August 25th, 2023 was a day marked on the calendars of many writers, because it was the day the quarter-finalists were announced for the Final Draft/Big Break Screenwriting Contest. I was one of the many who were disappointed that their entry didn’t make the cut. It’s on days like that, when you’re discouraged, that you have to make an effort to avoid negative self-talk. One of the worst words you can use, is the highly toxic term, wannabee.

The term wannabee is dangerous for writers because it can be so discouraging, making us feel that only writers who have written bestsellers or have won awards are real writers and the rest of us are, well, just wannabees. And yet, we are writers, because we continue to craft stories, with no guarantee that our work will be published or if self-published that it will be popular.

If you have a private pilot’s license and you enjoy flying your single engine aircraft, you’re not a loser because you aren’t in the cockpit of an F-35 jet fighter. You just love to fly, and take to the skies every chance you get. Writers love to sit down at a keyboard, accepting the challenge of taking the images in their minds, and creating original stories that others can read and enjoy.

Any challenge worth pursuing involves risk. The fact you’re willing to accept risk by entering contests, submitting work for publication, or posting it in public, knowing it may be criticized, proves you aren’t a wannabee. How serious a writer you are, can’t really be measured by how much you write, because everyone’s schedules are different. Being discouraged doesn’t make you weak, because disappointment can be very difficult to overcome.

Consider how many chain stores you see in shopping malls. You could walk through a dozen shopping malls and barely seen any difference, other than the order in which the stores are arranged. And the food courts? You can probably guess the brands before you see them. If you’re actively writing, you aren’t a wannabee, you’re an artist accepting the responsibility of creating something unique every time you write a story.

The reason that you can write something original, is because you’re an original. Only one person out of over seven billion has your imagination, and that’s you! Take some time today to write, and show us what you can do.

Copyright © 2023 by J. Paul Cooper