I had to disappoint my ego

The hardest part of spending more time writing fiction was giving myself permission to truly suck at something again.

I’ve been writing non-fiction online for over a decade.

I know how to structure an article, how to open strong, and how to hold a reader’s attention for a few hundred words. I’ve built a living around it.

When I decided to explore fiction, I wrote a few short stories and felt like a right old clueless klutz.

It’s why I stalled on and off for months during the first few years.

My ego hated that feeling of not being good at something.

It hated every clunky chapter and every scene that read like a first-year creative writing exercise.

It kept whispering that I should go back to what I was good at, where the money was more reliable and the work felt safe.

It took me a while to whisper back and gently remind it to shut its dirty little pie hole.

Safety is dangerous in this way.

Because it made me comfortable AND kept me from working on my dream creative projects.

My ego kept me doing the ‘sensible’ stuff, but it also kept me from the work I knew I’d deeply regret not doing later.

So I started giving fiction my best morning hours.

I sat with the discomfort of being a beginner. I wrote terrible dialogue, obvious descriptions, and scenes that went nowhere, and I kept going anyway.

And momentum built. Creativity started to flow. The habit built.

And my ego stepped to the side more often.

Doing more of what you know you MUST do takes courage. It takes self-respect.

And it starts now.

If you’ve been putting your creative work last, giving it the tired end-of-day scraps and wondering why nothing moves forward, you might like my book, The Art of Self-Respect.

It reveals the 25 habits that rebuild how you see yourself, including how you protect your time and stop treating your own creative ambitions as optional.

This is the foundational book that helps you take action on the things that matter most.

Grab The Art of Self-Respect here (includes 3 bonuses you don’t get anywhere else).

Peace,

Alex