I once read a Nanowrimo Pep Talk by  Kate DiCamillo where she talked about a coworker who also wanted to be a writer. They worked in a book warehouse together.  However, while Kate got up every morning just to write two pages, he, instead of writing, put her down for only writing two pages.  He didn’t believe in her and it was obvious that he didn’t believe enough in himself either, because he never actually wrote.

She used those put downs to fuel her writing, to help her keep writing when she didn’t want to get up, didn’t want to put pen to paper or hands to keyboard.

And you know what, she’s now a published author.  (In case you don’t know, she wrote  The Tale of Despereaux (Newbery Medal), Because of Winn-Dixie (Newbery Honor), and a The Tiger Rising (National Book Award finalist).

Kate’s lesson is that it’s great to have people that support you and believe in your writing.  But sometimes it’s also useful to have a doubting Thomas or two as well.

Those people are the majority in the world but they are so much fun to prove wrong.  They are the ones who will never be writers, not because they don’t believe in you, but because they don’t believe in themselves.

Writers write.

So get out there and write–and don’t let anything or anyone stop you!