Where has the time gone? It’s once again First Wednesday, which means the monthly Insecure Writer’s Support Group post. It’s easy to listen to the little voices inside your head that tell you you’re no good, that your writing is substandard and boring. Everybody has those little devils chipping away at their self-esteem. The trick is shutting them up—or learning to replace their negative thoughts with positive ones.
In the field of cognitive behavioral therapy, we’re taught to replace a negative, worrying thought with a more logical, positive one. If your head says “This is the worst writing you’ve ever done,” you can look that little devil straight in the eye and say “It’s not—I have written much worse! My writing improves because I’m working on it, so this isn’t so bad.” See—logical thought (my writing was worse when I was a beginner) and positive one (my writing is improving as I work).
Here are a few of the most common “devils” and how you can counteract their negativity:
- “This is boring” – “It may be boring, but I can edit it later and make it better”
- “This sucks” – “That’s only your opinion”
- “You’re a failure” – “The only true failures are the ones who don’t try”
- “You’ll never sell” – “Maybe I won’t get rich, but if I keep trying, I will eventually sell something”
- “You’ll never make your goal so give up now” – “I’ll never make my goal if I give up. Slow and steady wins the race”
- “Nobody will read this” – “There is someone out there who likes the same things I like. I just have to find them”
- “You’re too old (or too young)” – “There’s no such thing! Anyone can learn to write well”
- “You should be writing instead of X” – “Realistically, everyone needs a little down-time” (but be sure you’re not actually avoiding the work!)
See how that works? Negative thoughts can’t stand up to logic and realistic thinking. If you throw enough facts at a negative devil, it will eventually shut up and leave.
October 6 question – In your writing, where do you draw the line, with either topics or language?
I draw the line at horror. I won’t write it, even though it sells quite well. I have too vivid an imagination and end up scaring myself! Certainly don’t read Stephen King (I still check behind the shower curtain before using the bathroom after I read The Shining in college). I’m not overly fond of obscene language for its own sake, either. When a character has the sort of personality that requires cursing, that’s one thing, but just to be tossing curse words in to show how “hip” you are as a writer … no. Same with graphic sex or gore for the shock value. I just feel there’s a time and place for everything and people who feel the need to indulge in such shenanigans are just lazy writers who can’t be bothered to think up a more realistic scene.
I feel like everyone should have their own personal limits, their line beyond which they won’t go. The writers who claim they write “everything and anything” are usually so spread out that they don’t write as well as those of us who have honed the craft in a few genres. On the other hand, I also feel that if you work at it, you can write whatever you want to write. It just takes some research and a lot of effort. I could certainly write horror if I had to, I just don’t like it.
