I & M of Writing

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Timidness can seize every ounce of Inspiration & Motivation you have mustered up for your writing project. And that lack of self-confidence can engulf any chance of you finishing that project. In fact, it could deter you from even starting that manuscript.

How do I know this. It has been happening to me ever since I decided to take my life passion seriously. True, I’ve never been that confident of a person to begin with, but have muddled through tough incidents with a mask of fake assurance. Still, when it comes to writing, it doesn’t take long for the mask to slide off, leaving me exposed and shaking like a leaf.

With NaNoWriMo having its annual month of nonstop writing in a smidgen more than one week, I thought I’d tell you about a technique to boost the Inspiration & Motivation you may need to get through the long writing sessions of November.

I came across this technique purely by accident. When I began to feel the ton of weight the lack of confidence gives me lift from my sagging shoulders, I couldn’t quite believe it at first. I thought perhaps I was having this miraculous sensation because of the water I was drinking or the lilt of the breeze blowing in from outside. Or perhaps it was just something freaky about nature in general during the beginning of autumn. Anyway, I was completely perplexed for a while.

I continued on with what I had promised to do within a month’s time. From experiences in the past, I thought the chances were pretty good that I would be seeing double or maybe even triple before two hours were over. Why? I have astigmatism, which makes it difficult to read for very long. It also prevents me from reading at a decent speed, which means I’m one of those snail readers. Yes, I was reading a book and had promised to have it completed in a month, so I could give feedback about it.

Eventually, my eyes did give out, but for the first time in decades, I was able to read for over three hours. I hadn’t done that since college. Putting the manuscript aside, I mull over the mistakes I had found during the reading. The author has some of the same weakness in her writing that I have in mine. In fact, pound for pound, we seemed to be parallel in our separate journeys within the craft of writing.

It was a revelation of sorts to me. All this time I had assumed my skill of writing was unduly faltered in ways that could never be corrected, and there were so many. I had been feeling doomed to being a hobby writer. There’s nothing wrong with being a hobbyist at the craft, but I, so much, wanted to be a writer of published works. Critiquing my friend’s manuscript has forced me out of my pity party, and has compelled me into changing my entire frame of mind about my writing, and how to approach it.

My Inspiration & Motivation of writing have become uplifted by the task of critiquing a friend’s book. With invigorated hope and purpose, I am, now, in the ugly process of rewriting a manuscript from several years ago.

My suggestion to you: If you’re a writer, find time to critique the work of other writers. It’s a game changer.

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“Why do they always teach us that it’s easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It’s the hardest thing in the world–to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want.”
― Ayn Rand