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Are You Still a Writer If You Don’t or Can’t Write?
Prove your inner critique wrong, even if it’s the worst battle to fight
I have gone through some rough patches with writing in my life. First off, it took me decades to embrace writing and give it the place it deserves in my life. I have always been writing, and it’s a painful thought that I wasted so much time convincing myself that it is not for me, that I am useless and no one cares anyway.
When I finally took enough courage to pursue it and challenge myself in ways I never allowed myself before, I still had to face my own insecurities, still battled my imposter syndrome and still questioned my own worth time after time. But I managed. Finally, I was writing. Finally, I allowed myself to tell my story. Finally, I liberated myself from the ugly voices in my head — and it felt amazing.
Then suddenly the world changed overnight, and with the restrictions and lockdowns, I started to question myself once again. Not just about writing, but with everything and it impacted writing just as much. What’s the point, at all? What is my writing good for? Who am I to give advice? Who am I to burden my readers with my problems when they have plenty of their own? Who am I to tell my story about minor details in my life when the world is falling apart at the seams and all I…