I have not been respecting my inner writer.

Let’s just get that out of the way.

I’ve had a hard time lately getting much done. I don’t mean to sound whiny, or negative, but it’s true. There’s been mostly playing catch-up and acting like I can somehow get ahead of everything I have on my plate.

And let’s be real, we all feel that way some times.

I recently got a rejection that I didn’t want to mention or share on here. Partially because I think it’s unprofessional, and partially because it felt like a below-the-belt rejection. However, rejection is a part of life… and if I can’t share at least the big picture fact that I was rejected, then this doesn’t seem like a place I’m being honest with everyone.

The thing is, because of that rejection I started plunging into different projects. I was avoiding sitting down and writing, because I was afraid that my writing was no longer worth it.

Call me melodramatic, but it’s how I was feeling.

Everything was so personal. The words, the reasons, the rejector. And as much as authors have to grow an extra layer of skin for these types of things, there is no denying that some rejections are going to hit harder than others.

And this one, my friends, hit HARD.

After looking around, I stumbled upon this article by Alice Osborn (poet and author).

Suddenly I realized, she was right.

No, she doesn’t mention rejection or how to handle it. In fact, this post has nothing to do with rejection. It has everything to do with being a writer. We have to respect ourselves and our craft, and not just talk about it.

That’s all I’ve been doing. I’ve been talking about writing. And writing about writing. But, ironically, I haven’t been WRITING.

I’ve been talking about my latest book, or my book that’s on submission, or another new book idea, or what I want to do to an old project… but I haven’t been doing. I’ve just been talking.

That’s no good.

We have to respect ourselves as writers.

What does that mean?

It means setting the stage to get our jobs done.

We don’t write because we want to, we write because we HAVE to. There’s a burning fire way down deep that can vibrate through our bones, our veins, through our fingertips. That fire is what keeps us going, and only we have the power to squelch it or help it grow.

No one said it was going to be easy.

The things that are worth it in life are never easy.

Love. Beliefs. Jobs. Relationships. Goals. Dreams.

They all hold their own challenges, and we find out what kind of people we are when we decide to reach for them, to hold them, to protect them, to perfect them.

But in order to do anything, we first have to have self-worth and self-respect.

So, I’m challenging myself to follow the steps from that article.

Set boundaries. Show up. Take risks. Make goals. Invest.

WRITE.

 

 

 

Have you been devaluing your inner writer? What do you think you can do to change that?

 

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