One of the most common and quietest ways we stop ourselves is by quitting before we even begin. We tell ourselves we can't measure up, that we're too far behind, or that it's too late, or that other people have something we don't. But what we often forget to consider is context. Welcome to the Write It Scared podcast. I'm your host, Stacey Fraser, a formally repressed creative soul, turned fiction writer, story editor, and author accelerator certified fiction book coach. At Write It Scared, we tell the truth about why writing a novel is so hard by acknowledging that most writers grapple with two stories: the one they want to put on the page to the best of their ability, and the often subconscious internal story that prevents them from doing it. This show is designed to help you identify and rewrite the internal narrative holding you back while you discover and write the story you want to tell and learn all the tools to help you do that successfully. Join me each week for a new episode where we'll talk about writing to deepen our understanding of the craft and of ourselves as writers. Writing a novel is an inside job that we do not do alone. Welcome to Red It's Scared. I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in. Hi, writer. Welcome back to the Red It's Scared podcast, where we talk about the brave and messy act of writing our novels so that we can do it with more clarity, more confidence, and not feel so alone. I'm your host, Stacey Fraser, and today we're talking about one of the biggest lies that many aspiring authors tell themselves. That without a literary background, they cannot write a novel. Not true. In this episode, I'm going to show you why credentials don't matter nearly as much as persistence, passion, and the willingness to learn by doing. You'll hear a story from one of my coaching calls, my own journey of starting out late with writing, and the truth that what makes you a writer isn't where you came from. It's that you keep showing up. Now, helping writers work through self-defeating thoughts is something that I love to do. Honestly, what helps more than anything is just listening and being a mirror, which allows them to see what's really going on. Because so often it's not anything out there that holds us back. It's us, plain and simple. We look outside of ourselves, compare, and think, nope, I can't measure up. But that's just us fooling ourselves, trying to protect ourselves, really. And we don't need to. Not about this, not about writing and telling stories, not in that way. I was talking with a writer recently on a coaching call who had this beautiful story idea, and she lit up when she described it. She talked about how much it meant to her, how badly she wanted to finish it, but then she admitted that there are so many moments when she felt totally deflated. Like, what was the point? It was never gonna happen anyway. And so I asked what she meant by that. What did she mean by it's never gonna happen? And she looked at the books behind me on my bookshelf and she said, That finishing the book, making it into one of those. I don't come from a writing background. I don't know how to put that together or make something like that. And I got it because not too long ago, I felt exactly the same way. I didn't come from a literary background either. I didn't start seriously trying to write a novel until I was in my 30s, and that was barely a decade ago. Back then, I didn't have the skills, but I learned and I kept going, and I'm still learning. And just recently, I placed third overall in a first pages competition and first all overall in voice. Not because I had credentials, but because I stuck with it. One of the most common and quietest ways we stop ourselves is by quitting before we even begin. We tell ourselves we can't measure up, that we're too far behind, or that it's too late, or that other people have something we don't. But what we often forget to consider is context. And so instead of trying to talk this writer out of her fears or pile on a ton of reassurance about how books are built in layers, they are, or how many successful authors had no formal training, also true, I turned the conversation back to her and a moment she'd shared with me before. She told me about this moment in her life, real life stakes here, where she had no background, no training, no roadmap. But because the situation mattered to her, she figured it out. And so then I asked her, what's the difference between learning to do that and learning how to write a book? The truth is, when we take the self-defeating emotions out of the equation, when we boil it down to the bare bones, it's not that different. If you care, if you're invested, even if you don't feel confident at first, you can learn by doing. So here's the takeaway. Don't allow yourself to fail before you even start. Do not quit on yourself or your story just because you fear you lack the skill or the talent. The writing skill set can be learned. Trust me, I know. You should see where I started. Telling everywhere, weak verbs, poor sentence structure, grammatical errors all over the place, cardboard characters, flat storylines, and all that and more. And now I know how to write in a way that is engaging. Or at least I'm far better at it than I used to be. I am a writer because I decided to be one and stuck with it. So are you. Today I'm proud of what I write. I'm proud of the work that I put into it, and then I get to help others learn to do it too. And talent, talent doesn't matter for beings if you don't have the diligence to apply it and work hard. So if you've got the interest and the desire to pursue your writing and tell a story, don't hold back. That spark is more than enough to begin. The secret is to continue because you love it. So before you roll on with the rest of your day, push pause and ask yourself, what story would I be writing right now if I stopped assuming I had to get it perfect, or that I needed to know more than I do right now to begin? What might happen if you stopped measuring yourself against other people's journeys and outcomes and just let yourself begin? You do not need a degree, a background, or a stamp of approval to write your book. What you need is the willingness to keep showing up and keep learning, even when it feels messy, even when the doubts creep in. You don't have to earn the right to be here. You are a writer if you choose to be. So choose it today, this week, in whatever small, brave way you can, and then do it again tomorrow. Take small bites, my friend. Keep your passion for learning and storytelling front and center, and let go of the fear that it's not good enough as many times as you need to. And I'll leave you with the iconic words of the American writer Richard Bach, who said that a professional writer is just an amateur who didn't quit. I hope this episode was helpful. I'll be back next week with a new guest. See you then. Thank you for listening to the Write It Scared podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please make sure to hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. And please leave a review. Reviews help other writers like you find the voices and messages they need to hear to continue to write their stories. Let's lift each other up. Remember, you can be scared and still be unstoppable. I'll see you next week.