If you wish to become a better writer, you have to work on your craft. You also have to be humble. Yes, you should take pride in your work and be confident in your abilities as a writer, but you must still be humble. You must be teachable.
Only by remaining humble will you grow. If you are content with your writing as it is and have no desire to become a better writer, you should, by all means, embrace your ego. Spend your time creating complementary content instead of the actual books. Go on book tours followed by speaking tours. Make your spiel at every place you stop. You’ll gain followers. You’ll gain an audience that doesn’t note when you’ve made the same presentation two weeks in a row. You might even get a screenwriting deal and see your book turned into a television show or film.
If that isn’t you, you have the harder route. Yours is the way of humbleness, and it is a way that requires stamina and perhaps even a bit of stubbornness. You will have to stand strong when you’re asked for webisodes or blog posts or tweets. You will have to say the next book will be published when it it is time for it to be published and not a moment sooner. You will spend time revising and editing your work. You will have it read and critiqued by others. You will endure the criticism that follows the publishing.
Will all that effort and all that humbleness be worth it? Only you can answer that question. Only you know if you’ve given your writing your best efforts. Only you know if you have remained humble and teachable with your writing even as you become iron when faced with the dilemma of publishing in a world that is overflowing with content.
If you want to become a better writer, be humble. If you want to grow as a writer, be teachable. Learn from everyone. Be discerning of criticism. Pay attention to the critiques that matter and slough off the others. Focus on your end goal. If that’s better writing and being a better writer, you have only one choice: be humble.
Image: Brandy Dopkins (Creative Commons)
[…] I’ve talked about humbleness previously, but it’s a trait worth regular consideration. The humble writer is a growing writer. She views her role and her writing in the right manner. She is more interested in producing a good work than in preserving her ego. […]