Hello, friends!
I want to be straight up with you, here. I am young. I am inexperienced. And as far as qualifications go, I don’t have tons to speak of at this point in my life. All that being said, the idea of claiming these titles is kind of scary for me.
I have spent my whole life coming up with stories. I’ve written some out, drawn others, and there are still just so many left to pull out of my head. So when I came to college and discovered the creative classes available to me there, I found myself being pulled deeper and deeper into this amazing world of storytellers. I’ve learned so much since I began my journey towards a career in writing and editing – enough to know that I know next to nothing. But I’ve also learned that this little corner of the world, working and otherwise, is where I want to be. I started this site in an effort to prove some things to myself. Maybe some of these things are things you’re trying to prove to yourself, too…
It’s not too late to start.
These are thoughts I and plenty of people I know have had many times over. But what I strive to remember when I come up against these thoughts is that people find their personal success in different ways and often on different timetables. If there is one thing I have learned from my classes, seminars, writing groups, professors, and friends in this area, it’s that timing is everything to the success or failure of a book, and what may be the right time for one book or one author may not be the right time for another. Do I want to write, edit, read stories that fulfill me? No better time to start than right now.
Everyone is an Imposter.
Do you want the honest truth? I’ve made exactly two website before this one. I have experience in HTML and a few Adobe products, but it’s limited – basic at best. I don’t yet know how to make this site the best, most appealing it can be. My hope is definitely to keep tweaking this site as I learn more skills and my uses for it grow and branch. I am not published (yet), and I’ve not finished any original piece longer than 10,000 words. With all this evidence stack against me, it only seems natural to feel like I’m inserting myself in spaces where I don’t belong. I call myself a writer, but what do I have to show for it? A bunch of bad poetry from my last “goth” phase and a couple of rough drafts? It never seems like enough.
Then I remember that even my kind, loving, and confident teacher, Carol Lynch Williams, struggles. For all her outward security, she is (perhaps ironically) not afraid to tell us that she’s afraid. Just because she has published a number of wonderful books, and even won awards for them; just because she helps run WIFYR, one of the most successful writing conferences for the young adult and children’s genres in Utah, it doesn’t mean she is entitled to success. What matters most is the skill and the talent and the hard work and love she puts into her stories. That’s what matters with any story.
If you decide that you are not worthy to write a book that could be shelved with all the ones that have changed you, how can you ever hope to change someone else? If you want to do what other authors have done for you with their work, you have to follow in their footsteps and know that they once felt (and probably still do feel) like imposters, too. No one ever told you you could never be equal with those you admire. No one except yourself.
You can do this…really!
I believe that good story-telling starts with passion for an idea. The idea itself may be secondary. After all, if every story has been told before, the only truly new and unique thing you can bring to the table is your enthusiasm for it. No one can tell the same story quite like I can. Likewise, no one can tell it quite the same as you. That’s why, when a group of writers gets together and writes for one prompt, you end up with a slew of wildly different results.
In the recent “rebranding efforts” I and my fellow club members made with BYU’s club, Y Fiction (formerly known as Y Publish), we’ve adopted a new motto: “If you don’t write it, who will?” For one thing, it seemed at least a little less cringy than “Put some publish in your pencil!” but for another, it spoke to a truth that we try to follow every week when we meet to learn how to better our craft from each other.
If you have an idea for an epic tale that is sure to garner world-wide attention and start a fandom that takes over the Internet, how are you going to share it with the rest of the world unless you get it down? You could share your idea with someone, but I can guarantee you it would change dramatically if you left it up to them to write it. If you want your story told, no one’s voice will do but yours. And if you feel like your writing is not up to par with your ideas, that’s okay. That’s where the learning and community and immersing yourself in the world of story-telling comes in handy. It will require your voice to tell your story. But it will require many more to help you get it to the level you originally envisioned for it.
So go and do it. What are you waiting for? Geez, what am I waiting for!? Let’s all get writing, and help each other tell our stories. Let’s move the world.
Creative Critiques Editing 