Writers hold back from finishing projects, submitting work, and publishing books for a variety of reasons, but the biggest and most damaging is imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome tells various stories but every one is a variation on the same theme: Your writing isn’t good enough.
In an essay for Lit Hub, Robin Marie MacArthur talks about the importance of having the courage to write and to let your work be seen by the world. “I had an anxiety attack after publishing my first newsletter a few weeks ago. No joke,” she writes. “I felt remorse and embarrassment—the same things I felt when my two books went off to the printers, that moment when there was no turning back.”
Audre Lorde wrote that she had to share what was most important to her, even at the risk of it being “bruised or misunderstood.” While we fear judgment or even personal attacks, Lorde said we cannot live without visibility. Georgia O’Keefe and Toni Morrison reached similar peace with putting their work out into the world.
MacArthur says 90 percent of making art is courage. “The courage to listen to our instincts and the courage to trust them,” she says. “The courage to believe in the value of ourselves and our work. The courage to devote countless hours (days, weeks, years) to something with an unpredictable outcome. The courage to risk rejection and critique and a bad review. The courage to resist the cardinal rule of capitalism: that money equates success.”
Find the writers and books that give you courage, she suggests. “These are ones that for me radiate audacity and courage, both in subject matter and in form,” she writes. And then practice that courage yourself, as an act of generosity.Â
“Courage inspires courage, after all. It is infectious. It grows,” MacArthur writes. “Letting oneself be seen allows others to do so the same. And this vulnerability creates connection; this connection creates community.”
