Am I Great? A Writer’s Self Confidence

This blog is about passion, not how great we are as writers. Being great comes with age—there has to be passion before there can be greatness. With that being said, there are people, who I consider top notch and leaders in their field of writing, tell me I’m a great writer; published writers even.

I don’t see it but everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion. Being great is not on top of my list. I have no desire to attain the status of a Hemingway or a Stephen King. Why? Because, {drumroll} I simply love to write. I’d write even if I totally sucked at it—and looking at some of my early writings, I pretty much did suck at it—but I kept writing. I had to. Not writing is like holding back flood waters; sand bags only work to a point. I’ve walked away on occasion, but the passion to write simply wouldn’t die.

So, if I don’t think I’m that great of a writer, how do I have the self-confidence to keep doing it? Well, a lot of the self-confidence comes from the fact that most things are like fine wine and improve with age. I keep writing so I will improve my skills and style. I have self-confidence because a few people actually enjoy my style of writing—and who am I to deprive them of that? Okay, that was a wee bit of self-gloat there. My apologies.

I write because I’m an information hog and I honestly enjoy sharing information. I have self-confidence because I don’t care what other people think of my writing. Oh, that sounds cocky doesn’t it? It’s not really. I have thick skin and can take constructive criticism—but in the end, what I think is more important than what anyone else thinks. People have the option to not read my writing. It’s their choice. My choice is to write—and write I will.

As a Course Presenter for Fear of Writing, I come in contact with many writers who are simply afraid to take that stand and let the words flow. Some don’t feel that their writing is worthy of being read or shared. Some fear criticism because that’s all they’ve experienced.

I believe that anyone who has an unwavering passion to write has the ability to become great. They key is to write—write every day—write, write, write. No one is great coming out of the gate (see? I could be a poet too). It takes practice, persistence and passion—we could call it the 3P’s to greatness.

So how do they get the self-confidence to write? They write. The only way to get over fear or self-doubt is to write. It’s not an easy task, but it is a must-do task.

My point is you don’t have to be great to write—just write. The self-confidence will build itself every time you write. It helps to have a support group too. I run a small writer’s support group where we check in daily, share in our passion and support one another. It’s not about how great our work is; it’s about encouraging each other to write.

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