Your Favorite Author

Are you one of your favorite authors? Why not? I believe that as you develop your writ­ing skills, you dis­cover that you enjoy your own work more than the vast major­ity of the released work you see in bookstores/magazines/etc. The world of the printed word sud­denly resolves into four levels:

1. Authors you respect/like because they are bet­ter than you at some aspect of the process.
2. Your work
3. Authors you might enjoy though you see flaws in their work
4. Crap (every­thing else)

I sub­mit that this is a good thing. We all know we have issues to work through as we write, but learn­ing to rec­og­nize good work is an impor­tant as learn­ing to track the flaws. There’s noth­ing wrong with con­fi­dence; the more con­fi­dent you are in your skills, the more com­pelling your prose can be. Don’t shy away from re-reading your own work because you enjoy it. That’s not nar­cis­sism, that’s an appre­ci­a­tion of victory.

Tags: Writing