Ease up with the Loathing, writers & artists.

The following is going to make most people pronounce me a gigantically self important JERK, because apparently that’s the kneejerk reaction to anyone who doesn’t loathe and depreciate their work constantly

And it’s not addressed to anyone in particular nor is it a “callout” or a start for Drama,

BUT

I do in all frankness have a good gauge of what level of skill I am at with my own writing, the direction I want to go for my style, and where I need to keep improving. Not knowing what I can do would be extremely silly of me. I can see that in some ways I’ve grown a lot and I do pretty decent work. I think some of it is brilliant. I wrote it because I LIKE it. Someday, I hope more of it will be brilliant, if I work on it.

 And I say that

 not because I “brag”

but because I have to keep restating it to myself in the face of the problem whumpblr/writblr has got.

Y’all have GOT to stop constantly loathing yourselves and your work! It’s self-fulfilling, serves no purpose, and you cannot abuse yourself into confidence!

This is so damn prevalent, saturated, that I started to pick it up, when I’d never had much of a problem with it before! I began to doubt my own work, to wonder if secretly lots of people hated it if they hated their own comparable work so much. I began to wonder if I *should* hate my own work and doubt and second-guess and loathe the things I made, that I enjoyed so much.

 I’ve always been pretty happy with things I make, but now I have to restate that fact over and over to myself, or catch whatever it is that leads people to project their inner turmoil onto their work and insult it constantly.

 I’m not saying you can’t have struggles, heaven knows I’ve had more than few, I’m saying I would very much appreciate if people would quit with all this almost-constant unnecessary self deprecation.

It doesn’t make you polite. It doesn’t make you more moral. It doesn’t make you sound humble. And it doesn’t encourage you or other writers. It tears us all down. You and everyone who likes your stuff. “Oh this is garbage, I hate my writing, it’s all trash”  STAAAAAAAAAHP!

If not for the sake of your own view of yourself, stop so that you quit insulting the taste of those who like your work.

YOU! CANNOT! ABUSE! YOURSELF! INTO! CONFIDENCE!

Try maybe saying, instead of “Oh you will all hate this and it’s such garbage” say maybe “This is what I wrote yesterday, I feel a little insecure about some of it but I like other bits, and I can’t resist that one trope. thanks for reading!”

/end old fart rant