Skip to main content

That Little Voice

Sometimes when I write there's a little voice that tells me that no one is going to care about what I have to say. It asks me who is going to read this blog about writing, let alone care about what's written there. It asks me why anyone would want to read my prose at all, let alone pay for it.

It's a constant voice of doubt.

Hell, even as I'm writing this, I'm telling that little voice to shut the hell up every time it suggests I delete all of this and start this post over from scratch and pick a different topic. One that exposes less vulnerability.

But it's something that I would assume every writer deals with. It's that voice that says you're not good enough. The one that tells you not to worry about submitting the story to the publisher. The one that tells you it doesn't matter if you finish that novel. Or screenplay. Or whatever.

That little voice is a total asshole.

And my suspicion is that you shouldn't listen to him. (Or her. It can be female, too.)

In fact, that's part of what my goal in 2016 is going to be, to tell that voice to go straight to hell. There are so many things I've wanted to do in this space and for other writers that that voice tells me no one would care about. More writing prompts, more video blogs, more advice. If you want that sort of thing, anyway. That voice in my head keeps telling me that I don't have anything to add to the subject, that anything I say will have been said better by someone else. Someone like Chuck Wendig. Or Mike Stackpole,  Jordan Kurella, or S.A. Hunt, or anyone else I read writing on the topic with any semblance of frequency.

Their voices are all so much more unique than mine. What could I add?

But I have a perspective. And something to say. And every now and again someone says I might have a glimmer of talent (doubtful, but I'll take it.) So I keep going. And do my best to silence that voice, no matter how much anxiety that might give me.

And that little voice doesn't just short circuit my blog-writing activities, it can sometimes cripple my ability to effectively write prose. Or even non-fiction I have on deadlines.

It can be awful.

But I'm here to say that we all get that voice stuck in our head now and again. We all feel like imposters. We all feel like we're never going to "make it," even if, by all appearances, it seems as though we have made it.

I think it comes with the territory.

Here's today's lesson: don't listen to that voice.

And let me know what you do want to see more of here. Whether that's writing prompts or video Q&As or even just me dissecting a story of your choice on here. Reach out. It's a lot easier for me to shut that voice out when I can add yours to the effort.

As for my writing: I did finish the draft of that survival horror novel. I guessed it would take about 45k words, and it clocked in at 45,600. So, I'm getting better at gauging the length of my stories when I set out to tell them.

Currently, aside from all of my normal freelance, I've been readying two books for submission to publishers, which means I've been working on synopses and query letters and finding that I'm rusty and don't exactly enjoy that work, but I hope the fruits of that labor will indeed be sweet. Preferably a jogan. Or a meiloorun. One or the other.

As a reminder: The Aeronaut and Escape Vector are still out and still need your purchases and reviews. If nothing else, they can use you telling people about them. If you want signed copies, visit the shop here on this page.

Also! here's the full list of "rules and guidelines" I've been collecting over my years of studying writing advice and process

As far as my work outside of all this: There's a lot of great stuff on Big Shiny Robot! and Full of Sith for you. 

And please, please, please don't forget to check out any of my books, drop reviews of them on Amazon or Goodreads, and follow me on twitter and Facebook!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Salt Lake Comic Con 2017 Schedule

It's time for another year of Salt Lake Comic Con and another hectic schedule for me. But! that doesn't mean it's not a helluva lot of fun. I hope you're able to join me at any of these panels. Especially if you like Star Wars. And please, please, please come to my signing and visit. Get some books signed. I'd love that enormously. Here is my Thursday schedule: Everything here is a highlight. That first panel about behind the scenes of the prequels is with Pablo Hidalgo and I'll be asking him questions about what it was like to be there on set for most of the prequels. Then I'll be asking questions of Michael Biehn, who I've been a fan of since I was a little kid. Aliens and Terminator were favorites. If you want to ask him a question, please hit me up on Twitter with it. I will ask it at the panel. And you don't want to miss Fauxthentic History's Infinity Gauntlet live episode. It's going to be soooo good. Here is Friday: ...

The End of an Era and a New Beginning

It's been a long time coming, but I think an upgrade to my web presence was long overdue. I began this blog in 2005 and it's served me well over the last 13 years. My goal in those early days was to write a short story every month. Back then, that was the only writing I was doing. This website, then called "Bryan's Short Story Corner," got me into a regular writing habit. One that I still maintain today. I hoped it would help me get eyeballs on my words and, looking back at some of those early short stories, I shouldn't have wanted any of those eyeballs looking. Today, my Patreon fills that void. There is a dedicated group of supporters there that help subsidize my ability to write short stories on the regular. After I started publishing books, this blog morphed into a place to talk about my projects and writing and it worked well enough for that for a long time. But now I have Twitter and Medium for those functions and they have much cleaner and easi...

Anatomy of a Scene: All the President's Men

All the President's Men is one of those perfect movies. Based on a stunning true story with a brilliant screenplay from William Goldman (we've already gone through one of his scenes here with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ), it's a movie that brings all of the elements of character, plot, and drama together in a way that makes me really love and admire it.  The scene I want to go through is one that comes during a particularly trying time in the film. For those unaware, this film tells the tale of Woodward and Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters who cracked the Watergate story. And now, looking back on it, it all feels like one big victory, but it was marked by a number of defeats.  This is them reporting to their skeptical editor, Ben Bradlee (played brilliantly by Jason Robards) about where their investigation is at. Immediately preceding Woodward and Bernstein walking in, a salesman is trying to sell Bradlee on features his papers doe...