Why Don't Writers Trust Their Own Talent?

We writers have an inherent self-esteem problem. The trad publishers have known this for the last forty years. They've preyed on writers and used gaslighting and threats to keep writers under their collective thumbs.

You'd think with the advent of Amazon's Kindle and other indie publishing routes writers would trust their own instincts. But nope. Writers as a collective don't trust their own skills to write a good story, but we don't.

Instead of relishing our freedom under the new paradigm, we recreate the same psychological obstacles that had been inflicted on us through trad publishing.

Writing by committee has transformed from the publishing house editor and your agent to beta readers and book doctors. The problem is the writers using this method feel they need outside validation in order to succeed in this industry.

Under a similar outside validation need are reviews. Writer beg for reviews. However, those reviews, both good and bad, affect the writers in the worse ways. If the reviews are overwhelmingly positive, the writer stops learning and experimenting. They fear changing their style, but that style becomes stale over time, and they lose readers. Or if the writer receives bad reviews. they often quit doing something they loved, even become suicidal due to the perceived rejection.

No one likes everything, and a story won't be liked by everyone. Invariably every writer gets bad reviews. However, many of these reviews have nothing to do with the writer's actual work. In fact, reviews are often weaponized for a multitude of reasons, including jealousy and hatred.

Seriously, my favorite bad review of my own claimed I wrote anti-white, feminazi propaganda. And this was for a superhero story.You've got to laugh at people who take things so passionately the opposite of a work's intent.

I believe a lot of this need for outside validation stems from a fear of failure But outside assessments have nothing to do with a writer's success or failure. In the long run, using other people to review your work, whether prior to or after publication, is no guarantee of success, money, validation or whatever need isn't being met in the writer's soul.

Write what's in your heart, what entertains you, and/or the story you haven't seen in your that tickles your fancy. Most of all, enjoy the process.