The Fear Of Not Being a Good Enough Writer

bySondraM

3K followers

5 years ago

The Fear Of Not Being Good Enough Writer

I enjoy writing as a form of expressing myself. I love to help people. I do not have any problems thinking of things to write about. Yet, lately I've had a hard time writing. It is as if I have allowed myself to become paralyzed by a fear that my writing is not going to be "good enough".

Since I am sort of a perfectionist, this fear has made it extremely difficult to write content for my websites. When I do write, it takes hours. I know that fear is a bad thing. I also know that most of the things that we worry about and fear do not happen.

I have decided to share this "little" problem because I think there is a good chance that I am not the only one that has faced this problem.

Sometimes, It Can Be Hard to Write Even If You Are Really Good at It.

This morning, I was researching Linda Lael Miller, a New York Times best-selling author that has published over 100 books. She is best known for her historical romances. Although I have not had time to read any of her books yet, I have some of them in my little bookstore. I was drawn to Linda Lael Miller as a person because she seems to be a super nice person that loves horses and writing about cowboys. I enjoyed getting to know her a little better on her blog.

I discovered that Linda had not written or blogged much since losing her best friend/cousin about a year ago. In addition to grieving, she experienced burnout. In the course of almost a year, she posted only once on her blog. Yet, last month, she started getting back into posting again. In her second blog post, last month, she talked about how it was a horrible period in her life. Yet, on the positive side, Linda was able to recognize how blessed she is. She also re-discovered that she enjoys art.

One day, she was surfing the internet, trying to figure out how to clean her Keurig coffee maker, that had "clogged for the umpteenth time." Not only did she decide to buy a less troublesome coffee pot - a Mr. Coffee; she ended up discovering a form of art called acrylic pouring on YouTube.

Rediscovering her love of art has helped her deal with the grief. As learned how to paint, she had her share of "non-masterpieces." Yet, her artwork has become good enough that she has been able to sell a few pieces. She went on to say:

"In art, as in writing or any other creative endeavor, one must be willing to be very, very bad, usually for a very, very long time, in order to become proficient. "

-- Linda Lael Miller

Linda Lael Miller's story and quote re-energized me today. When we are having confidence issues, we need to try to focus the journey of creating a website with great content rather expecting each article to be perfect. As long as we don't quit writing or quit trying to become a better writer, our proficiency will increase.

Her story also reminded me that people really do use the internet to search for solutions to their problems - whether it is unclogging a Keurig or as a way of discovering a new passion that might fill a void.

Well, I am off to write an article for my website that might be very, very bad. Or it might not. I simply need to get back into the habit.

Thanks for reading,

Sondra