All Writers are Narcissists

Well, we are.

We put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and our thoughts pour out. Toward what end? Why? What are we thinking will happen?

When I am writing in my big, leather-bound journal I purchased 14 years ago, I think about the person who will find it after I have died. I write with that person as my audience. Morbid? Weird? I don’t know. Do others do this?

And what sort of person thinks that there will even be anyone who wants to read it? This is why I think all writers are narcissists: we presume someone else wants to read and consider what we have to say. We presume that others will want to know what we are or were thinking.

“But Amy!” I hear you cry. “We don’t always write with an audience in mind. Sometimes we write for ourselves alone. Sometimes we write for therapy, to try and figure things out. That’s not narcissism!” Okay, fine, but why writing, then? Why not make some art or take a walk or have a cup of tea? Speaking of artists, are they narcissistic like writers? Do they make art only for themeselves, never sharing it with anyone? As children, we make art and immediately run to our parents to show them what we have done with our creativity. The art itself is not necessarily good or bad, it just exists and we are happy about it and we want to share that with someone. The sharing of it does something for us; we are taking a risk. As a child, however, I don’t think we realize the risk, because of our amateur status as humans. We simply share because we are happy about what we have done.

Is that the narcissism of writers? Are we all children, sharing what we’ve written because it made us happy?

Publishing is key to this thought I’m having. As with artworks such as painting or sculpture, publishing our writing simply means sharing it with others. It’s part of the writing process that we teach students in school. For real! We draft, we revise, we edit, we do that a few times, and then we publish. We share it with someone. Artists publish by simply sharing their work with the world somehow; they put their work on display. The Internet, and having a website, means we have an easy outlet for sharing our work with the entire world. Artists can share photos of their work. Writers can share drafts of their work. Like this blog, publishing our thoughts is easy as can be.

Is this narcissism?

If so, how do we get over it? The audacity of writing down words and then publishing them seems to indicate yes. How then, do we explain imposter syndrome in writers and authors? It exists, and can stymie the best of us, I think. Getting over that usually involves some thought process indicating, “This is me, and get a good look. This is what I wrote, and you should read it. I don’t care what you think.”

The way to get over imposter syndrome is to become more narcissistic!

Isn’t it?