How to Be a “Real Writer” In 2024 by Springing These Traps
Some may surprise you
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I’m sweating under my arms. Destroying the tip of my pen by repeatedly pushing it into the rings of my spiral notebook. The espresso machine hisses. Mugs clatter. People chat in little islands of conversation.
Notepads resting on the stained and scratched walnut table, each of us composes an ‘I am’ statement about our aspirations. I cover mine with my hand.
We go around.
I’m a novelist.
I’m a poet.
Journalist, another person barks.
Someone else whispers.
Sorry, we can’t hear you, you said…?
Now it’s my turn. My heart feels like a pumping lump in my chest and I feel like I’m going to pass out.
I’m a writer. Voice wobbling like my heart, I add, not a good one. And, I don’t write enough.
Why was this so hard? And what, if anything, can be done about such insecurity?
To find out, let’s examine some of the traps the writing world sets for the writer. And what magical “Open Sesame” might spring them.
