as a writer fairly well. Turns out that I need to believe a lot harder and start acting like it a lot more.
So, without further ado: I am Silke. I am a writer! I am writing a book!
*All italic are taken from 'You are a writer (so start acting like one)' by Jeff Goins.
I have been writing stories for as long as I can remember.
My first ever story was called 'Home sweet home' and I was 7. I faintly remember it being about a hedgehog that travels and realises that there's no place like home. I know right, pretty deep for a 7-year old :P
I never stopped writing. I wrote stories during different stages of my life about all sorts of topics. Of course, I found my way into fanfiction and wrote countless stories (I have a nice total of over 100 stories from my fanfiction days. A collection of short stories and long ones). I once even attempted poetry. I also found my way to NaNoWriMo and now I finally decided that maybe it was time to start working towards an actual book. The dream I always had.
But what makes a writer? I rarely refer to myself as a writer. I would usually go for the term 'a person who writes' or say that I am writing a "book". Ridiculing to the outside world what I really want to do and what I have been dreaming of for years. I do take myself serious and I would never dare ridiculing or not taking my manuscript serious towards myself. But then why do I do it towards others?
Surely if I keep ridiculing things towards other people, they will never take me serious?
Yet calling myself an 'author' or a 'writer' is a thing I find very hard. It feels to me like ridiculing all those authors that are actually authors, if I do. Not to mention that I am in no way even close to doing what the people I look up to have done. I don't even consider myself in the same playing field. It seems so out of my own league. I don't believe that I am good enough. I don't believe that people would like it. I will always believe bad comments a thousand times more than the good ones (as I'm sure we all do).
"You are a writer, you just need to write."
A great example of this is what I am currently experiencing. In my head I had planned on sending my current manuscript to a few publishers (once that accept unsolicited manuscripts) already. That thought sprung to mind almost two months ago and the amount of publishers I have sent to so far is zero. Just like now, I found a publisher that for one whole week is opening up for unsolicited submissions, which started on the 5th of May. I decided that I would send mine in too. Two days later, I am still sitting behind my computer freaking out and wondering if I should send it in because I'm not sure it's good enough.
Maybe it's because it's my first time and I feel like I have no idea what I have to do or which steps in the publishing process (let's say writing process as I'm nowhere near publishing) I have to make or what I should or shouldn't do before I submit something, no matter how much I read about it.
Maybe it's because I'm scared of only getting rejections, or being told what I have always feared: that it's crap. That I am crap.
Maybe I just want to do another thorough edit and make it the best I can.
Maybe I'm just procrastinating.
Maybe I'm just scared.
Maybe I shouldn't try this at all.
Maybe I ain't a writer after all...
Maybe, maybe, maybe....
What makes a writer?
It's a question I ask myself often.
At what point are you allowed to refer to yourself as an author?
Because words have a meaning and if you toss them around too much, the way people toss around other words, it will loose part of its meaning.
But then something happened.
I bumped into Jeff Goins' book: You are a writer (so start ACTING like one).
Boy, it has had quite an impact on my way of thinking. Even if it's a wavering impact at best, it's a start. I have to add that I'm only three chapters in so far but that it's already helped a lot. Hopefully when I finish reading, I will have this entire new look on my work, but for now let me share the most significant piece of advice I've come across so far, and which has really helped so far.
Jeff Goins mentions in his book the following statement:
"[...] So, I asked him, "when do you really become a writer? is it when you got an agent? when you sign your first book contract? when you sell 100.000 copies?" He said it was none of that. The truth was much simpler. When do you become a writer? "When you say you are," he said."
I AM A WRITER.
One of the more simple suggestions in this book has really made the most impact.
Goins tells you to grab pen and paper and write down, physically write down, the words 'I am a writer'. He also adds to do this on a daily basis and for as long as you need until you actually believe it yourself.
"Before others will believe what is true about you, you'll have to believe it yourself."
I want to say that the physical act of doing it on paper already makes a much bigger difference than doing it on a computer. The way you are aware of writing it, not just typing it in on keys.
"Believe you already are what you want to be. And then start acting like it."
I have to say - and I know it probably sounds slightly silly but don't diss it until you tried it - every day that I wrote it down, there was a shift in my behaviour. I wrote more, I was more productive and more inspired.
I had a few times where I forgot or didn't have time to write down: I am a writer.
I noticed that during those days I wrote much less or not at all.
It's what Goins says in his book: you have to believe it and then start acting like it. I always thought that I already believed in myself as a writer fairly well. Turns out that I need to believe a lot harder and start acting like it a lot more.
So, without further ado: I am Silke. I am a writer! I am writing a book!
*All italic are taken from 'You are a writer (so start acting like one)' by Jeff Goins.
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