Woe is me! Why did I think I could write this essay? What did I take this class? When you’re visited by these thoughts of woe (and you will be!), “Fear Not!”
You’ve chosen this class or topic, or it has chosen you, for reasons deeper than anyone knows, including you. Your desire, your interest, your life experience, your questions, maybe even your spiritual life may have something to do with this insistent need to address this subject. Trust your choosing and chosenness.
Some say "It’s been said better before." Of course it has. It’s all been said better before. If we thought we had to say it better than anybody else before us, we'd never even start. Better or worse is immaterial. The thing is that it has to be said; by us...by YOU. We each have to say it, to say it our own way. Not of our own will, but as it comes out through us. Good or bad, great or little: that isn’t what human creation is about. It is that we have to try -- to put it down in pigment, or words, or musical notes.
Fear is the perfect response before something grand and complex. This is partly why you’ve chosen it. If it were easy, you wouldn’t grow.
Of course you don’t. No one does. But if you are serious about this essay, your grades, your education, improving your writing, or achieving goals, you will find a way to re-order your life: stop watching Netflix, stop texting, remove yourself from snapchat, write in the final moments of class, write during passing period, get up half an hour earlier, take your essay with you when you're on-the-go. Yes, it costs you (and it costs others too, you must realize). Did you think otherwise? Count the cost to everyone and your momentary removal from social life. Then, if still so moved, carry on.
No one you know informs you of the outcome of their lives, do they? How many of your friends know where their lives are headed and how they will get there and who they will be once they’re there? You will not know this. Keep writing day by day, and you’ll find out what you need at the right time. The writing itself will get you there.
None of us is good enough to finish a project when we start. Some of us aren’t even good enough to start! By the time we finish, though, we have become more than good enough. The struggle, the long hours and the word-wrangling will get you there.
Someone WILL read your work. Maybe a few friends, the ones you really care about, maybe a few strangers, maybe the world of twitter, maybe one teacher. No one knows this when they are writing, and it has nothing to do with the writing.
Not so. You may be temporarily exhausted, but never fear! Your best writing keeps the muse coming back. And when she does, return to this list, pick yourself up—-and turn a new page.