Gurgh. He's right.

[elfs]

It's been a crappy day of debugging a great language with terrible debugging tools, and on top of that I stumble upon Varieties of Insanities Known To Affect Authors.

I count myself guilty of several:

• He wrote that how fast? And that's his first draft? Aaaargh! He's the real writer. I'm just a talentless plodder who's put together a bag of tricks.
  
  
• I'm not a real writer. I don't know what I'm doing. I just dash this stuff off. For some reason, people seem to like it. Or anyway, they've liked it so far.
  
  
• He's a real writer. I just make stuff up. He writes from the heart. Alternately: He's genuinely creative— a real writer. I just endlessly rehash my own stuff.
  
  
• Any day now, everyone's going to see through me.

The last is the most paralyzing.

Comments

[pr10n.livejournal.com]

Aughhhh! That's me in the mirror too. Here's one of mine: "I have the respect of my peers; other writers admire my work. That's good enough for me."

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I'd consider that last one a challenge. Just how long can we string'em along? Writing is an endless walk on the high wire... how fancy can we get and not end up in the net?

Dasn't matter what it is, it takes a while of doing something to build up your ego about it...

[xlana.livejournal.com]

Guilty of all the ones you listed, plus the one about "my first book is done, I've done all the hard work, it's going to get easier from here on out."

Original one of mine: "Why should I spend the time describing it when I'm just going to illustrate it when I'm done?"

[mothball-07.livejournal.com]

That last one affects all sorts - not just writers. Common thread in the Math research group I was in, and again in grad school in CS.

You just have to look around and think "They all think their fakes too."

[qe2.livejournal.com]

In my experience, that last is the most paralyzing no matter what endeavor one's involved in. Writing, school, work, sex - nearly anything can trigger the Transparency Phobia.