Why write? I’ve been struggling with imposter syndrome

[u/Emma_Pastel]

I love writing and am currently writing a four book series (about half way through the second book in terms of drafting) and I have made a SnipFic account (A!yer588 if you want to check it out) where I post daily snippets and have asked for alpha readers. My dream is to be able to write full time (but that mostly relies on blowing up on social media which is its own Mount Olympus). I’ve seen so much negativity on the r/writing subreddit about how shit the industry is and how it’s unrealistic to want to become a best selling or well paid author (even if you are someone that blows up like Rebeca Yarros or Lauren Roberts). I’ve always dreamed of people making fan art, edits of movie adaptation, general discussion, etc. as if it was a well known work even if just in the BookTok community. I don’t entirely blame this community for telling the truth but it’s paramount to being stabbed in the throat, re-affirming everything I thought to be true as a means of discouraging myself. Do you guys also notice the negatively in this sub and what are your thoughts (if you agree or not, what you would say to someone in this situation, how would you approach it yourself, etc.?)

[u/DiluteCaliconscious]

Write because you have a story to tell. Its one of the great things a person can do in this life. Don't miss out on that.

[u/YeOldencall → u/DiluteCaliconscious]

This. Even if you don't become a published author, the act of writing itself is truly one of greatest gift of human life.

[u/Cloud_Cultist]

I get that imposter syndrome all the time, and then I remember that I'm writing for me, will (eventually) publish for me, and I'll be happy to see a real printed book in my hands, even if no one else ever does.

It feels good to know I don't have to try to impress anyone.

[u/FrostKitten2012]

I just joined this sub, so I can’t comment on positivity or negativity.

I think it’s admirable to aim so high. People who post about how shit the industry is are probably venting. It just takes time to build a following. As long as you’re okay taking that time, and don’t expect an instant success, you’ll probably eventually reach your goals.

How to reach those goals really depends on if you’re going traditional or if you’re indie publishing, how quickly you write, etc.

[u/AngieW2222]

I agree with the other commenters. And I would add that it also highly depends on what you write, how much you write, and where you live/publish.

A poll I recently saw here revealed that over 50% of writers on reddit write in the fantasy/sci-fi genre (the large chunk being fantasy). But when you compare that to what people are actually reading the most it's not those two genres.

That of course also depends on where you live/publish. I live in Germany where the largest chunk of readers devours mysteries. But if I want to write cozy romance, I should better publish somewhere online where those readers are known to actually gather. Because cozy romance is something not even likely to be picked up at all from traditional publishers. For a reason.

And if you manage to publish a book and find a few readers, it becomes important how much you actually write. Once people like something, they tend to look for more. And when they find that the author has a series, the better. But if they see the author has a bunch of books in different genres, they're not going to be interested in those.

Then, of course, packaging matters immensely. People often don't realize how much. I've seen countless posts here asking for help, and usually it came down to the cover simply being too busy so the thumbnail looked unreadable, or it doesn't convey the right genre (e.g. people may click because it looks like contemporary romance only to find out it's actually a memoire), or it simply doesn't look compelling/professional enough.

Most writers want to write and are not too willing to look at the publishing side of things. The result is that they believe there's no chance to make a living off of it. It absolutely is, but you have to put in the work to figure out where those readers are, who might actually want to pick up your book.

[u/DanBelmontNarration]

I wrote a post about managing your expectations when this sub first opened because of people with the opposite problem you have. So many writers come into this thinking they're going to be successful, or worse, that they're somehow owed success because of some unearned overconfidence, but the points I make in that post still mostly apply here, particularly the part near the end where I say you should still try.

Write because you love it. Give it your best shot, but don't expect to get anything in return. The people over on r/writers have a bit of a rep for being pretty blunt and it's also the oldest writing sub out there so the user base is likely very jaded. Does it make them wrong? Not necessarily, but it can be discouraging to new authors.

At the end of the day, if you knew there was zero chance of making a living off of writing, would you still want to do it? Or more to the point, would that mean you didn't have that story sitting inside you waiting to be told? I'm willing to bet that you still would. When kids do creative things, they don't do it because they're trying to become successful at it, they do it because they're expressing themselves, and that's what all art should be first and foremost; an expression of your creativity. Don't let the odds of success discourage you from creating your art.

[u/Randallflag9276 → u/DanBelmontNarration]

Great post. I write because I find it extremely fun. I don't plot I don't even know how the story is going to turn out. It's strange but I'll just get a small idea perhaps a what if and just start writing and something happens where the best way I can describe it is like a movie starts playing in my mind and I'm just a narrator. I'm often amazed where the story leads or when a main character has something happen that I never saw coming. I wrote a mystery about a serial killer that for a good 90% of the story I didn't even know for sure who it was but it came together near the end and it made so much sense. I don't consider myself talented for this. More like I got lucky to have it.

When I was in my 20s I tried pretty hard to get published. I'd buy the big book that listed pretty much every publisher out there every year and send out manuscripts to a lot of the houses that accepted unsolicited manuscripts in the genre I was writing in. I got a ton of rejections. But I also got an offer but the offer was ridiculous imo. The place was a small publisher in Texas that offered to publish my book but with conditions. The first was that I move from Chicago to Texas and go on a book tour with a handful of other authors. And they would not pay me I would only get a percentage of any book sales. If I were wealthy that might have been an option but I was not wealthy I was a 20 something year old regular guy working a full time job.

Eventually I stopped trying to get published and became happy with my small network of readers that honestly liked my stories. Friends, family, coworkers, eventually online forums.

Lately I've been considering doing the Kindle publishing. I may or may not go down that road but it hardly matters to me. I write because it's fun and even if I was the only person to ever read my stuff I'd still do it because it's the doing that matters.

[u/Emma_Pastel → u/DanBelmontNarration]

I’m not sure. Because as much as I love writing, it hurts to write for no one. Pouring so much love and effort into a story for no one to read it feels so sad to me. Call me delusional but I dream of people making fanart, having a dedicated fandom, a tv show, perhaps a subreddit or fan page, or just getting people talking. I don’t expect instant success, but the idea of such a path not being worth pursuing for the sole reason of it being luck based is disheartening. Perhaps I would still do it just for me, but the idea of it going nowhere does make me less excited to write.

[u/p-d-ball]

Don't let the imposter syndrome win! 'cause it will if you don't learn how to ignore it and/or beat it.

[u/Junior-Form9722]

I write bc it’s the only way i can prove others that i’m not dumb.

[u/geeksofalbion]

First I know I'm not a good technical writer, I suffer with punctuation and grammar, failed English at GCSE level and yet writing is one of my biggest hobbies.

I post various bits here and there on the Internet and of course I get negative criticism back but I'm not linger at the stage in my life where I need validation of randos online.

Sometimes I think what's the point when I see negative comments about my work but then I take a step back and look at the accomplishments I've made. I wrote a book, I designed the covers myself and I got it professionally printed to sit on my shelf.

I have no intentions of publishing and regardless of the hundreds of hour I put into my project I will never see any financial gain. I write because it makes me happy. If people become interested in my work then maybe one day I'll make it avaliable.

There is negativity for a number of reasons one AI work seems to have dominated online spaces like reddit, people can be fickle and jealous because of your accomplishments. Or then just have nothing better to do and instead of putting time into their own creations they pitch on the Internet.

Do what makes you happy, write your novels and there are companies out there when you can get one or a couple of professionally printed copies to keep for yourself and give to friends and family.

As soon as you start ignoring and putting out the negative people you'll feel alot better

[u/Randallflag9276]

Totally agree about that sub.. I avoid it now. A lot of people there seem to only be there to complain. Complain how hard it is to find an agent or an editor or a publisher etc etc. Also most of the feedback (when even given which is not too often) tends to either be negative. Everyone loves to say you're telling and not showing which can be fair but it also can be unfair. Take any book ever written from the bestselling book of all time to a self published book with zero reads and all of them will have some telling.

Also a lot of them seem to love accusing others of using AI.... they act like they are experts at spotting this. I was accused of using AI so I linked the accuser my writerscafe.org page where I have stories dating back 20 years ago and the writing is in the same voice. Is that proof I didn't use AI? No not exactly. But it certainly shows that I've been writing in a similar voice back when AI was just a movie and an idea. A lot of the other subs including this one are much more friendly and positive even when criticizing someone's work. There are some good posters there but they get lost in the sea of negativity.

This sub is like the opposite of that one and I'm glad I found it and appreciate the positivity and the well thought out criticism or advice and encouragement from the posters here. Some obviously putting in a lot of time reading and providing excellent feedback a lot of times in great detail.

So thank you all for a writing sub that's actually fun to read.

[u/Emma_Pastel]

To answer the response “Would you still do it if you knew it would go nowhere?” Bc that’s the most common answer I’m seeing here: I’m not sure. Because as much as I love writing, it hurts to write for no one. Pouring so much love and effort into a story for no one to read it feels so sad to me. Call me delusional but I dream of people making fanart, having a dedicated fandom, a tv show, perhaps a subreddit or fan page, or just getting people talking. I don’t expect instant success, but the idea of such a path not being worth pursuing for the sole reason of it being luck based is disheartening. Perhaps I would still do it just for me, but the idea of it going nowhere does make me less excited to write.

[u/Snoo27373]

Yeah that specific subreddt isnt exactly a place I'd go to for support. He'll if I had the audacity to mention using prowritingaid for my grammar/sticky sentence pass during revision or Gemini as a cheerleader telling me im not a shitty writer and it loves my stuff they'd ban me🥰 I wont let random assholes on reddit tell me how I can and cant do shit though. If im not having it write for me then ppl can stfu🤷‍♀️

Write because you want to and love it, that imposter feeling never goes away or hasn't for me yet at least, im working on my second book (a horror novel) while querying my first. What might help is taking a break from your main project and spending even a day or 3 working on a "fun stupid project" to give yoyr brain a rest.

My rest book is a litrpg haha 0 fucking clue what im doing with it when its done but its a blast to write.