I recently received a message from a woman who I’ve known most of my life. Our families became friends when I was still a toddler thanks to an ad in the paper about babysitting. Over the year, she became like a second mom to me. Once we kids started high school, she went back to college and then began working with students who struggled to learn in the traditional classroom setting. Now, twenty years later, she’s ready to begin a new adventure.
She wants to write her family’s stories. She just needed to know where and how to start.
In his book Real Artists Don’t Starve, Jeff Goins shares, “At any point in your story, you are free to reimagine the narrative you’re living.”
As an editor, I get to work with people from a variety of different backgrounds. And many of them have been living out their stories a lot longer than I have. One of the things that always fascinates me is getting to hear a little about the road that led writer to start thinking of themselves as writers.
The beautiful thing about being a writer is that you can begin at any time in life. And you can pretty much do it anywhere. The difficult thing about being a writer is learning to get past the idea that great writing comes naturally. That you’re either born with the gift, or you’re not.
In my own personal experience, and in working with other writers, I can say with confidence that nothing is further than the truth.
Another obstacle we face as creatives is something we often call imposter syndrome. This is the belief that we’re pretending to be something that we’re not, and that one day we’re going to do something that reveals us to be frauds we know we are.
Well, guess what. It’s time for that narrative to change.
The truth is, you were born to be creative. Don’t believe me? Just look at any child. When they’re babies, they’re curious about everything. They want to taste, feel, and touch anything they can get their hands on. And they always manage to find the things that we somehow overlooked.
As toddlers, they question everything. They want to know why things are the way they are, and how things work. And as they continue to grow, they continue to love imaginative play. They make up stories. They make up games. They make up songs that they sing on repeat.
It’s only later in life that we begin to question ourselves and our abilities to be creative.
Sadly, a lot of that has to do with the external voices that begin to fill our ears early on in life. Some of those voices stem from physical and emotional hurts. Some from hurtful words. And some of those voices come from our home community’s expectations of what being a productive member of society looks like.
Fortunately, we have a say in the voices we continue to listen to when it comes to our creativity.
If you’ve embarked down the path of being a writer, it’s a for a reason. Those ideas you have, the message you want to share, the stories you want to tell…none of that’s a fluke. You were born and remain for life, a creative being. Whether or not you choose to believe that and cultivate that aspect of your identity is completely up to you. Not the voices telling you that it can’t be done.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve lived a decade or a century, if you believe that you are a writer, believe you’re a writer. And then, go out and write boldly and with courage!
Make a mess. Crumple those pages and start over. Stretch those writing muscles. And grow in confidence and skill.
Endure fort.
—Jen