Believe
“If you don’t believe in yourself son why should anyone else?” My mother often said this to me as a child, usually while standing in line for our welfare cheque. The beautiful logic of this statement is undeniable. I have drawn on its power and strength my whole life. These words served as a platform for launching both my writing and business careers. I have a very healthy ego. I need it. I’m a writer.
Faith in yourself is the totally irrational belief that you can do something, be something even though you have no supporting evidence that you can. It’s amorphous like a rolling fog. Somewhere between a feeling and a certainty. It’s vital if you’re to succeed in writing.
Don’t get me wrong. A strong sense of self will not make you a better writer. Only the repetitive act of writing will do that. But it will give you the courage to try. It will also deflect the smirks of your friends, the jeers of your family and snickers of your colleagues while you hone and learn your craft.
If you’re still writing after you’ve done your half-a- million words of crap (usually a couple of books) it probably means, like me, you write because you have to. Like a chronic medical condition the characters and stories ping and bounce in your subconscious screaming to be given life. There is no cure. Hands to keyboard is the only respite.
After cashing the cheque, while eating a cheeseburger and fries, Mom would tell me"You know Steve we’re really not poor, we just don’t have any money.” The youngest of eight, I’d nod, too intent on enjoying the only meat I’d had in weeks to think about it. I never really understood her words until I completed my second novel and wrote my Mom’s eulogy. Wealth comes in many forms, money is just one.
Believe me.