Do You Have Writer's Block? Ask Yourself This...
- 17 hours ago
- 2 min read
What does a "real writer" look like? Am I a writer?
When you’re just starting out, you may feel that you’re not a “real writer”. Perhaps your perception of what this looks like is keeping your from writing or moving forward in your writing. You may have an idea of what this should look like in your head, and you don’t fit that mold. This feeling of not being a real writer too, can create WRITER'S BLOCK.
Perhaps you picture a Hemingway type sitting at a typewriter clacking away at they keys. Or, maybe it's the writer you see in the cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies who sits down and writes an entire novel three days before Christmas and it's in stores on Christmas eve.
I remember, back when I first started, having an idea of what a "real" writer was, and I knew it wasn't me.
Those thoughts got in the way of my writing. I didn’t take myself seriously. I considered the book I was writing a hobby, even though it was something I felt called to do. I believed that a real writers sat down at their computer, or took a pen and paper, and the words just flowed out of them with ease. But the more I wrote, and the more I learned about other writers...that my friend, is just not true.
It took me a few books about authors for authors, a read-through of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, and talking with other writers for me to finally discover the truth. I was a writer. What I learned is that many before me struggled to write; they wrote between jobs or wrote manuscripts that were complete garbage. I learned that they felt full of self-doubt and were heavy on the negative talk, at first.
But what changed? Someone told me that if you are writing, you're a writer. I may not be an award-winning writer (yet), but I am still a writer. Once I believed that, the voice inside my head telling me I wasn't any good, and I should stop now before I got in too deep, quieted. The self-editing stopped, and I allowed myself to say the words out loud.
I AM A WRITER. It was like a heavy burden had been lifted, and I could write now, no matter what.
What do you picture a "real writer" looks like?
I have a few tools that might help you start seeing yourself as a writer.
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