Recently, I shared this anecdote about the self-doubt that plagues writers and the importance of managing it. The response has been overwhelming. 

Your declarations of I AM A WRITER! have filled our inboxes for weeks. Your messages of empathy have kept us company when we felt alone with our words. And your personal stories have inspired us. 

Here are just a few:

"In a moment of inspiration after reading your email, I exclaimed 'I am a writer!' This earned an annoyed 'Shut up' from my awakened brother in the other room. Regardless though, I wrote three pages I otherwise wouldn't have tonight; thank you for helping me meet my NaNoWriMo word goal for the day!"

"I have to say that once I admitted it to myself, I never qualified it. I went all out. It happened at the checkout at Barnes & Noble in, say, 1998. I was 40. It took me that long to admit it. The checkout woman, with whom I became friends after this incident, looked at the three books I was buying and, casually, as she rung me up, asked, 'Are you a writer?' 

"Silence, as I thought about that one. A bit more silence, then, 'Yes, I'm a writer.'"

"I have put 'be fearless' on the wall next to me. On a post-it of course."

Yes, be fearless! Be inspired! But it's not enough to just talk about it; you've got to do something about it, too.

Go ahead, set a goal right now: what's one thing you will do for your writing life this week? And not just that--how will you do it? Reply to this email to let us know.

Totally inspired,
Justine

P.S. The winner of this week's Micro Fiction Challenge, "macher," will go down as one of the bigger machers in WriteByNight Blog history! Which is reward enough, right?