Name Your Ghosts -

October always feels like the right time to talk about ghosts. Most writers have a few ghosts haunting them and I find the best way to deal with them is to call them by name.

Let’s go through a few: There’s The Ghost of the Constant Critic, who reads over your shoulder, rolls its eyes and groans.

There’s The Ghost of Someone Already Said It Better Than You Ever Could, you’ll usually find this ghost wandering through libraries and bookstores looking very self-satisfied.

There’s The Ghost of Unfinished Drafts, this one terrifies a lot of newer writers as it drags its chains through a folder left unopened since spring. There’s the Ghost of the Rejected Work, it likes to giggle and remind you that you’re not as great as you think you are.

All of these ghosts (and there are plenty of others) tend to be loud, insistent and excellent at making you feel small, unworthy, unimportant. If you let them.

I once had The Ghost of the Prominent Literary Agent Who Told Me I Couldn’t Write. I not only named that ghost, I exorcised it.

How?

I wrote it out of existence. You can too—one story, poem, sentence at a time.

Happy ghost hunting.