Being a writer is not an easy task. There are days when it seems you simply cannot put one word on that blank page, and it only gets worse the longer that feeling lasts. This is not writer’s block, per se, because writer’s block can be caused by a number of other reasons we’ve not mentioned below. No, below, we’ve focused on lies, flat out lies that others have told you or you’ve told yourself over the years. These lies have the ability to stop you from becoming the best writer you can be. They can be quite debilitating, because not only do they have the ability to affect your writing, they can also change your perception, influence the way you see yourself and your abilities, and therefore have a great impact on the quality of your written work.
1. Writers are born
This is a categorical lie, a myth that has been disproved over and over again. You would be surprised at the number of successful, published authors who used to believe that they would never be successful because they were taught, or led to believe that writers are born. So let’s bust that myth: writers are made. If you love writing and have a knack for telling stories, you can teach yourself to become better at writing and telling stories. You can make yourself into the kind of writer you want to be. What is not a myth is that the road to success isn’t always easy, and you will need patience and a thick skin, but with enough determination, you can reach your goals.
2. You will never be good enough
This lie usually comes from admiring an already published author and believing that you will never be able to write like them. They weave prose like magic, their stories are interesting, and the plots they create extremely tight. You can add more adjectives here, more attributes, but the general effect is the same – you feel disconnected from your own stories because you feel they will never be good enough. You get discouraged before you’ve even begun. You might fight it, but what you write will still feel not good enough. The problem here is thinking that way changes your perception towards your own work, makes you dislike it, even hate it, when you should love it. Your work is a product of your own self, and you need to nurture it, protect it, and always work on making it better.
3. You are more than good enough
This is the opposite of the lie above. You see a list of bestsellers and you think, “My work is ten times better than that.” Is it, though? Have you gotten good, objective feedback from another person? If the answer is no, then you need to come back down to earth, work on making your fiction better – by reading books about writing, doing extensive research into the craft and exploring ideas, writing methods and doing writing exercises. If the answer to the question above is yes, it doesn’t mean you’ve reached a peak, you will publish a novel, it will be an immediate best seller and you will start writing book after book with the same tried formula. You need to always strive to get better. Even if you’ve published a best selling novel, you still need to do research into the craft of writing – to know what’s in today, what’s considered cliché and to explore new writing methods and exercises, to get better.
4. It’s just a far-fetched dream
Being a successful, published author is every writer’s dream. However, some writers strive for it, while others believe it’s so unreal it will never happen to them. And they’re right – it will not happen to them as long as they believe in that. Due to their geographical location in the world, their writing skills, and a number of other reasons, they believe they will never be able to make a living as a writer. Here’s where they’re wrong: today, with the internet at almost everybody’s fingertips, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world. If you write well, and you really want to be a published author, with enough determination, you will achieve this. If you think your writing skills are not good enough – then work on them. It is never a waste of time to take as much time as you need to work on your skills and become better.
5. You don’t need marketing skills
Yes you do. The market changes daily, and with online publishing platforms like Amazon, you have the opportunity to find a niche and self-publish online. Maybe you believe you don’t need marketing skills, after all, you will submit your work to publishing houses, editors and agents and wait for that life-changing yes. And it might happen to you the first time, albeit the chances of it are one in a million. However, the odds will be in your favor if you take the time to research the market from a writer’s perspective, and decide what your book needs to fit today’s needs and wants. Remember, it’s all about the readers in the end. You want to write something they will enjoy, so it doesn’t hurt to know what they are already enjoying.
Image credit: Pixabay [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/photo.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Georgina Roy wants to live in a world filled with magic. As an art student, she’s moonlighting as a writer and is content to fill notebooks and sketchbooks with magical creatures and amazing new worlds. When she is not at school, or scribbling away in a notebook, you can usually find her curled up, reading a good urban fantasy novel, or writing on her laptop, trying to create her own.
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