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Cognitive dissonance: all writers have it.
Here are a few that ought to ring a bell with you. If they don't, you should worry. Massive ego coupled with an inferiority complex. Writers have the audacity to put their words out in public. Without exception, whether they'll admit it or not, they each believe that they've got a unique voice and insight into a story that has to be told. But then they worry about whether anyone will like it. Not as much about whether they can sell the novel or the story or the poem. Whether people will laugh at them and think they're stupid. Hope and fear This is how the leeches attach themselves to unpublished writers. Writers want so much to believe that they're at least as good as any bestselling author on the New York Times list. And the truth is, they are.The writers are. But their work isn't. They have not yet learned to separate themselves from their work. Consequently, being published or unpublished is not about the work. It's about their self-worth as human beings, and that's a insanely powerful lever for the unscrupulous to use. But writers, as a group, are pretty smart. They know on some level that their work is not at that level yet. And that's where the fear comes in and the frantic need to grasp on to anything that might be an answer. The REAL answer is ground truth about the writer's work. Chances are, it's not ready to present to a publisher. It's hard to look someone in the eyes and tell him or her that the work isn't good enough yet. The only thing that really helps unpublished writers is the truth about their writing. Not putting your work first -- but expecting others to. I don't think I even have to explain this one. |
