Week 01: Friday Task -- Hall of Champions

[rejectionchallenge]

List three champions of your creative self-worth.

Be specific. Write down the good things that people have said and done to encourage you and your creativity, and the things within you that have helped your creativity thrive. Even small encouragements count. If you find it easy to filter compliments out of your memory and focus on the negative stuff, now is a good time to dig out and reconstruct some of those long-discarded affirmations. "Even if you disbelieve a compliment," Cameron says, "record it. It may well be true."

If you have a hard time finding champions in your own past and present, don't worry. Inspiring remarks by other artists, even if you haven't met them personally, are just fine. So is art and writing that gives you a feeling of permission -- and so is anything that inspires you.

Keep your champions near you. Don't discount them because there's a possibility they could be wrong. That isn't always for you to decide.

A reminder: Don't forget to schedule a date with your artist! If you feel like trying guided meditation this week, there are some easy and straightforward ones over here.

Did you do your morning pages today?

Comments

[sarillia]

I'm realizing that I have no shortage of champions of my writing. Teachers have always loved my writing. I remember going back as far as fourth grade I got compliments. There was an eighth grade teacher who shared a poem I wrote not just with my class but with another class as a good example of the assignment we were doing (as far as I know, mine was the only one she read). There was a tenth grade teacher who was disappointed in me for not applying for honors English the next year and once complimented my writing in front of the class while making a point about something else. There were comments on papers in my Honors English class in college that I will never forget, particularly one about how I have a strong voice that is all my own.

Even better, my friends have always been incredibly supportive. They have let me babble on and on about what I'm working on and how excited I am about my characters and my stories and encouraged me when I had problems. I have a very supportive group of online friends too.

Honestly, it feels like the only person who doesn't believe in me is myself. And sometimes even I think I can do this.

I had a good day today with my morning pages too. I was talking about the story I'm focusing on right now and discovered a theme that I want to emphasize when I'm finishing this and revising it later.

[rejectionchallenge]

That's good news! I'm glad you have so much support in the past and present.

Honestly, it feels like the only person who doesn't believe in me is myself.

This is a statement I relate to.

[ljwrites]

Like sarillia, one of my champions is also a teacher. I still remember what Ms. Kim, my homeroom teacher is fourth and sixth grades said in front of the class:

"Her writing is so simple, but you feel it in your very bones."

(Literally it was "it stabs you in the chest," but that has a very different connotation in English. I am the stabby writer!)

Since I've written a lot of fanfic I've also received comments on them. A recent reviewer said s/he was chilled to the bones reading my story, reminding me of Ms. Kim's comment. I've also had two beta-readers who were fans of my work and said they'd love to read my original stories. Well I'm finally gearing up for it, and thanks to them it feels more like a contribution I can make and less like a selfish indulgence.

[pebblerocker]

My guitar teacher was fantastic and did a great job of encouraging me. He didn't only tell me when I had done a particular thing well, he gave me a self-image as a guitarist: a guitarist good enough to be in a band, a guitarist as good as any boy, an accomplished sight-reader, a solid rhythm player.