{"id":755,"date":"2018-05-01T19:34:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T19:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/?page_id=755"},"modified":"2018-05-01T19:34:40","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T19:34:40","slug":"building-confidence","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/?page_id=755","title":{"rendered":"Building confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Building your confidence as a Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

First published in Electric Dreams, April 2018<\/p>\n

While I was sitting, staring out of the window wondering what to say and worrying if it would be the right thing for the blog, it came to me that I needed to write about confidence – or a lack of it. As a woman (I\u2019m sure there are men out there who also suffer from a lack of self-confidence but we women definitely out-number them) \u2013 we often feel our work is not good-enough to share, or perhaps we so lack confidence we don\u2019t even begin. Or if we begin, we soon give up. I\u2019ve had writers in my creative writing classes who always preface their work with the words, \u2018It\u2019s not very good but\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

We \u2013 and I am guilty of this too \u2013 feel that it\u2019s somehow impolite or big-headed to state that our work is good. There\u2019s always space to improve, of course. Few of us can claim our work is comparable to Shakespeare, Milton, Virginia Woolf or Sylvia Plath. But when we know that our work has guts and power, when we\u2019ve edited it and re-drafted it countless times, why do we still hesitate? Because we are fearful. Because we fear criticism \u2013 from others, from the voices in our own heads.<\/p>\n

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you….As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.<\/em><\/a> (Nelson Mandela)<\/p>\n

Promoting our work isn\u2019t boasting. There is nothing wrong with saying, Yes, I wrote that. It\u2019s not perfect but it\u2019s good. It has something to say to the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fear holds us back. Fear of rejection. Fear of success. Fear of being ignored.<\/p>\n

I will be sixty-two next month. It has taken me a very long time to get a grip on my own self-doubt. In order to produce good work we need to be self-critical and we need to be able to take criticism from others, but we shouldn\u2019t allow that to stifle our voices.<\/p>\n

My third book comes out this month. This time I am self-publishing through Matador. I\u2019ve had doubts. I still have doubts. What if people don\u2019t like it? What if they criticise the subject matter? After all, I\u2019ve never been in a war, I\u2019ve never been a refugee \u2013 what gives me the right to write about such things? Is the book compelling enough? Are the characters believable? And so on. These nagging questions are always going to be there in one form or another but we, as writers, have to face up to them.  I<\/em> have to face up to them. Not everyone will like my book, not everyone will like your book, or perhaps our books will be ignored \u2013 which, in a way, is harder than a critical review.  As Anne Lamott says, I still encourage anyone who feels compelled to write to do so. I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all it is cracked up to be. But writing is. Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises.<\/em> (Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird \u2013 some instructions on Writing and Life).<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t that what matters in the end? That you did it. You wrote it. It\u2019s all yours. Be proud. Stand tall. Don\u2019t let anyone cut you down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Building your confidence as a Writer First published in Electric Dreams, April 2018 While I was sitting, staring out of the window wondering what to say and worrying if it would be the right thing for the blog, it came to me that I needed to write about confidence – or a lack of it. … Continue reading Building confidence<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":728,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/755"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1058,"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/755\/revisions\/1058"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}