I wanna talk real quick about something that’s really important to me—believing in yourself & your work
When I went to Clarion, I was 21 & fresh out of college. I was really shy about my writing & didn’t show it to anyone; my partner didn’t even know I wrote, period
I had this story I wanted to write. I thought it was cool but I also was really afraid that it was utter bullshit, & too weird, & too dark, & bc of that I almost didn’t write it
I had encouragement from my Clarion instructors, who told me to write the story I wanted to write, not the story I thought I should be writing. So I wrote my weird gross story & hoped no one would judge me
That story was “The Fisher Queen,” & it was nominated for the Nebula Award & several others. I was fucking blown away.
Today I’ve been thinking about @visyap’s thread about getting back into writing & falling in love with the imperfect, & I think that’s easy to lose sight of
You have to learn to believe in your ideas while knowing that they’re imperfect, that maybe they’re weird & risky & personal—but if they satisfy you, then perhaps people will respond
Your best work will happen when you fall back in love with your ideas, & remembering that if they satisfy you, then that’s the most important thing they can do
Confidence comes when you believe in what you’re doing. Having confidence in yourself & in the strength of your work is this strange ouroboros. But you gotta do it!!!!
Maybe your thing is elf butts!! Maybe it’s immigrant stories!! Maybe it’s buff muscley men fighting each other or quiet stories about people holding hands over tables. Chase your passion, chase your weird, & be unapologetic about it.
