As I’m plugging away at this novel, I can’t help but sometimes have nagging thoughts in the back of my head.

“This is crap.”

“No one will like this.”

“Meh.”

You know… normal stuff. But the further I get in the process, the more excited and proud I get. I remind myself that I’m only on the first draft, and it can only get better. Even so, I read back some of what I have written, and I get so giddy I just have to share it with someone.

Every now and then I’ll share little snippets with fellow authors on Twitter, and their responses inspire me to keep going. And I think maybe… just maybe… people will actually love what I’m writing!

I mean… I love it. So that means other people will love it, too, right? Right.

Being a Creative is a constant struggle between needing validation from others and staying true to yourself. You want to create something that people will love while also loving it yourself.

Something inside of you thinks that if someone does not like what you create, then you are a failure.

But that is not the case at all.

While in my back-and-forth between “this sucks” and “this is awesome,” I know as long as I keep on going, there are people out there who will be excited about what I’m making. But if I quit, I have zero chance of that.

Someday, I will be someone’s favorite author.