How are your trust issues these days? Do you trust yourself as a writer? Or do you often find yourself on the shaky ground of self-doubt?
That’s a hard part of being a writer. You might be mistaken for someone with bipolar disease, because you either love your work or you hate it, with corresponding high and low mood swings.
While I can’t offer much help on the high or low moods you may experience, here’s a writing tip on a subject I’ve been studying a lot lately, which might help with the trust factor.
TRUST YOUR CREATIVE VOICE
The Creative Voice comes from the part of your brain that knows how to tell stories, as opposed to your Critical Voice, which keeps you out of danger by preventing you from writing, ’cause, you know, that’s too dangerous!
If you, like me, detest outlining, here’s a book that may just lift you up to the stars with elation: Writing Into The Dark: How to Write a Novel Without an Outline, by Dean Wesley Smith. Yes, I did write about this book before. But after reading it once through, I had a terrible scare. I couldn’t find it anywhere!
Fortunately, when I went to Amazon to order another copy (yes, that’s how valuable I found the book to be), I discovered that since I had purchased the print copy, I could download the ebook free!
HAPPY DANCE!
A couple of days ago, I looked at the bottom shelf of a bookcase from a different angle than usual, and discovered that my print copy of the book had slipped off something and become lodged on the bottom shelf.
SECOND HAPPY DANCE!
Now I’ve re-read the book, and I’ve highlighted crucial points in bright pink, a practice I never allow myself, except, you know, in very important cases, this being one. I’m learning to trust my Creative Voice, and oh! What a difference it makes!
Tell me: Are you a writer who outlines before you write, or do you sit down and trust that your Creative Voice will lead you into a rip-snorting good tale?
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My heart nearly exploded a week ago when I received a congratulatory email from Jaime Theler, the President of the 2015 Whitney Awards Committee. The Committee has seen fit to select me as recipient of the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award. Here’s a link to the announcement on the site today. They even included a slide with a nice quote from one of my novels!
