The Art of Recovery

As writers, especially new writers, there’s something we come up against in cycles constantly. For me, it’s usually about a month. I begin feeling motivated to write. Every minute I’m thinking of what I can add to make my story come to life. I feel excited, inspired, and confident in myself. Then the questions come.

English is a challenging language. It’s human to question yourself and it’s human to question your writing ability. It takes a special kind of skill to keep everything together while also making sure plots make sense, scenes are being shown rather than told, and dialog is natural. Writing is a juggling act. It’s harder to realize this in the middle of the act.

The questioning of my ability comes like depression. I have a high of writing, then something stupid triggers me. This time it was asking a simple question on Facebook. I was feeling the woes of uncertainty and thought it might be helpful to ask a writing group how I could improve getting people to view my website. A simple answer, meant to be helpful, cut me down.

That’s just how the uncertainty comes though. It wasn’t so much what was said, by the internal conflict within myself wondering if I actually have the ability to write.

The inspirational thought I shared earlier this week was exactly what I needed. I even found it before all this seemed to begin. “Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.”

Well, I choose to keep going. I know I’m not the best writer. I know I have a lot to work on. I’m going to keep writing. I’m going to move forward. Don’t let doubts hold you down. Push through your own barriers. I plan to.