BARB’S WRITING RULES
RULE #1: STOP THINKING EVERYTHING YOU WRITE IS DUMB
“You look nice.”
Kellar wrinkled her nose. “That’s almost as good as ‘interesting’.”
“Day’s Dating Rule Number One: Don’t criticize a compliment.”
That’s from my current work in progress, a romantic dramedy entitled Those Who Can’t, Date. Kellar is a dating expert. Who’s horrible at dating. Who’s not really dating The Sexiest Man Alive. But everyone thinks she is.
Kellar is also a blogger and an author among other things and since the hero is better at dating than she is, I decided she could blog about DAY’S DATING RULES as part of the story. Which made me think I could blog about Barb’s Writing Rules as part of my story. Which led to Rule #1. Stop Thinking Everything You Write is Dumb.
I have a lot of Word files filled with blogs I’ve written but never posted. Part of the reason for that is that I have so few readers of my blog. The other part is after I write it and let it marinate for a bit I decide what I wrote is dumb. I even said that in an email to a writer friend, Curtiss Ann Matlock the other day:
WHAT I WROTE:
I just don’t know how anyone blogs so much. There’s a woman in my writers group who blogged every day for a year! I write stuff sometimes and I think I’ll post it and then I don’t and then I think it’s dumb or somebody said it better already. 🙂
TO WHICH SHE REPLIED:
This!—>>I write stuff sometimes and I think I’ll post it and then I don’t and then I think it’s dumb or somebody said it better already. 🙂
This is what happens to me, and with my book as much as with blog posts. It happens even before I write, so that I talk myself out of writing.
But I know you are an intelligent and creative and clever woman, Barbara. You write wonderfully, and every blog post I have read of yours has sparked ideas and/or creativity in me. Why do we get so down on ourselves? Look at what is thrown out into the blogosphere. We have a lot to offer.
Why DO we get down ourselves?
Writers are always filled with self-doubt and insecurity about their work. This probably doesn’t make them different from the majority of the population on Planet Earth, but it can be debilitating, causing us either to a) not write at all or b) not share what we write with anyone else ever.
Then what’s the point
of being a writer?
Is every single sentence we put down on paper going to be brilliant? No. But as my writer friend said, we have a lot to offer.
So stop thinking everything you write is dumb. No one is you. No one says things the exact same way you do. No one has had your life and world view.
What you write is not dumb. It is uniquely you. Share yourself.
