Believe in Yourself and the World will Believe in You.

Rumki Chowdhury

Believe in yourself and the world will believe in you.

I use this phrase often. Here's why:

I graduated with my BA in writing from William Paterson University (USA) and completed my honours thesis which later became my first published novel, 'Her Feet Chime,' in 2008.

I remember believing in myself, enough to take my first draft into my honours class to take full advantage of my professor's and peers' criticism. The best criticism is the honest one. But, do not be discouraged by some of the criticism because it pushes you to become the best writer that you can be.  Criticism or feedback meant that my professor and peers believed in my ability to be the best writer I could be; but it all began with me, believing in myself.

Even so, writers, by nature, are perfectionists. Our writing is our aesthetics and no matter how many times we edit, we will often find ourselves filling in missing pieces, deleting, rewording, rephrasing, and so on and so forth. That's another reason why others' feedback is so crucial; it helps us find some sort of compromise, middle ground, or an end to our editing craze. We, thereby, develop our own individual style.

I then went on to do my MA in English literature from Queen Mary University (UK) because I loved analyzing, researching and discussing literary works. The thing about novels is that a discussion on one little word can take hours, talking about everything from historical to stylistic context. Networking with authors, reading other author's/writer's literary works also help develop individualism. Meanwhile, we understand what is marketable now or what are people reading?

Write, write, write. Keep an old-fashioned journal or the modern-day blog. It will help keep your pen in practice, while attaining feedback from readers. Do not be afraid to put yourself out there. Currently, I have two of my own blogs and I contribute to two others, as well as having my own journal to pen into. I always look for writing, research and networking opportunities because...it's fun! I love writing...and that's that.

If you're reading the Brit Writers Blog right now, it's because you obviously believe in yourself and soon, the world will too!