Stoke The Positivity

Introduction

I do have major problems with self-doubt and every day something tells me to destroy my friendships and burn everything I have written, and every day I fight this and win. I do find it strange that my imposter syndrome and self-doubt mean that when one person denigrates my work it hurts a lot, when people I once considered friends completely ignore my work while continually championing others that hurts as well.

The thing is I do have a lot going for me, I have self-belief and more importantly, I have real friends and an audience who love my work.

I set myself various targets, most of which I couldn’t ask for anyone's help on, like getting over four hundred Vocal subscribers, and over twenty thousand reads of my stories but they are now passed, and the thousand stories are entirely in my hands.

I do write pieces like this to let other people know my faults and imperfections.

So How Do I Cope

I go out for walks, meet my feline friends, attack the negative part of my psyche and try to affect me too much, and do everything to make my positive side win.

I listen to music as I create and sometimes create music myself.

While I have another seventy-seven stories to hit my thousand posts before 2023, there is a part of me that says “Just write poems, they only have to be a hundred words”, but firstly I see that as not a path I want to go down, and also a poem will take me a few hours to write, whereas straight prose, like this, can be done in half an hour.

Just because poems use fewer words it doesn't mean that they need less effort or can be knocked off very quickly. I almost always use a sonnet or a villanelle so which means attention to syllable count, rhythm and rhyme.

Essentially I keep moving, I look for ideas, and I will share what I create and hope that people may actually like it.

I know I find fiction difficult but I am not the only one. As I am writing this I have a poem forming in my head, there are a few words there which I am not sure how they fit together, but they will do, I always make them.

My writing is a sort of therapy, I can say what I want and I know people generally will either support or ignore me, and it is uplifting to be able to let the words go and land where they may in the consciousness of others.

I love reading others' tales and poetry and commenting on their work to show that I am there for them and support them, and encourage them to support others, and I always thank them for their support and where I can read a Vocal story of theirs hopefully swelling their bank account by 0.6c which is not much in itself but by encouraging others their profit will become worthwhile.

In Conclusion

We need to do everything to stoke our positivity, find things we like doing and that inspire us and find those people who lift our spirits and help us to create our stories.

Encourage and praise others, but also offer constructive criticism where appropriate. Never denigrate or show disdain for others but always stand up for what is right.

Keep looking up to the stars and see what you can achieve with your talent, you will amaze yourself.

Think that Bob Marley's "Keep On Movin'" is perfectly appropriate for me.