What’s one thing you feel like you can do to make the world a better place?
Thinking about new years resolutations got me thinking about things that I can do not to make my own life better, but to try and make things better for other people.
I feel pretty overwhelmed by my ability to see effective change in large scale issues, so I think this year I want to work on putting more effort into reaching out to people that feel isolated in my community.
Are there any things you would like to do this year to help others?
My group (AktivistA) is planning a number of pride participations (info booths or marching groups), so: same old since 2013, basically. My resolutions run more into being a little more selfish where it comes to my writing, actually.
I write fanfiction, so one of my resolutions this year is to write more aro, ace, and agender/non-binary headcanons. This is in part to help me work out my own feelings about my orientation and gender, but also because I hope that maybe what I write will reach people like me who want to read stories with our experiences represented. I have a tendency to write these stories, get super anxious about posting them because they’re a lot more personal than normal, and then I listen to the voice of ‘impostor syndrome’ and hide them away unfinished. So I’m trying to start by pulling out those unfinished stories, polishing them into something I’d be comfortable posting, and then actually posting them instead of chickening out at the last minute.
Oh Katherine, yes, I suffer from impostor syndrome too, but when I read Valerie King’s description of five impostor-syndrome types, I didn’t see myself totally in any of them. I do have it though. Not with my first two books – they were purely fictional – but it’s as you say, when you start getting personal, you start self-questioning the validity of what you’re saying – which is a bit ridiculous really, because as it’s personal, it must be valid. That’s what I keep telling myself. If I’m representing my own thoughts, then what I write must be valid. It can’t possibly be fraudulent.
I hope you put your stories out and don’t hide them away.
Error there – sorry. Valerie Young not Valerie King. Jude