Do you have a healthy writer's ego?

Novelist in Paradise · Aug 3, 2006

From an online interview with TC Boyle (http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/07/30/bk.boyle.0730.p1.php?section=oregonlife)

Question: Would you say you have a healthy ego?
Answer: I think you have to in order to produce art. Maybe I'm a little more vocal about it, but every writer's ego is just as big or bigger. You're always uncertain, and you're always putting yourself out on the line. ... Just the act of declaring yourself an artist of any kind is a monumental act of the ego. And of course you're always asking for attention. You need attention. You need an audience, you need to communicate to somebody.

*****

What say you about your ego? Me, about mine: I always knew I was going to be a writer, and after trying to avoid that fate, I've surrendered myself to the fact that I'm most happy when unhappily writing.

To be honest, I would much rather be a world class mathematician (I'm not joking).

.

KTC · Aug 3, 2006

bullstuff. I don't have an ego and I'm the greatest living artist I know.

Just kidding.

I don't think though, that you have to have a high ego to declare yourself an artist. I think you have to have a passion for seeing beauty. Period. This makes you strive to create beauty.

Cassiopeia · Aug 3, 2006

I have always kept my writing hidden. For many years I abandoned it. I call that my dark age. I was into be a successful business person, President, Ceo...if there was a title I was glad to work at it and own it.

I allowed myself to start writing again after I sold my half of my company, divorced my husband and started traveling abroad and playing with my three kids that had to come to work with me only to be ignored most of the time.

The only ego I have is attached to those accomplishments and as the years pass that fades too.

I think I must agree with KTC, to be a writer you have to see beauty. I will add to say that you need to be able to see pain and suffering as well and learn that within all of life's experiences there is something to be spoken, written of and to be shared.

~Casi~

KTC · Aug 3, 2006

I would lump pain and suffering in with beauty. All things distill to create beauty. There is beauty in suffering and tears. Real beauty.

bubblegirl · Aug 3, 2006

I always loved reading and had a talent for English essays and fiction writing. Then I considered it a side issue while going to university etc. When I got sick and housebound, writing became my primary interest. No longer was I considering writing as a long-term goal, to be achieved slowly over the next fifty years. Life is now about writing and getting out there all I can (figuratively speaking!). Hearing from people I inspire is the best payment of all. I've heard from people as far as the Netherlands!

I have achieved many things for a chick who never leaves her bubble and I am proud of myself for that. Yet, I remain humble because I still do all my own cleaning, accept rejections as deserved and still get bullied by my cat. lol

Feedback shapes my opinion of myself. My "fans" say that I "rock," so I am happy with my image and what I am achieving. Past that, I would never compare myself to the literary masters. (I'm only 25 and have a LOOOONNNGG way to go before I match half of Stephen King, V. C. Andrews or Wilkie Collins. )

Several agents and publishers have congratulated me on a good attitude towards my disability, with sound writing skills, and for that I am truly proud. I've said before that I rather have people think good of me and say "she can write half-decent," than be thought a great writer with the manner of a buffalo. However, being congratulated for both writing and attitude would be ultimate

Cassiopeia · Aug 3, 2006

KTC said:
I would lump pain and suffering in with beauty. All things distill to create beauty. There is beauty in suffering and tears. Real beauty.

thank you for stating that so well.

Mark Lazer · Aug 3, 2006

I think I have to agree. For me, I don't care about money and fame really, it's getting the stories out, and "enlighten" people with them. So, yes, I guess I crave attention...

Cassiopeia · Aug 3, 2006

Mark Lazer said:
I think I have to agree. For me, I don't care about money and fame really, it's getting the stories out, and "enlighten" people with them. So, yes, I guess I crave attention...

Or...do you just want to make a difference?

Jamesaritchie · Aug 3, 2006

ego

I certainly have a healthy ego, I think such is necessary, but at the same time, I try to take a more intellectual approach to anything new, including writing.

I've always had the attitude that whatever anyone else can do, I can at least try. And if I study how the experts do it, and have done it over the decades and centuries, and apply myself, I stand a good chance of doing it successfully.

Sometimes I succeed in new areas, sometimes I fail, but I always try.

NeuroFizz · Aug 3, 2006

There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and ego straddles that line. One can have extreme confidence, without arrogance, and still have a healthy ego. On the other hand, an arrogant person is almost always viewed as having a huge ego (considered a negative thing). Confidence comes from experience and from accomplishment, and pride of experience and accomplishment is not necessarily arrogance, but it does produce that healthy ego.

The best confidence boost is to work really hard at something, and see it through to fruition. How one handles that success defines which side of the line one sets up his/her ego.

Novelist in Paradise · Aug 3, 2006

NeuroFizz said:
There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and ego straddles that line. One can have extreme confidence, without arrogance, and still have a healthy ego. .

Important distinction, thanks for making it.

SC Harrison · Aug 3, 2006

My ego and my humility have been locked in a struggle to the death for as long as I can remember, and I'm not going to do anything to upset the status quo.

RedWombat · Aug 3, 2006

The best description I've heard of the "standard" artistic (and I'll lump writers in with that) ego is "a towering island of arrogance in the middle of a vast sea of insecurity."

You almost gotta think well of yourself to create anything--you have to believe that what you'll create is worth doing!--but now and again a wave of insecurity comes along and swamps the island and you find yourself going "Oh, god, this is the worst tripe ever produced by mortal hands! Who am I fooling?!"

Then eventually the waters recede and you get back to work.

Whether this counts as "healthy" I've got no idea, but it seems to work, which is the important thing.

Can't Catch A Break · Aug 3, 2006

UrsulaV said:
The best description I've heard of the "standard" artistic (and I'll lump writers in with that) ego is "a towering island of arrogance in the middle of a vast sea of insecurity."

You almost gotta think well of yourself to create anything--you have to believe that what you'll create is worth doing!--but now and again a wave of insecurity comes along and swamps the island and you find yourself going "Oh, god, this is the worst tripe ever produced by mortal hands! Who am I fooling?!"

Then eventually the waters recede and you get back to work.

Whether this counts as "healthy" I've got no idea, but it seems to work, which is the important thing.

That's where I am. My writing gives me ego gratification but then I get slapped down to reality when I read another author's command of language.

L M Ashton · Aug 3, 2006

Nope, no huge ego here. Mostly a bundle of insecurity. If it weren't for that teacher in high school and the university professors who told me I had talent and whatnot, I probably wouldn't believe that I had a hope in Hades of writing well enough to get published.

bubblegirl · Aug 3, 2006

Neuro said: The best confidence boost is to work really hard at something, and see it through to fruition. How one handles that success defines which side of the line one sets up his/her ego.

I agree with that. Well said!

Manxom Vroom · Aug 3, 2006

I think the key to having a healthy ego is to have a healthy sense of self-esteem, which I suspect a great many writers lack (god knows I do). The arrogance / raging ego is an attempt to overcompensate for the lack of self-esteem, I think.

Jamesaritchie · Aug 3, 2006

NeuroFizz said:
There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and ego straddles that line. One can have extreme confidence, without arrogance, and still have a healthy ego. On the other hand, an arrogant person is almost always viewed as having a huge ego (considered a negative thing). Confidence comes from experience and from accomplishment, and pride of experience and accomplishment is not necessarily arrogance, but it does produce that healthy ego.

The best confidence boost is to work really hard at something, and see it through to fruition. How one handles that success defines which side of the line one sets up his/her ego.

Goods post. I'd only add that it's also equally important to be able to handle failure without falling apart and becoming afraid to try something else.

A person who doesn't fail is a person who hasn't tried enough things or taken enough chances. You need to be able to say, "Well, that didn't work. What can I try next?"

MidnightMuse · Aug 3, 2006

I wanted to develope an Ego, but my Id killed it before it got big enough.

ChaosTitan · Aug 3, 2006

quidscribis said:
Nope, no huge ego here. Mostly a bundle of insecurity. If it weren't for that teacher in high school and the university professors who told me I had talent and whatnot, I probably wouldn't believe that I had a hope in Hades of writing well enough to get published.

You took the words right off my keyboard, quid. My ego is hiding until publication day.

Whenever that might be....

RG570 · Aug 3, 2006

I'm ego deficient when it comes to writing. I frequently think back to everything I've written and become truly embarrassed about it. Until someone tells me otherwise (read: buys a story from me), I don't see how this will change.

nevada · Aug 3, 2006

Of course we have an ego. We expect, no, we absolutely positively know, that people will want to read our stuff. That their life will not be the same once they read it. That not only will they plunk down $30 bucks to read our book, but they'll be happy doing it and they'll come back to do it for the next one.

Oh we have an ego.

maestrowork · Aug 3, 2006

I definitely have an ego, but it's tamer now. I can take criticism much better -- partly because I know better about my ability and the confidence, ironically, reduces my ego. Go figure. I guess in a way I don't feel as desperately to prove myself as I did before. Or that I am the best writer in the world -- oh please, I am not. But I also know I am pretty darn good, so that tames my ego.

Ego is not my problem. Jealousy is. I am insanely jealousy/envious of writers with enormous talent and success! Worse, writers with no talent but success. Argh, injustice!

Papa'sLiver · Aug 3, 2006

I think every act of creation in art takes a fair amount of ego. I know people that want to paint or write, and they never do because they just can't believe in themselves. Their ego is just too small. You have to have SOME ego, and I sorta feel the more you have (to a point, certainly) the better off you'll be. It lends you confidence to continue on, or even just to get you started on the road.

byElizabeth · Aug 3, 2006

I just try not to sound self-centered about it...writing is an art, so yes, we're artists. Other people expect it's some glamours lifestyle filled with emotion, inspiration, and perfect writing schedules...we know better. I like to downplay it a little b/c I hate appearing egocentric. Deep down inside though...I'm pretty proud of where I am at right now and can't wait to have a published novel out on those shelves!

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