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Lately I’ve been going through a real rough patch with my writing. The world’s on fire so at times making the words happen is a struggle. But it’s been more than that too.

For a good portion of 2018 my mind has thrown every variation of “You’re a poseur writer� “You’ll never come up with any additional good ideas or concepts� “You basically had three ideas and you’ve done them already� at me.

Spoiler alert: even if it’s categorically untrue, it doesn’t make those thoughts hurt any less.

But then something happened that helped. I talked about my writing!

My wife Erin and I were taking our dog for a walk when I shared that I was beating myself up mentally. That by itself is a big deal.

And in the course of our walk-n-talk I described some of the works in progress I have…in the works. Again, this is also a big deal.

A detour if you will ’cause maybe some of you other writers feel the same way. Do you ever feel almost “ashamed� to talk about what your books are about? Especially with people like coworkers who either A) don’t know you’re a writer and/or B) don’t read/like your genre? And you’re describing what your book is about and it just sounds so, so silly and ridiculous and cringe-worthy? I don’t mean cringe-worthy in the sense that your book has problematic rep (though that’s always a possibility!), but just that somehow people will judge you for liking this kind of stuff, let alone creating it.

Wow okay, that’s a lot of shamebaggage to unload on you all. Solidarity if you feel the same way. Solidarity.

Anyway, I talked to her about some of my projects. And to my surprise she stops and says, “That sounds awesome!�

*record scratch*

What? One of my ideas sounds good?

We talked some more as we wrapped up our walk. And just that 15 minutes of discussion gave me such a boost. (It also helped that I put this particular project on the shelf after hammering out a very, very rough draft a little over a year ago). But still!

Talking about a project–highlighting what you want to do with it, the thing that got you excited about it in the first place–as a way of restoring your writerly morale. Who knew that would work?!

Of course, YMMV, but I’m so grateful that I have somebody in my life who will listen to me ramble about my ideas without judging how “cool� they are. And yes I mean cool as in the tool-cool-for-school-caring-about-things-is-for-losers kind of way.

If you’re looking for a way to quiet down those doubting voices, try talking.

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