Papa, I can see that my work is being sabotaged by my own self-doubt. (Is it really Hemingway online? Will anybody believe it? If they do, will they care? If they would, can I put the material into an enjoyable, accessible format? Etc.)
How would you expect to avoid such doubts? That’s part of the territory. You know the writer’s three fears.
I do. I have nothing to say, I can’t say it, nobody would care anyway.
Well, if you know they are common fears, why give it to them when they visit you? Or dwell within you, if that’s the case?
It takes a monumental self-confidence, it seems to me, to be so sure that what you’re doing is worthwhile and can be done.
Yes, or courage to do it without being sure.
All right. Sort of like me working on the novel, not really knowing how I’m going to do it, not having any surer footing — at all — in what I am doing now.
So? That’s part of the admission ticket.
Frank,
Thanks for posting this. It gave me the motivation to push thru some writer’s block I was having this morning.
Bob