I’m so talented!
We writers create stories to read. And we create art.
Story telling is in fact one of the most ancient arts around. I’m sure even the Neanderthals sat around their campfire and told stories about hunting, finding food and maybe Gods in the sky.
And as we create art, we can create a very tricky, nasty block for our writing.
Because Art is supposed to be special and unique.
So our stories have to be special and unique.
Quite possibly this idea of having to create something special is a nasty trick of the mind.
It’s a mindset that allows only super-talent with instant success or nothing. And that leads to instinctive avoidance, because the chance of failure is so high – if your one and only attempt at excellence and unique success fails, you have proven that you have no talent and shouldn’t be a writer. It’s all or nothing.
This is what holds back Tim:
Every day, Tim sits down at his desk in his bedroom in his parents’ house. He pulls up the file of his masterpiece and stares at the last bit he has written. He deletes the last paragraph because it doesn’t hold up to his right standards.
Then he spends half an hour thinking of the new sentence he wants to write. His mind slips away into daydreaming about being a recognized literary hero. Yes, he has the talent, his teacher has told him so. His mother keeps telling her friends that a new Nobel Price Author is budding in her home, and her voice is always so proud.
Tim feels incredible pressure about writing and finishing his masterpiece. He forces himself to focus on the novel again, his first novel, the one that will be the breakthrough once it is finished and polished to perfection.
At the end of the day, Tim has managed to replace the paragraph he has deleted, and he is utterly exhausted.
Tim is caught in the trap of believing that his work must be special and excellent from the start. And he isn’t really exhausted from writing. He’s utterly spent from fighting off the pressure of proving he is a unique and special writer from the very start.
He’s trying to create a masterpiece at the first attempt.
But isn’t that what writers are supposed to do? Create masterful, captivating, intense and beautiful tales? Unique, special art that reflects their personality?
Not necessarily.
You see, the most successful indie authors in terms of money, are Romance authors. And Romance is a genre where you know exactly what is supposed to happen in a story and when.
Romance stories are rather predictable and follow a strict set of rules. They are not special in the sense of being unique art.
And yet… they are very successful.
Even so, it takes work and practice to be able to plot and write a successful Romance novel.
And that’s the mindset really successful authors have: Writing is a craft. It takes practice, and much writing.
You can’t produce a masterpiece without practicing your art over and over and over again.
Writing is work. Humble work. Best practiced every day.
And your stories are only unique and special because of your own unique personality and your own way of telling a story. Even if it’s the same, age-old story of two people falling in love and overcoming obstacles so they can live that love.
Here’s some tapping to shift you from the fixed, talent mindset to the growth, craft mindset that will let you write with much less pressure and more joy:
Even though a part of me daydreams about being a unique, special and award-winning author, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now choose to see myself as a craftsperson, working to get better at her chosen craft every day.
Even though I’ve been told that I have so much talent for writing and really should produce a masterpiece novel, I’m totally okay, and I now choose the healthier mindset of a craftsperson and simply practice my craft over and over again.
Even though a part of me prefers to believe that I have unique talent and should produce special novels because of it, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now give myself permission to let go of that damaging and limiting belief, choosing to practice my writing every day instead.
Your Turn:
How do you feel about writing and talent?
Have you been told you are a talented writer?
What happened while you were tapping?
And finally – what are you creating right now?
Would love to hear from you!
Image Source: F. Moebius
PS: You’ll find my personal experiences with these beliefs in the comment section. Because I am tapping with these very sentences, I’m inviting you to join me on this journey, and share your experiences.
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