A Plea To All Writers

I am a writer!

Say it after me…..

I am a writer!

Go look in the mirror and say it again….

I am a writer!

Good! Now we can begin.

I hear from a great many writers. From Facebook to my blog, from Twitter to HubPages, from sea to shining sea, Boston to San Francisco, Calcutta to Perth, the comments and emails and random musings come to me in Olympia, Washington, and I try to respond to them all.

I hear about the defeats and I hear about the victories. I hear complaints and I hear affirmations.

And I understand them all.

After all, I’m one of you.

I am a writer!

Today I want to talk to you about the number one topic…easily the number one topic….among all of those comments and emails.

Self-doubt!

“Lonely….I’m Mister Lonely….wish I had someone…..”

Thank you Bobby Vinton for that lead-in.

The reasons for its existence are as varied as the writers themselves. For some, it stems from childhood and a lack of nurturing that has carried over for decades. Some hear no affirmation at home from relatives. Some have heard criticism, been told their writing is no good, or ridiculed for being a writer at all.

Many have received rejections from agents, publishers and editors, or worse yet, their queries have been totally ignored.

Some post articles online and those articles are read by few, if any. They start blogs and no one visits. They pour their hearts and souls into a meaningful piece of work only to have that work met with a collective yawn from the masses. Their articles are not read. Their novels are tossed in the gutter of public opinion.

Day after day they try, and day after day the seed of doubt grows until it sprouts, breaks the surface of the ground and reaches for the heavens.

I understand.

The very nature of the writing profession fosters self-doubt. We work alone. We spend a majority of our time inside our own head, the most dangerous real estate known to man. We bounce off our brain’s walls, questioning our own sanity as we attempt to write the perfect phrase that no one will read. Every rejection leaves us doubting more. We are told to learn from the Masters, and we take that advice, and we read the Hemingways and Lees, the Faulkners and the Steinbecks, and when we are done we are left, not with awe, but with more feelings of inadequacies. Who the hell were we kidding, thinking we could ever be a writer? What magic dust have we been snorting to think that one day our work would equal the works of Blake or Bronte?

We feel like fools.

We feel defeated.

We give up.

And by giving up, the world suffers.

Imagine, if you can, a world without the Arts. Imagine a world without music, without paintings, without sculpture and without writing. In our current life we get in our car and turn on the radio. Our favorite song comes on and we smile. We get home and grab our favorite book. We sit under our favorite painting, put our feet up, kick off our shoes, sip a glass of wine and allow the words to transport us to another place, another time, and for awhile all is right in our world.

Now imagine not being able to do that.

Let me put it another way.

I turned on the news last night. After fifteen minutes I was not only depressed but also anxious. Drive-by shootings….political hacks bad-mouthing more political hacks….a murder-suicide…..a car bombing….threats and mayhem and my blood-pressure rose and my feelings of tranquility proved to be elusive.

I need the Arts. You need the Arts. The world needs the Arts and, by extension, it needs the Artists.

The world needs you!

Listen, I’m not unsympathetic. I’m sorry nobody buys your books. I’m sorry nobody reads your articles. I’m terribly sorry you have been rejected thousands of times.

I’m sorry, but I still need you to keep fighting the good fight.

The world needs you!

If you only write to make money, leave now. I don’t want you reading anymore of this article.

If you write because you love to write, then how can you quit? How can you give up on something you love doing? If you truly have the passion then giving up is not an option.

Remember this: your writing is part of your legacy as a human being. What you write today will be read one-hundred years from now and it will affect the lives of others. How can you give up on that?

Don’t leave a minute before the miracle happens.

Of course you have self-doubts. What rational person would not have self-doubts as a writer? The odds of a writer being successful are worse than the odds at Las Vegas. How’s that for a bucket of cold water over the head? If your goal is financial success then you really need to go out and get a more reliable day job.

But if your goal is immortality then by all means, keep writing.

If your goal is to inform people then keep writing. If your goal is to educate or entertain then keep writing. If your goal is to make people think, make people feel, and make people react, then keep writing. If you want to stimulate thoughts and emotions then keep writing. If you want to keep the blood of culture flowing through the veins of our society then keep writing.

The world needs you.

I need you.

Keep writing!

2015 William D. Holland (aka billybuc)

“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”