A WRITER SEEKS: The 4 Best Web Lists to Boost Your Writer's Confidence

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author, actor, producer, teacher and ne'er do well, Ms. McKenzie has taught over 100 courses in creative writing, technical writing, and essay writing. As a teacher, she focuses on helping each student to find their voice. As a writer, she focuses on keeping her own voice as authentic as possible. She has "traditionally" published one novel, two text books and one non-fiction book, and multiple essays, articles, and poetry. Recently, she has self-published three more novels and two more non-fiction books.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

The 4 Best Web Lists to Boost Your Writer's Confidence - Or, at least to Make You Laugh

I do community theater, and one thing I am forever hearing about "theater types" is that they have a tendency to insecurity and self-doubt. Certainly I have seen that from time to time (in the most apparently bold of them) in the years I've done theater work, but, honestly? They ain't got nuthin' on writers. What writer hasn't asked him/her/their-self (we really need to work on a collective pronoun in this language) if they deserve to call themselves a writer? Or doubted their commitment? Or their talent? Or that they have "what it takes?"

Sometimes, when I feel that way, I troll the internet (I love using the word "troll" in this way) for things that might validate me, or, at least make me smile at my own self-doubts. I don't usually publish lists, here, but what I am giving you today is a list you can check out if you're in one of those low valleys of what-the-heck-am-I-doing-I-can't-possibly-ever-be-a-real-writer!

The Four Best I Found (today):

12 Signs You are a Writer at Heart

I like this one a lot - the childhood dreamer, the can't-stop-writing - all feed my need to believe in myself as MEANT TO BE a writer!

25 signs you are a writer

#s 1,2, and 3 had me asking myself, "Wait! Did I write this and forget I did?" And guilty also of # 12, #15 (just ask my roomies), #17 (is THAT why I liked "The Devil Wears Prada" so much?), and #20. I may be guilty of others, but not going to admit it here

You know you're a writer if

The first one on this (un-numbered) list completely cracked me up. Actually, most of them did.

and....

You're a writer if

Written for teen writers, this one still got me, because I DO "read dictionaries and thesauruses [like] they were New York Times bestsellers."

And I may have been known to "purposely toss paper and assorted junk about the room just so things look deliciously untidy."

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WHAT WE DO HERE

There are plenty of websites, blogs, and feeds devoted to helping writers with their craft - there are lessons on everything from story arc to developing character to marketing your work. What most of us often lack for, though, is help with the internal struggles of being a writer -- not things like finding voice or theme or mood -- there's plenty of that out there, too - but what we often need most is figuring out how to be a writer where it counts, in our own heads. I was fortunate in my graduate Creative Writing program to have a panel of advisers who focused on the writer in each student, and how to hang onto that voice in our noisy world. It's a struggle, and I know one others share.