You Know You’re a Writer When…
You’re at least partially convinced you’re NOT.
And this belief has a name: imposter syndrome.
We’ve all been plagued by it — either in the David Byrne (And you may ask yourself “My God! What have I done?”) way or simply in the who-do-I-think-I-am-why-should-anyone-care-about-what-I-have-to-say way.
Here’s my retort to that: we have brains that are biologically programmed to scan for dangerous situations… years of conditioning to believe the world is terrifying (when a twig could be a twig or, say, something coming to kill us). Of course we have fear…we’re scared of all sorts of ridiculously unscary things that we’re not even conscious of.
Imposter syndrome is one of the all-time great fears. Why? Because no one can tell you not to have it. I mean, people can say, “That’s crazy, your life is fascinating so of course you should write about it” or even “You’re an amazing writer” and your amygdala can hear them and also say (somehow in a louder voice than the person encouraging you, even though this loud voice is actually SILENT), “Yeah, well they don’t know the truth about me.” Or “They’re just saying that to be nice.” Or “Sure it’s interesting to them, because they’re my friend. But why on earth should strangers care?”
Let’s call her Sucky Samantha.
You can come up with all sorts of creative responses for Samantha. Why? Because you’re a creative person. Because you’re a real writer. Because you would not be toying with the idea of writing if a voice (unfortunately a quieter voice than the one coming from your amygdala) told you that yes, you could.
Bankers and lawyers and ditch diggers and accountants do not wake up one day and hear a little voice inside that tells them to write (unless they, too, are real writers who have masked that desire with safer choices). You did.
And with that, allow me to give you my favorite of all the lies out there. Are any of them familiar?
You know your life isn’t all that interesting, right?
What makes you think you know how to write, anyway?
You don’t have the right/any degree!
Why bother? You need connections to be a successful writer.
You are WAY too old to start now.
You don’t even know how to start! A real writer would know how to start.
If you’ve had any of the above thoughts, I’ve got news for you:
You’re a writer.
And with that, allow me to give you my five favorite counter-arguments for the brain that tells you that you’re, in the words of the seminal movie (at least seminal to ME) Grease, “You’re a fake and a phony.”
1) That voice inside my head is a liar.
2) I won’t let fear get in the way of my goals anymore.
3) I know my experiences could help people.
Here’s my challenge to you: try repeating these for a week. I know mantras make some of us go into oh-please-I-will-not-be-Stuart-Smalley mode because at a certain point in our lives we decided mantras were cheesy, as were the people who recited them.
But how many things that are now a part of your life would you have once sniffed at? Maybe you’re in recovery — a concept that was once anathema to you. Maybe you meditate or run races or embraced motherhood or enjoy a calm life or some other thing that the younger you might have been horrified by.
My recommendation for un cheesifying the process is to record these mantras — and any others that occur to you — into your phone, slapping those headphones on and taking a brisk walk around the block. Hear you telling yourself these truths in your own voice.
I promise that if you do it enough, you can make that voice at least as loud, if not louder, than Sucky Samantha (who may well be Susan Smalley’s evil twin).
Do you think you might have a book in you? Take this quiz to find out.
