We're everywhere, some are well known, some mention it here or there, and many hide their writing-side away like an embarrassing fetish. We talk to people who aren't real, (only living in our heads), and we scold ourselves for not being brilliant enough. Then we work and rework our words and ideas until we think they're great... then many of us shove them in a drawer.
Insecurity seems to be an underlining feeling in most creative writers. Do we create worlds where we make all the rules because of it? Or do we feel insecure because all our emotions are heightened and insecurity just happens to be an easy one to identify with?
Right now many of you are thinking "ahh, she gets me"... but is it actually the other way around and do you get what I'm saying because another part of your complex intellect holds strong with connecting to others? I think you see what I'm getting at. Writers can drive themselves crazy wondering why they think the way they do and why they want and/or need to write.
Now, with how the publishing world is changing, we also get to throw a whole lot of extra technical "unknowns" into the pot with our already amplified emotions.
1) More writers are submitting and less books are being printed right?
2) e-publishing is like a big baby that won't stop screaming, and like new parents we don't know whether to stay up all night singing and dancing or give it Tylenol and hope it goes to sleep and doesn't bother us for awhile.
3) The world is becoming smaller and connecting with professionals in the publishing world is very easy...which can be scary.
With that said, I want to remind you of some other things about us "troubled" writers.
1) We refuse to be minions. We are not going to think the ways others may want us to or suggest we do unless it makes sense to us.
2) I believe we were born with our heightened emotions for a reason... and it's the same reason most of us have learned how to type really fast!
3) Writing is an ART. We are artists. We are good at what we do because of our emotions and imaginations.
So why not look forward to the new e-publishing ways? Maybe it will be easier. Maybe not. I do think it's worth jumping in and seeing where it takes us, because it's not going away.
So if adventurous isn't an emotion you normally allow out, we can be adventurous together researching online. Let me know if you find any good info and I'll do the same...
...then later we can talk about maybe changing out of pajama's and maybe going outside other then when it's required.
You'll have to rip these pajamas off my cold, dead extremities.
ReplyDeleteTrue that most writers are uber-insecure about their work... but isn't it strange how many, um, not great writers proudly call themselves writers? No offense to them! I know that's a terrible thing to say. But all my actual writer friends (e.g., university writing class peers) secretly work away on their manuscripts... and then these nut-cases at our day jobs go around calling themselves novelists.
ReplyDeleteI think the insecurities great writers have --- writers who care about the craft so much, they're too humbled by it to pretend they belong in its company --- keep them from getting out there and promoting better writing. Hence much mediocrity.
Anyway, I've rambled. Good post!