You’re Not an Impostor

All writers, no matter how good or bad we are, tend to go through some phase where we think we’re basically some sort of impostor, where it feels like we’re an alien who’s been sent here to record the human race, and figure out exactly what the human condition is all about. And because of that, well, we’re fully expecting somebody to come over to us and rip off our rubber mask and expose us for the alien that we are.

We all go through this.

That is, writers will always be that person who is on the outside looking in. That’s just part of who we are. That’s part of our very nature. We’re basically trying to find all these really cool little grains of reality and the only way we can do that is by looking in. We have to maintain a certain level of objectivity; we need to be the alien.

Because that necessary perspective, that is, where we’re necessary, we’re basically looking at things as they are we have a very definite different perspective on a decent average person. That is, we recognize the good and the bad in a person even as we can look at them overall. Most people don’t do that. They tend to look at people as either heroic or as villains. And there’s no real crossover. And that’s sort of what sets us apart at the same time because we recognize that difference. Obviously, we’ve got to be some sort of different race, because we’re obviously not looking at the same way everybody else is.

We’re obviously looking at from an alien perspective.

You’re trying to figure things out and you just look at it from a different perspective. But that’s what makes you a writer. Humanity needs that and it doesn’t make us any less human; we just have a different perspective. Just recognize that and learn to enjoy it.

So keep that in mind next time you feel like an impostor. That feeling will quickly subside, and you may even smile a bit as you realize that you like being a bit alien.