I am not a great writer · Feb 26, 03:25 AM by Scott McNulty
I am not a great writer. Hell, I’m not even a good writer, but that is the secret to my ‘success’ (in quotes because really, would a successful man be writing a blog entry on a seldom visited blog at 3am on a Sunday morning?) as a writer.
I am one of those rare folks that gets paid for their writing. Now, you look at my various writing endeavors and you think to yourself, ‘How the hell is this chump getting paid to churn out this drivel?’
I’ll let you in on the secret: I don’t second guess myself. My day to day life consists mainly of second guessing myself, but when I sit down to write something I am certain that it will be acceptable, passable at best, and that is good enough. If you embrace your limited talent then it makes things so much easier to do. Don’t end up like Joseph Grand in The Plague (I couldn’t stand that book, but the image of Joseph Grand working on the opening line of his own novel for years is an image that has stayed with me for years, long after all the other details of that book have left my little mind).
Am I seriously recommending mediocrity as the path to writing nirvana? Yes, I am. You can’t perfect your voice if you are too worried about what people will think to write anything, or to share what you have written with people. It is a given that people won’t like what you have written. Heck, some people don’t like Shakespeare and I can guarantee you that you are no Shakespeare.
Writing is the best way to become a writer (that’s like a zen koan, or something).
