For those writers out there wrestling with writing, battling your inner demons and wallowing in self pity: I see you.
When you work tirelessly on a story and it gains zero traction, you feel like a failure. You’re just spinning your wheels and grinding and failing while those who have less experience surpass you. They have all the sales, reviews, and respect you crave but can never attain.
It hurts when the thing you think you want is perpetually out of your grasp.
You feel like quitting, like throwing in the towel, like chucking this whole writing thing. “What’s the point?” you say. “The world doesn’t need another writer. I’m not good. I’m tired of never being good enough.”
I’m here to tell you that writing is hard.
Duh. You knew that.
Okay. I’m here to tell you that most of the time as a writer you’ll be visited by feelings of inferiority.
No shit, Sherlock. You knew that, too.
I guess that I’m really here to say is this: Don’t give up on your writing.
Even if agents or publishers reject your stories.
Even if the reviews aren’t there.
Even if you have low sales.
Be a writer for the love of the process. Follow through and stick with it. In the end, it’s not about the adulation: it’s about you finishing what you start.
Finish your stories. Spank those word-babies and bring them to life. Then, write something else. Keep typing until your fingers are bloody little nubbins.
Write your stories with passion and audacity. In this world, quitting is common. Depression and worthlessness are the hobgoblins eating your heart. Ignore them and return to writing, to reading, to chronicling your experiences.
Do this until you die kicking and screaming, a torrent of profanity spewing from your lips.
Why write? Why put yourself through this seemingly pointless endeavor where being vulnerable and raw gets little to no attention?
Write because you must, because the Muse grabs you by the lapels and body-slams you against the wall.
Write because you need to manifest your stories into this world, like a word-wizard slinging spells and telling tales.
Mostly, write because this world diminishes you and words are a way of reclaiming your existence. Writing is powerful. It’s more than self-expression: It’s self-determination.
And if the Impostor Syndrome Fairy every flits around your keyboard, tell it to fuck all the way off.
You might not be a bestselling author. That’s okay.
You might not land an agent. That’s okay.
You might not sip champagne with the big scribes in Monte Carlo. That, too, is okay.
All you can do is the best you can. The words might arrive to you at 3 a.m. all bloodied and battered. The words might be ugly and threadbare.
But they’re your words. It’s your story. You can stitch them up and make them beautiful.
For many of us, writing is the only way of exercising control in a chaotic world that leaves us powerless. So don’t quit. You’ve got something to say in the only way you can.
People don’t need your stories as much as you do.
Write. Set goals. Scream at the monkey in the forest if you need to.
Then get back to writing.
Remember: The only person who can fire you from writing is you. So don’t quit.
Eric Avedissian 