Breaking This Rule Made Me a More Confident Writer
Rules are there for a reason. But sometimes, you’ve got to trust your own voice
I never properly learned how to write. While I loved English all throughout school, joined the newspaper staff in university, and writing has been my primary occupation for over a decade, I still sometimes feel like I just made this profession up.
It’s dumb, I know. There is no one who ever bestows you the title of writer. So much of it is a blend of instinct and experience—as well as working on your ability to think clearly, so you can write that way, too. The fact that I’ve earned a living doing this, and people seem to respond to it, should be enough.
But sometimes, it’s just not. A particular comment or edit here and there can make me doubt my whole skillset and profession. In the past, a piece of feedback I’ve received is that I start sentences with conjunctions too often. It used to really get under my skin. I would go months without hearing it, and then someone new to my writing will say: “You’ve started a lot of sentences with conjunctions here that I had to edit out.” Cue thoughts of: Do I actually know what I’m doing? Does everyone think I’m an amateur?
This dramatic reaction is perhaps indicative of my own low-grade imposter syndrome…
