Permission To Suck — WNP 097
*NOTE: This episode originally appeared on www.sarahwerner.com on October 21, 2020.
Imagine you are sitting down, and an idea comes to your head for a story or a subject that you are excited to write about. What happens after you get that idea, that light bulb moment?
Do you quickly sit down, create it, and let it out for the world to see, or are there some lingering internal battles that begin flaring up?
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The Writer’s Doubts
Starting at a young age, many of us were taught to never give less than perfect or to ensure our work was as close to perfect as possible.
There was no success in “less than” what was expected (i.e., perfection), and therefore perfectionism was instilled in everything in our everyday lives, including our crafts, our hobbies, our free worlds.
Many of us felt “unworthy” in some way because we were unable to create to the expectations of others (which we interpreted as perfection), and our labels of ourselves are “less than” cause us to reject or shy away from any success or feelings of accomplishment from our work.
The Writer’s Truths
We have permission to be free in our creativity. We do not have to have special degrees or training — truth be told, there is no specific “right way” of doing it. There is no specific schedule that you have to follow. There is no perfection that has to be achieved on the first try (or ever).
Growth and success, and even greatness, do not start off with us being perfect. They come from a place of awfulness. A place where we just really suck. A place of writing through our own array of emotions. It’s how our lives are impacted, so why can’t our stories be impacted this way as well?
Your Permission Slip
The secret is, no writer is perfect. No one has ever or will ever create the perfect piece, even with a team behind them helping them. So go ahead and give yourself permission to write whatever you want.
Give yourself permission to be raw, pour all of your emotion and chaos. Make the biggest mess. Make garbage, then come back and move it around. Mold it, play with it, build it. Forgive yourself, and then feel proud of yourself.
I’ve said before on this show that if you feel pulled to write if you feel called to write, then you have permission to write. If you need it to be official, I hereby give you a permission slip that says you have permission to write.
There is no specific class, path, or way of writing — otherwise, we would all be writing the same stories. There would be no climax in a story, there would be no questions or anything that would tie you into a world to escape it.
Here is your permission slip, your permission slip to suck but then also permission to grow, to become, to thrive, to succeed, and to simply enjoy your craft, and to fill your personal needs.
Tell me your thoughts.
I would love to know, do you feel like you have permission to write? Do you feel like you have permission to call yourself a writer? Do you feel like you have permission to suck at writing? And do you feel like that’s a good thing?
Originally published at www.sarahwerner.com on October 21, 2020.
