The expression "Imposter Syndrome" never played a part in my writing life when I was younger. I started writing when I was about 15. Before that, I wanted to be an animator, maybe working for Disney, or something like that. And then I started writing. I liked poetry, and fell in love with GUNGA DIN and Kipling's poetry. I tried to write like him. And then it was Tennyson and his IDYLLS OF THE KING, and I tried to write like him. And then my brother gave me a book by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and I thought, I can write fantasy. And so it went. I was always an imposter until I found my own voice, and my own style. And now I'm 65. Am I still an imposter? I never thought about it. It's taken me this long to think that I was good enough to put my own stuff out there and feel good about it. The thing is, I don't care if not everyone likes my stories. I have a following! I mean, me, an ex- blue collar worker with a grade 12 education sharing words with people who spent a lot of money on education. I think it all comes down to self-awareness. If I don't know something, I look it up. I've always liked history, so if I want to write about history, I look it up. Want to write a movie? There's lots of places online that will show you how. How about a play? I didn't know that the formatting was different from what you see in a book. I wrote a poetic novel when I got out of school because my parents asked me what I wanted to do. I told them I wanted to be a writer. They said, Okay, you can have a year off. They believed in me more than I believed in myself, and that helped a lot. So I wrote poems, and after writing a poem a day for three weeks, I got bored, and told myself I needed to tell a story. I wrote a book in ballad form: ROBIN HOOD. I spent a lot of time in libraries trying to figure it out. If ever there was an imposter, right? What right did I have to think I was a writer? I spend years writing novels, and then came up with an idea for an historical novel taking place in Ancient Rome. Back to the library. I called that my apprenticeship. I taught myself how to write one word at a time. So now I don't think of myself as an imposter, I think of myself as a writer in search of an audience. I feel confident in what I write and tell myself as long as the writing is good, as long as it doesn't feel like I'm forcing it, as long as I enjoy it, I am a writer. Anyone who spends every spare moment they have writing, has no right to think of themselves as an imposter. It's confidence in yourself, not conceit. It's a reckless abandon in knowing that you're no better, and no worse, than anyone else.
I didn't actually know what this phrase "impostor syndrome" meant and that I might have it until I read this insightful piece that I interpret as the way we tend to put ourselves down in comparison to others who appear to be more successful. As a teacher of creative writing I often tell my students to remember how unique each of them is and give them a first sentence of a famous story to imitate. The imitations are always original and unique to the voice of the writer. When I read these, I must then remind myself of what I taught and learned. It's so easy to be discouraged by what we tend to view as a race to the finish line when what we need to do is stay in the game (as my horoscope told me today:)--not a particularly original thought--but sometimes the trite turns out to be true. xo for this encouraging post and the one on Medium, too. Karen.
Good suggestions. It helps also to remember that imposter syndrome is in effect the inverse of the Dunning-Kruger effect, whereby people lacking in knowledge or skills overestimate how knowledgeable and skilled they are.
Something a friend said to me once helped a lot. I told him I didn't feel that I'd earned the status I was enjoying, and he said he thought that was extremely egotistical of me! When I asked why he told me it was because I clearly thought I knew more about my abilities than the people who had appointed me and the other people who were praising me. A good point.
After all said and done, people with imposter syndrome are more pleasant to hang out with: they tend not to post Tweets etc telling the world how wonderful they are!
The expression "Imposter Syndrome" never played a part in my writing life when I was younger. I started writing when I was about 15. Before that, I wanted to be an animator, maybe working for Disney, or something like that. And then I started writing. I liked poetry, and fell in love with GUNGA DIN and Kipling's poetry. I tried to write like him. And then it was Tennyson and his IDYLLS OF THE KING, and I tried to write like him. And then my brother gave me a book by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and I thought, I can write fantasy. And so it went. I was always an imposter until I found my own voice, and my own style. And now I'm 65. Am I still an imposter? I never thought about it. It's taken me this long to think that I was good enough to put my own stuff out there and feel good about it. The thing is, I don't care if not everyone likes my stories. I have a following! I mean, me, an ex- blue collar worker with a grade 12 education sharing words with people who spent a lot of money on education. I think it all comes down to self-awareness. If I don't know something, I look it up. I've always liked history, so if I want to write about history, I look it up. Want to write a movie? There's lots of places online that will show you how. How about a play? I didn't know that the formatting was different from what you see in a book. I wrote a poetic novel when I got out of school because my parents asked me what I wanted to do. I told them I wanted to be a writer. They said, Okay, you can have a year off. They believed in me more than I believed in myself, and that helped a lot. So I wrote poems, and after writing a poem a day for three weeks, I got bored, and told myself I needed to tell a story. I wrote a book in ballad form: ROBIN HOOD. I spent a lot of time in libraries trying to figure it out. If ever there was an imposter, right? What right did I have to think I was a writer? I spend years writing novels, and then came up with an idea for an historical novel taking place in Ancient Rome. Back to the library. I called that my apprenticeship. I taught myself how to write one word at a time. So now I don't think of myself as an imposter, I think of myself as a writer in search of an audience. I feel confident in what I write and tell myself as long as the writing is good, as long as it doesn't feel like I'm forcing it, as long as I enjoy it, I am a writer. Anyone who spends every spare moment they have writing, has no right to think of themselves as an imposter. It's confidence in yourself, not conceit. It's a reckless abandon in knowing that you're no better, and no worse, than anyone else.
And now, I'm going to go and read that article...
I didn't actually know what this phrase "impostor syndrome" meant and that I might have it until I read this insightful piece that I interpret as the way we tend to put ourselves down in comparison to others who appear to be more successful. As a teacher of creative writing I often tell my students to remember how unique each of them is and give them a first sentence of a famous story to imitate. The imitations are always original and unique to the voice of the writer. When I read these, I must then remind myself of what I taught and learned. It's so easy to be discouraged by what we tend to view as a race to the finish line when what we need to do is stay in the game (as my horoscope told me today:)--not a particularly original thought--but sometimes the trite turns out to be true. xo for this encouraging post and the one on Medium, too. Karen.
Good suggestions. It helps also to remember that imposter syndrome is in effect the inverse of the Dunning-Kruger effect, whereby people lacking in knowledge or skills overestimate how knowledgeable and skilled they are.
Something a friend said to me once helped a lot. I told him I didn't feel that I'd earned the status I was enjoying, and he said he thought that was extremely egotistical of me! When I asked why he told me it was because I clearly thought I knew more about my abilities than the people who had appointed me and the other people who were praising me. A good point.
After all said and done, people with imposter syndrome are more pleasant to hang out with: they tend not to post Tweets etc telling the world how wonderful they are!
Imposter syndrome is egotistical, love it, Terry! That's a fabbo paradigm shift and beautifully contrarian!
😂 Thanks, Karen!
I wasn't aware of "imposter syndrome" - I think I can intuit what the term means - perhaps it may have been helpful to define it early on.
I know, right! So embarrassing that I didn't spell it out, since I pride myself on my fluff-free clear and concise writing!