Insomniac Nightmares

I saw this Tweet on my timeline today:

It made me think about it a bit. I mean, most of us creative types tend to have a screw loose and a bit of an inferiority complex, so are likely to call ourselves “failures” in some fashion even if we hit J.K. Rowling levels. But in the end, does it matter?

Writers are meant to write, after all. I believe that; if you have a passion and a talent, it’s going to come out unless you make a deliberate attempt to crush it (or someone else makes that attempt for you and you accept that.) Does it matter if you’re successful or a failure? What is even the marker for that?

A YouTuber I watch regularly, Mista GG, said (in relation to something else entirely, but I think the statement holds true regardless) “Can I really do a bad job of making a video? I made the video.” It doesn’t matter how quality or not the product is for the base level of “did I do it?” It matters that you did it. A book or story you write can be absolute shit, but you still wrote it.

Personal pride may compel you to do better, or may hang over you with shameful disappointment, but it doesn’t change the basic fact. You wrote something. You made something. You did it.

Not doing a thing at all is the truest definition of failure, to me. You’re a failed writer if you don’t write at all.

But that’s just my opinion; what’s yours?