Crisis of Confidence, Writing and You

Hello. Yes you. You search and troll through blogs and articles on writing, searching for inspiration, wisdom, and/or confidence to push yourself over the hump and make something happen with your writing. Whether digital or print, the media is not as important as the personal statement, to yourself, that you have a voice and your voice should be heard.

You attend writer's groups, conferences and workshops. You've heard thousands of tips on writing, most of them bouncing around in your brain, unable to settle down into any semblance of organization. You often wonder why you keep going and who would deem your writing viable, interesting or relevant.

The upside, please take this from me, is that you will adopt what you ingest through your ears and eyes and process a regimen, whether regimented or not, that will carry your writing forward. The timing may not be yours. In fact, time may appear to be your enemy at times. I submit you you, use time as your ally, even if the motivation possesses a darker side.

Here's what I propose. I read an article today that touted the average life expectancy in the US is now 78. I'm 53. Immediately my mind shot off in a couple directions because writers cannot focus on one thought at a time, right? I jumped to the math - only 25 years left - directly to only 25 autumns available to my life at this point.

I moved to Florida 12 years ago, and have rued the decision in many ways. I lost my beloved autumn and my cozy winters. Both were traded for year-round green.

When I moved, I was not thinking about the weather all that much, nor my passion and need for four seasons. I moved for money and a chance to escape financial distress.

This is what I feel we do as writers. We sell ourselves short. We don't look at our passions as kindred-spirit-aspects of our lives. We treat our desire to write as if it was something that won't be missed in the short term and can always be accessed in the long run.

The truth, as the 78 year statistic shows, is that our passions own an expiration date. Our passions not only die with us, we can place them on a back-burner and not allow them to grow and blossom. Too often all the aspects of frantic twenty-first century life push aside our resolve to create. We fail, under the scrutiny of others and the pursuit of money, our passion to write and construct worlds, helpful books, humor and the many other aspects of our craft.

I not only have just 25 autumns left to me, I also only have 50 books left to write. I arrive at that number with the optimistic eye toward completing two novels a year. Considering I have technically finished one (which still needs a massive overhaul) in twelve years, that number - 50 - looks like K2 or its neighbor, Mount Everest.

My knowledge, acquired over twelve years of conferences, workshops, writers groups, reading material and general contemplation of what writing is all about, leads me to my more grandiose view of many books.

I have multiple books that teach how to write a book in thirty days. What's more, I know I can do this. What I personally struggle with is the confidence to carry through and act on what I know. Perspective cleans up a lot of issues. I include you in all this, my reader, because I've learned that if I suffer from particular struggles when it comes to writing, so do many, if not most, other writers.

Take your age and subtract it from that magic 78. Look at what you wish to accomplish in your lifetime. Do you wish to leave a writing legacy? C'mon, you know you do. What are you willing to do to achieve your goal? Snatch 30 minutes here, an hour there.

You know you've heard successful writers tell you to strive to write every day. You know you've heard many successful writers tell you to ignore the critic on your first draft - just write it. You also know you need to submit your work out there, whether that entails contests, magazines, publishers, self publishing, ebooks, or any other means of getting your work in front of eyes other than your own.

This challenge takes commitment. I don't know for sure about you, as we all tend to vary in our motivations, but that 78 number as well as the number of days, months and years left to me, prods me to determination to jack up my writing commitment.

I've challenged myself, and I challenge you, faithful reader. I will persevere. I will use tools like 750words.com and nanowrimo.com to jump start my writing back to levels of production I allowed life to steal away.

You can do this. I can do this. Why not do it together? Let me know when you step up to the plate a knock out some writing. Heck, post me a comment here. Learn to crow a little. Every writer should grab a chance to sing his/her success. Kick out the self limiting critic within you. Listen and employ what you've learned from books and conferences and workshops and writer's groups, etc.

I promise you this - your writing confidence will increase with every completed writing task. I know this happens for me, therefore, I know it will happen for you. Let's do this!