Diary of Being a Writer; Week 96

Fight scenes are tricky. So is fighting the Imposter Syndrome.

All I have done so far this week has been to go to work. So although it has really only been four days since I have sat at this particular keyboard it is just enough time for me to feel disconnected from my writing, from my writing ability and reconnected with fear and imposter syndrome.

Thankfully, while I was at work, I was talking to one of my colleagues about her art and how she had the same thing we writers have. Where you can have a fantastic idea one moment and crippling imposter syndrome the next. So I will say to me what I said to her.

‘Do the work. Art doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. It is us turning up and getting on with it each day. It is continuing to practice and get better by doing the actual day to day work. Yes, we have highs, and we have lows, but it is not magical, mystical muses that make the art appear, it is us. It is us doing the work on the good days and the bad days that makes art happen.’

I will concede that if it is a particularly bad day, you might need to go and do some self-care instead. Or refill the well, by looking at or reading someone else’s work or gardening or taking the dog for a walk or meditating. Either way, the point I am trying to make is although I am feeling…