The Courage To Write As Our True Selves
A Commitment To Authenticity
“The tigers have found me and I do not care.” — Charles Bukowski
One of my favorite quotes. And for years, I misunderstood it.
The old me: Hey, I’m a tough guy. The tigers have shown up and I’m holding my ground. They can’t chase me off, ’cause I’m all in. I’m a writer and this is my journey.
After refining my process, I discovered a better and deeper meaning for this favorite quote: The commitment to authenticity.
The courage to face the truth and write about it. The courage to be judged, vulnerable, and rejected.
The courage to be unique and original. The courage to face the shame and darkness. The courage to write from the heart.
The courage to be me. And if it stirs the trolls, haters, and ‘literary snobs’, so be it.
After years of writing, I always focused on the destination rather than the journey. I also focused on the writer I wanted people to see and believe, and I’d always come up short. Worse when I faced the truth.
Instead of being authentic, I’d steal, recycle, and pass it off as mine. Bad move. Sure, I made a good thief — I was never outed. But it stunted my growth.
How to self-edit and out yourself? Look for the cliches in your writing. Instead of inserting your truth, you probably backed off and found something else. This worked for so-and-so. I’ll lift this scene, change it, and make it fit.
I also discovered that readers don’t want your versions of something else and what came before. Readers have been there, done that. I know, I’m a reader too.
Deep down, I knew what I was doing: Depriving myself of being the best writer I could be. The writer I was meant to become.
Frightening? You betcha. Bukowski wasn’t fooling around — these tigers are real and play for keeps.
Great. I’m still a nobody. Better yet, a nobody with his own dirty laundry. How do I climb out of this? How do I gain credibility?
Authenticity. As a writer, I reached my moment of truth. I was done being a copy-cat — a closeted…
