I think that sometimes you have to ignore what “the writing on the wall” says.

It might say that the odds are not in your favor, or that you will never make it as a writer – and while that might be true – I believe that you can only control what you can control.

You can show up and work, but the world gets to decide what value there is in your work.

Maybe there is a large value, maybe there is none, or – most likely – it will take some time to find out (just ask Van Gogh).

The crux here is that you want to know if you have what it takes. You are scared you don’t.

But only you can answer that.

And – for heaven’s sake – quit worrying about getting permission to write.

Just. Go. Write.

We writers are a thin-skinned, anxious lot, and often feel like we’re getting away with something, that we’re going to be revealed, at any moment, as the frauds we really are. Whether you are a writer just mustering up the nerve to sign up for your first weekend workshop, or filling out your MFA applications, or one gazing moodily out from a big poster in the window of your local Barnes & Noble, you are far from alone in this business of granting yourself the permission to do your work.

-Dani Shapiro, Still Writing