Impostor Syndrome

The purpose of this blog is to document the beginning of my writing career as it progresses and to share my experiences. I am not an expert, but I am constantly researching and learning.

I just read an article by Jessica Faust at Bookends, http://bookendsliterary.com/2019/07/16/the-power-of-positive-thinking/ that hit home with me.

She talks about positive thinking versus the pit-falls of negative thinking and impostor syndrome, which is a term I’ve heard before but could never relate to, until now. I am two thirds of the way through an ecological science fiction trilogy that has given me feelings of hope, accomplishment, but sometimes doubt. On a good day, I pat myself on the back, and on a bad day I ask myself, who are you trying to fool- you’re never going anywhere with this. I am fine with that, though, because the worst case scenario is that I will get some paperback books printed to give to my friends and family and to put on my bookshelf to cherish for the rest of my life.

I’m now experiencing something new as a wannabe writer. I heard about a call for submissions for an anthology of short stories about the raid on Area 51. I learned about it first thing one morning, sitting on the toilet while on Facebook. By the time I had showered and shaved, I had a pretty good idea for a story. I am now over four thousand words into a story that I think is good, but I have absolutely no idea if anyone else will like it. With my attempted novels, this has not been an issue, and with them I fully realize that what I’m writing does’t need to appeal to everyone. (Although I do have my twenty year-old daughter in mind as my target audience!)

I am not the nervous type. I’ve competed in skateboard competitions and downhill races without getting butterflies, but I feel very nervous to submit something that may or may not get rejected. I squeezed in small windows of writing time over a couple days, to get the story started. Then I spent a good chunk of my Saturday working on my story, and I didn’t quite get the same sense of accomplishment I do when I write a few thousand words on my attempted novels. Was that just a waste of an entire day? I am trying to reassure myself that it’s good practice, I like the story, and it’s not a waste of time!

Wish me luck! And big thanks to Jeffery H. Haskell for the community you’ve created on Facebook. Here’s a great article if you like super heroes: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/18102126-the-power-of-choice-in-story

All the best, Philip Ginn