Lesson one - Confidence is bliss

Encouragement for those that want to write but for some reason are afraid to. By breaking the chains that bind your creativity, you'll automatically make more captivating pieces - whether you're a literary genius or not.

It makes speeches more effective, is a key component of persuation, gives you an edge at a job interview, makes interacting with anyone easier and even makes you more attractive in the eyes of many people: I'm talking about confidence. Cliches or not, confidence is also what sets writers apart.

In my less than humble opinion, sheer talent alone is not enough to make me say, "Wow, this is an excellent piece of writing." Some of the best writing I've seen in my short time as a Writer's Cafe member was not free of grammatical errors, misspelled words, errors in punctuation, run-on sentences and the whole nine. Quite frankly, I don't know what a perfect past participle picnic party noun is, I don't care and I know I'm not alone in that. What makes these pieces so great to me and the others that read them had more to do with personality than technicalities. Errors or no, as long as you didn't try to be completely incoherent, readers (such as myself) tend to be surprisingly receptive.

Anyone that expects perfection is both ridiculous and out of luck. Unicorns will exist before a "perfectly written work" does, so don't sweat it. Write what comes naturally to you and write it to the best of your ability. Even if you do not consider yourself a good writer, you'll see yourself improve with practice. Being a Writer's Cafe member gives you a fairly unique opportunity to write whatever you will and recieve critiques from the best possible audience - perfect strangers. Friends and enemies alike tend to be biased one way or another. Here, no one knows you like that so chances are whatever reviews you get are honest in the opinion of the person giving them. Those that don't care for your work will either give tips on how you can improve or pursue other fish in the vast literary sea. No harm done.

The fact of the matter is, no one is universally liked. It doesn't matter how popular Vicky is, people hate her guts too. Lame high school reference aside, if it's not one thing, it'll be another: the way you dress, walk, laugh, sneeze, blink or write. The fact of the matter also is, no one is universally disliked. Someone is bound to enjoy your writing and the only way this isn't possible is if you don't write. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll start to appreciate yourself for who you are which will build your confidence, which will spill over into your writing, which will make it more awesome, which people will tell you, which will make you more confident and on and on until you become a snowball effect of awesome and I start calling myself your biggest fan.

Seriously, write on. You have nothing to fear, nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain.

Comments

DannyLynne Riley

Posted 14 Years Ago I really gleened alot from this. I believe that writing is a craft thats always evolving and even the most gifted, succesful, published authors are always learning. I have yet to come across a writer (published or not) who claims to have arived at his/her full potential. If anything I think we are often too critical of our own work and always feel like we are still striving for gold. That can be a good thing as well as a bad thing for without some level of confidence we become immobilized in fear and so much is lost on crumpled pages that should never have seen the trash can. Thank God for computers and the revolving door on the recycle bin lol...so great to be a writer in this new age (I know...right?) lol so if we take one part confidence and one part critic and always allow room for improvement this gives birth to something truly spectacular...and truly gold -DannyLynne