Who's Really Behind The Voice That's Blocking You?

Sometimes it's an internal voice. Sometimes it's an actual voice, literally telling you to stop. Weirdly, the first one is harder to manage.

Who cares what I have to say? Who am I to write a personal essay/memoir/novel? Why would I even try this? Who do I think I am?

I hear this sort of thing a lot from writers and would-be writers. Who cares about my story? I’m nobody, says an accomplished woman writing a brilliant, sexy memoir. She’s an incredibly smart and funny writer with a fascinating story to tell. I know you want to read her book, but it’s going to take her a while to feel that in her bones.

Then there are the stalled novelists. I’ve been working on this novel in fits and starts for years, says a talented wordsmith who writes copy for a living but dreams of publishing a book, and yet I’m afraid to really go for it. What if no one wants to publish it? Or, maybe worse — what if it gets published, and everyone hates it, and judges me?

Listen. I want to hear your story and your voice, and I bet a lot of other readers do to…