In all honesty, without the wonderful writers (and family) in my life I would have given up this round. But whenever life attacked or I doubted myself, the writing and blogging communities, particularly A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80), brought me back.
Thanks to the wonderful people who commented on my post about insecurity, My Monster Rises, I'm facing down my monster and opening my heart to my muse.
♫♫♫♫ I get by with a little help from my friends ♫♫♫♫
Some of the lovely and inspiring comments...
Melissa Maygrove said... Isn't THAT the truth! No matter what, don't let the monster win. ;) Are you part of Alex's Insecure Writer's Support Group? (They post the first Wed. of every month. And I'm still making my way down his list.)
Somewhere, at some time, I had heard about Alex's group. I need to check it out for those low moments.
-
Annette Gendler said...
I'd say it's part of the writing life! That twinge of jealousy creeps up on
me as well when I hear of a friend signing with an agent, or finally publishing
that book. But then again, I think that jealousy helps us figure out our
priorities. If we feel that jealousy, clearly this is something we want.
Insecurity, I think, behooves every artist. Otherwise, we wouldn't work
continuously to improve our craft.
-
Lisa Cherry said...
Use the monster as a friend rather than a destructive enemy. As a monster,
its damaging your confidence and self esteem and self belief, as a friend, it's
asking you to just check that you are on course and that you must demand that
you give your best of yourself (which it very much sounds like you do). Re frame
the monster! There are many different routes to the mountain and many different
mountains.
Kim Switzer said... Hug your monster and bring her some tea. She's just trying to protect you. But then, after you give her some tea, send her to a movie or something. Talk back. Tell her "thank you, but I don't need to hear from you right now." (You don't necessarily have to be so polite, of course.) It's not what the monster says to us that's the problem, it's what we do with those words. Talk back to them, refute them, see them as the smokescreen they are, the thing keeping you from your writing love. You *are* a writer. So tell the monster to hush up and leave you to your words!