I saw an aspiring author ask a question a few days ago about how to get rid of the little voice that tells you what you’re writing is junk and you’ll never make it. I laughed uproariously because every author I know has that voice, they just forge on ahead anyway and when the voice gets too loud, they get a second opinion.
In my universe, I call it the Talking Sock Monkey syndrome. At some point in every story, especially near the start, the whole story starts to seem like a bunch of boring, weird, talking sock monkeys. “Blah ba blah ba blah blah blah.”
This happened last night and I sent what I had to date to my test readers for them to look at and tell me if it’s merely a case of the sock monkeys stealing my brain or if it really does suck. They haven’t replied yet, so it may suck :)
One bad side effect is that I now seem to be developing a collection of sock monkeys.
So don’t let the sock monkeys steal your brain – ignore them and keep going anyway. Just don’t think that they’re telling you the truth when they tell you that you suck.
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That is such a true statement Maura.
Nice to see that you forge ahead with your writing despite what your inner critic might be saying to discourage you.
I follow that advice on a daily basis. I say if I didn’t have something that needed to be said I wouldn’t be writing. Also, your writing may be more than you think if you just believe in yourself and what you have to say to others-your readers.
by Jamie January 5th, 2009 at 4:30 pmi like sock monkeys
by Barb January 6th, 2009 at 10:06 pm