Good Evidence

I wrote a book called Everyone Has What It Takes not because I think everyone is a writer. I don’t. You have to like writing to be a writer the same way you have like golf to be a golfer. No one likes everything. Nor was I unaware of all the suffering and disappointment people experience while they pursue the things do love. Passion and curiosity may be the only authentic fuel for any endeavor, but I know firsthand that they will not inoculate you against struggle. You may still find yourself staring at another rejection letter thinking, “Maybe I just don’t have it.”

I wrote it because I am at the point now where I could look around at what I’ve accomplished, and from that evidence convince myself for a moment that, yes, I seem to be good at this writing/teaching/coaching thing. But only for a moment. If the creative life has taught me anything it’s that there is no publishing contract so big, no award so prestigious, no review so glowing that I will never doubt myself again. Maybe I had what it took then, but not anymore. Maybe the well is now dry, and I am no more capable of success again than a rank beginner.

Forget about the evidence. There will never be enough of it. I know how hard this is to do. I know how you can spend years and years in chronic uncertainty, believing the only remedy to your pain is the drug of acceptance and recognition. It will feel good when you get it, but like any drug, its effects will wear off and there you’ll be again. Maybe you’ll read another 5-star review on Amazon and you’ll feel better. Probably you won’t, because there’s a 1-star review right beneath it and what are you going to do with that?

Eventually every creative person must accept themselves, must accept that they were never actually waiting for anyone’s approval or recognition. It’s freedom, and it’s also the truth. The evidence is a distraction, existing as it must in the past. I can tell myself any story I want about what’s already been said or written, can terrify or build myself up. It doesn’t matter. It’s all fiction. Reality is forever pointed toward what’s being made, what will be shared, the new thing the only evidence of which is that I feel it growing within me.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com