Looking Back

How good a writer are you? What do you worry about? Are you good enough?

Whatever your literary experience, chances are you've had a relatively negative answer to those questions.

There are two things to remember when assessing yourself:
1) Those who are supremely confident of themselves are rarely talented.
2) Compare how long you've been writing to how long you've been alive.

Looking at the first statement, it becomes clear that those who over-believe in themselves are not commonly accustomed to introspection or to critquing of their work. No one can know everything about writing and we all learn new things every time we start a new chapter, novel or work of non-fiction.

All things in life are unknown until we learn them and it is unlikley we will know everything about writing after a lifetime spent learning our craft, even if it is all we do.  Not only because language changes, but markets change, styles change.

Be gentle with your doubts and accept that they open you to the knowledge that you don't know it all and are willing to learn.

As for the second, how long have you been writing? A year, two, twenty? Compare your ability as a writer after five years and ask what kind of human you were after five years. Were you good at being a human? How good a human were you after twenty years? Experienced?

I doubt it.

However old we get there is always someething to learn about life, ourselves, and those around us. If you've been writing for a decade, then you are still the equivalent of a primary school child when it comes to writing.

Give yourself a break. Look back over what you've achieved and compare what you know and can do now with what you were able to do last year or five years ago.

Feel better?

You should.

Doubt shows you're aware of your shortcomings, but it should never be used as a hammer to hit yourself with.

You ARE good. You just not perfect.