If it’s bad, I’ll hate it because I hate bad writing, and if it’s good, I’ll be envious and hate all the more. You don’t want the opinion of another writer.
– Ernest Hemingway, Midnight in Paris
When introducing myself at parties, I have joked that I’m a “Kanye West apologist.” I’m a big fan of the rapper, and one of his lines off his first album on the track “Last Call” about using “arrogance as the steam to power my dreams” is important to me.
In other posts, I’ve talked about the moments of doubt and personal reflection, and there’s a counter to that I want to discuss.
You have to also believe that you could be the best.
I’m writing my “third” novel now and if I resign myself from the start to it being “just another” in the line of stories and measurement of success that I’ve thus far obtained, then at best, I’ll half ass the work on it. At worst, I’ll be unable to work on it all.
I’m not as absolute as Hemingway’s character in Midnight in Paris above- I genuinely love reading other peoples’ work. Whether friends or keeping my personal reading habits up, it helps me with my own writing to be exposed to others’ prose. However, when it comes to producing, editing, and improving my own work, I try to maintain an attitude of “how can and how will my writing be better than this?”
My desktop background here on my personal computer is the “B” shelf in the fiction section at my local Barnes & Noble. It’s my goal. I want my place on that shelf. I work in the belief that each story I begin could be on the shelf, and work until I feel confident they should be.
I work in the belief that each story I begin could be on your shelf in your home.
I work until I feel confident a story should be on your shelf in your home.
Art certainly begins with self-motivation, but I’m not writing just for me. If I were, I’d call each project finished after only half the work I already do on them. I’m writing for you, because I believe you could and should be my next biggest fan.
Good morning. Welcome to graduation.
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