Let Go of the Past (006)

In this episode I start getting a little personal about my own story as a writer. I don't think my experiences are particularly unique because I know a lot of writers, both amateurs and professionals, who suffer from The Dread Malaise of Regret.

Unfortunately, a lot of us look to regret as an inspiration. But it’s the worst place to go, emotionally, for inspiration, and I explain why.

I beat myself up for years thinking that being hard on myself would push me to do more and do better. It never worked, though, because the other side of the coin when it comes to regret is not inspiration or productivity. The other side of that coin is anger.

Don't get me wrong, you can do a lot of great writing being angry. Some of the best novels ever written were born out of pure fury. But that is a hard emotion to write from consistantly, and more often than not is oppressive to the creative spirit.
I talk about my time not writing and how it affected me, and how my regrets created a negative feedback loop of negative emotions creating a cycle of not writing > regretting > not writing > being angry about my regrets.

In this podcast I talk about how I got over that and what I have learned about confronting regrets. I also give you advice based on my experiences on how to move forward into writing what you love to read!