• Café Life is the Colony's main hangout, watering hole and meeting point.

    This is a place where you'll meet and make writing friends, and indulge in stratospherically-elevated wit or barometrically low humour.

    Some Colonists pop in religiously every day before or after work. Others we see here less regularly, but all are equally welcome. Two important grounds rules…

    • Don't give offence
    • Don't take offence

    We now allow political discussion, but strongly suggest it takes place in the Steam Room, which is a private sub-forum within Café Life. It’s only accessible to Full Members.

    You can dismiss this notice by clicking the "x" box

Impostor Me....

Invest in You. Get Full Membership now.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Paul Whybrow

Full Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2015
Location
Cornwall, UK
LitBits
0
We’ve discussed Impostor Syndrome before:

https://colony.litopia.com/threads/imposter-syndrome.4703/#post-56411

https://colony.litopia.com/threads/fake-it-till-you-make-it-impostor-syndrome.3799/

I was reminded of it by a brilliant cartoon in today’s newsletter from Hyperallergic.

moccafest-01-720x1043.jpg


I smiled at the punchline in the final box.

Once again, I’m feeling like an impostor, as I stumble around learning how to use Twitter and Instagram. I keep wondering: “What am I doing here? Will anything I post make a difference to anything?”

But, that’s part and parcel of being a writer. The world of writing and publishing thrives on creating doubt. Subscribe to one hundred newsletters from writing gurus and soon you’ll be inundated with advice on what you’re doing wrong...and, if you simply pay £450 for a weekend residential course, all of your errors will be chased away.

What a writer desires is some form of validation. Things get so uncertain, that we analyse the language used in rejection letters for solace!

I come alive when I write more of my WIP, which is how I know I’m real and not an impostor. Tweeting and posting on social media is restrictive and repetitive, as I tailor my words to have an effect—which makes me feel like a con man—get the punters’ confidence and maybe they’ll buy my books!

Impostor me...sort of.

How about you?

iu


Tony Schwartz (author) - Wikipedia
 
Oh no Paul, I've never felt an impostor. I do networking because I want and like to, also because being isolated upon a hill and in a non English-speaking country you get the urge, desire absolute compulsion to mess about with the rest of the human race on the web, in English.

If the truth is to be told, I'm 100% me on the stage as I am off it. Though I can understand, it is not everyone's cup of tea; much depends on your desires and needs and of course personality.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Further Articles from the Author Platform

Latest Articles By Litopians

  • Hat Thieves Beware
    Summer 2017… schools and nurseries were closed for the holidays, and the grandkids were kicking th ...
  • Writer Beware
    I think AI is inundating my email inbox with author scams. Apparently AI is somehow gathering data o ...
  • Bad advice
    I’ve been on X again. I know, I know. I need to stop, but something keeps drawing me back. Maybe i ...
  • Farty Towels?
    I’ve always found it strange that often the first thing guests ask me, when I check them in is, ...
  • Consequential Detritus
    Mars 20,025 Xenoarchaeological Survey Team Epsilon for Galactic Central Command Captain Mandible? Ye ...
  • The Writer’s House
    Bristol is one of my favourite cities. I visit here a few times a year, and the second part of my no ...
  • The Song of Bert and Harry: The Name of that Pub
    “We went for a pub meal last night,” Bert suddenly announced. “Nice place, all done out with ...
What Goes Around
Comes Around!
Back
Top