This is The Write Now Podcast with Sarah Werner, Episode 66: Critics And You.

Welcome to Write Now, the podcast that helps all writers, aspiring or otherwise, to find the time, energy, and courage you need to pursue your passion and write every day. I’m your host, Sarah Werner. And it’s been a while once again. The last time I did a kind of full Write Now podcast episode like this one and not a Coffee Break interview, I was talking about writing full-time. In that episode, I was like, “Hey, going forward, I’m going to do so many more of these Write Now prime episodes and I’m going to tone down the Coffee Break interviews.” As you can see, that didn’t maybe happen as much as I wanted it to. And it was frustrating, because I want to do what I say I’m going to do but I wasn’t doing it.

I actually had a really interesting conversation with my husband Tim about this. He was like, “Sarah, people are asking you for more Write Now episodes. Why are you not doing them?” And we talked for a while and finally the realization came out that I wasn’t doing them because I enjoy doing them. Let that sink in for just a minute. I wasn’t recording these episodes because I enjoy recording these episodes. Okay, we’ll dig into this a little bit because it might also be one of the reasons that you don’t write. As I talked about in the last episode of Write Now, which was about writing full-time, I’m super busy lately. I’ve been building websites for people. I’ve been recording episodes of Coffee Break, which is the sister podcast to this one in the same RSS feed. I had some family traveling and obligations to fulfill.

And also, I’ve had sort of my main project right now which is an audio drama. A fictional podcast called Girl In Space, which several of you listen to so thank you for listening to it. It’s sort of where I’ve been directing my creative writing energies lately, into this science fiction story that I really serially as a fictional podcast or as an audio drama. That takes a lot of time. Each episode of Girl In Space takes probably between, gosh, 60 and 80 hours to write, edit, produce, all of that stuff, find sound effects for. And so life has been busy. And in my conversation with Tim, it came out that I feel obligated to do all of these other things, and I was neglecting the Write Now podcast because I like doing it because it was fun, because it felt like a treat. It felt like something I enjoyed doing. It felt like a reward.

Oh my, also, my two cats are fighting. Yep, they don’t like each other very much. We’ll just let that go for a while. Actually, that cat fight perhaps ties in very nicely with the subject of today’s episode, which we’ll get to in a little bit. But first, I want to talk about allowing yourself to do the things you love because I think that there’s two different mindsets when we talk about creative work. I identify myself as a creative professional, as someone who makes things for a living and maybe you do too, or maybe that’s where you want to be. Maybe that’s sort of your goal. You want to make cool stuff for a living. And that’s awesome. And the two things that I make, on one side, I make things for other people based on their direction, based on what they want and need, based on strategic objectives and goals that we’ve put together.

On the other hand, I make things for myself. Things that come from inside of me, and one of these things is, I’m just going to admit it, draining. And one of them is fulfilling. So if you think about it as a cup of water, one of these activities fills my cup and the other one drains it. I realized that I was spending a lot of time focusing on the things that I was creating for other people because I was getting paid for them. And that is the things that empty my cup. I was really neglecting the side of things that fill my cup. I was neglecting doing this podcast. I was neglecting, oh gosh, my own journaling, my own reading habits. Anything outside of writing Girl In Space, I was neglecting those things. I thought that making things was making things no matter who I was making them for, but it ended up being not a hundred percent true for me.

I’m also going to be honest with you and say that, initially, when I started this podcast, I started it so I could talk to you like I’m doing now. I started it so that I could have these conversations with you and encourage you to write and be yourself and be creative and put your work out there for people. And I initially started doing the Coffee Break interview spin-off because someone asked me to. I got an email from, well, several people asked me to. I got several emails and eventually I got enough emails like, “Hey, can I be on your show?” “Can I be on your show?” That eventually I was like, “Well, you know what? Maybe I should do this. Maybe I should have an interview segment or interview episodes.” And so I experimented with that and the Coffee Break spin-off was born. I kept it in this RSS feed.

But the Coffee Break episodes were never something that I had planned for. They were never something that I had really wanted to create. And in this conversation that I had, I realized that doing interviews with people, I love doing it. I love talking with other creatives, but it was not something I was doing that filled my cup. It was not something that gave me energy. A few of you listening may know this about me but I have… And I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this but I’m going to admit it anyway. I have a phone phobia. It sounds really stupid, but I get insane anxiety on the phone. And so doing interviews, while I love talking to people and while I love talking with people face to face, if I’m on the phone with them, my anxiety, I have to forcibly tamp it down. That’s just one of the reasons it’s kind of draining.

But anyway, all that aside, I wanted to say that it’s okay to do things just for you. It’s okay to do the things you love. I know that sometimes we need to prioritize those other things, but it’s also okay to realize that you enjoy doing something for yourself because it feeds your soul, because it fills you up, because it gives you energy and joy. So that is a realization I had about the Write Now podcast. I’m recording this episode this morning and I hope to release it today. I have the house to myself so it’s nice and quiet aside for my two fighting cats which, hopefully, they’re done for now with their little daily spat and that they can get on with their lives. But I just wanted to say thank you.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for staying, despite the lack of episodes that have been coming out. I appreciate it so much. One of the things that brings me great joy is speaking with people like you and sharing my own triumphs, discoveries, and even my own failures with you. And so thank you for being such gracious listeners, and there will be a lot more to come going forward.

Okay, so onto today’s topic, I want to talk about critics and you. I mentioned the Girl In Space podcast a little bit earlier in this episode and that is my sort of main creative endeavor right now. When you publish something, naturally, other people are going to find it, read it/listen to it, and engage with it in some way. And we are opinionated creatures. And often when we ingest something, when we engage with someone else’s creative work, when we read it, when we absorb it, we form opinions about it. And we need to share those opinions.

If I see a movie I really love, I will tell people like, “Oh my gosh, you have to go see this.” At the same time, if I see a movie that I do not love or if I read a book that I do not love, if someone asks me about it, I’ll say, “You know, it wasn’t my favorite. I really wouldn’t recommend it.” We naturally form opinions about these things and the internet makes it extremely easy for us to share these opinions, whether or not they are solicited. Critics come in all forms. There’s professional critics. People who have a certain understanding of aesthetics and whatever medium it is that they’re critic of. There’s movie critics, book critics, et cetera. And then there’s everyday lay person critics like you and me who have our own opinions about things, and whether or not those things are good.

And I want to be really careful when I’m talking about criticism because we are artists. When you create things, you’re not a machine spitting out code in binary. It’s not all ones and zeros. It’s not something that can be really objectively measured or weighed as objectively good or objectively bad. Right? There’s different ways to see things, and someone might value one work for… If it’s a movie, someone might value the writing in the movie but maybe the cinematography is terrible, or maybe they love the cinematography but the acting really wasn’t up to snuff. There’s different facets that we come to a work of art with. And this is a huge lesson, like I said, that I have learned in releasing Girl In Space. I released it back in September 2017. And for whatever reason, it sort of took off. It’s I think due to a lot of different reasons. First and foremost, the show came out right as Apple was releasing its new podcast app so I think people checks it out from there.

I went to Pod-, let’s see, not PodCon, Podcast Movement right before the show debuted and I got to talk it up there, which I think helps. But most of all, I think it was you guys if I’m being honest. You, wonderful Write Now podcast listeners. You jumped on board, you supported my work, you listened, and I’m so grateful for that. So for whatever reason, probably those and maybe some other reasons, the show really took off and I started getting a lot of reviews in iTunes. Let’s see. I’m checking right now. I’m at 694 reviews, largely five stars, so thank you for that, those of you who have reviewed Girl In Space and the Write Now podcast out on iTunes. I really appreciate that. But out of those reviews, I have several four, three, two, and one-star reviews.

The first time that I saw one of those one-star reviews, it hurt. It really, it hurt. This was probably back in September when I first launched the show and I was really excited about it. I was getting all this… People were saying nice things like, “Oh, Sarah, the show is really good and fun, and I love listening to it.” And I was like, “Yay.” It was building up my ego and that was kind of nice. But then I saw less than perfect or less than complimentary reviews start to roll in. And I didn’t know how to handle those. I didn’t know how to process them. In fact, despite the overwhelming number of positive reviews, I found that I was giving more attention or focusing more closely on the negative ones. And maybe this is something that’s happened to you too.

You may be present something at a meeting and nine out of 10 people are like, “Oh my gosh, that was amazing,” and one person was like, “Oh, you had a typo in your presentation.” And literally the only thing you remember or focus on after that is the typo in your presentation. You sort of dismiss the nine positive reviews and you focus in really hard on that negative review. So I did a little bit of research. According to Evolutionary Psychology, this is called a negativity bias. And it actually is… Well, it’s supposed to help us survive. Basically, a negativity bias is this instinct that makes negative experiences seem more significant than they actually are. In other words, our brains are sort of wired to respond to negative stimuli to keep us out of danger. It’s supposed to be helpful. So yay brains. You’re doing good, buddy. But sometimes, it’s less than helpful.

Initially, the one-star reviews that started coming in for Girl In Space where like, “Hey, I like this show but it’s not coming out consistently and that frustrates me so I’m going to stop listening.” And I was like, “You know what? That’s fair.” Because, initially, I promised it would come out every two weeks, and then life happens. And I realized that an audio drama, unlike sort of a more traditional podcasts like this one, takes 60 to 80 hours to create and produce. And so you know what? That’s fine. But then I noticed that other things started coming in. There’s a lot of different ways that people are critical on the internet. Some of these are helpful and some of these are less helpful.

I talked a little bit about this in, I think it was Episode 40 of the Write Now podcast, where I talked about rejection and how there are different types of rejection. There’s constructive criticism. Like, if you get a rejection letter from a publishing house and it says, “This isn’t right for us right now but, hey, if you go and restructure chapter three and maybe do this and this for this character, I think you might really have a shot. You’re creating something great. We’re just going to pass it this time.” There’s that kind of rejection where it says like, “Hey, I’ve noticed these things,” and you can take that and you can improve your work and you can learn and grow from it.

And then there’s less constructive criticism which just says, “Hey, this thing you created really sucks. Bye.” And I’ve gotten a few of both of those. One critic online gave Girl In Space a B minus, which I guess is better than a C or a D or an F, and so, that’s great. But at the same time, I was one of those dorks that growing up I was a straight A student. And so I saw that my show got a B minus and I was like, “Oh my gosh. Whoa.” And there really was no explanation. And so I contacted the critic and I said, “Thank you for listening to my show. I’m really glad that you thought to review it, but can I just ask not only why did it merit a B minus, but what can I do to make it more of a B plus or A show?”

She was really kind and she said, “Here’s X, Y, and Z. I think you could fix the dialogue timing. I think you could fix some of these other things. And the plots may be a little slow for my taste but you’re structuring it how you want to.” It ended up being very, very helpful and constructive. And hopefully, this is the majority of the type of criticism that you will receive for your work. If you are a member of a writer’s group, if you are in a class, if you’re in some sort of arena where you are receiving feedback for your work, I really hope that it is the kind that tells you, “Hey, I liked this and I liked this. This maybe could change because this,” and there should always be a reason not just, “I didn’t like it.”

“And then I think if you tighten up the middle, then it’ll be great.” That is super helpful. That is how we learn to be better. It’s also a good idea even with constructive criticism to take a step back and evaluate why you are receiving this criticism. Like I said earlier, the reviewer who reviewed Girl In Space had sort of two issues. The dialogue timing, which I did learn from and fix. And then, she didn’t like the pacing. For me, the pacing is intentional. And so I sort of took that one with a grain of salt. And that’s just the thing, isn’t it?

Not everything that you create is for everyone. I want to say that again. Not everything you create is for everyone. You will never please everyone with your work. I just really want to let that sink in. This is probably the biggest lesson that I have learned while separating out helpful from unhelpful criticism. Not everything you create is for everyone. I know we talk about our creative works… We work so hard. We work so hard on these things that we create. And we talk about creating the great American novel or the perfect poem, but there is no such thing as perfect. Because everyone, every critic, every reader, every listener, will interpret your work differently.

They will come to your work from their own context. And no matter how perfectly you may have crafted something, there may be a reader or listener or whatever who does not like it because it calls back something in their minds that they simply don’t like. There’s people who don’t like Charlotte’s Web, which is one of my favorite books, because it’s about a spider and they hate spiders. There are people who don’t like Jane Austin’s works. There are people who don’t like Hemingway’s writing. Personal preference is not the same thing as legitimate criticism. You cannot control other people’s preferences. You can create something that is technically very good or technically, I’m not going to say technically perfect, technically very, very good, and there will be people out there who do not like it for reasons that you cannot control.

There are people who do not like Girl In Space because it has a female protagonist. I can’t control that. I mean I could change Girl In Space to have a male protagonist, but by doing that, it wouldn’t really be a Girl In Space anymore. It would be some dude in space. And I would be sacrificing my creative integrity for someone else’s personal preference. Here’s another example. I got a tweet the other day. And for whatever reason, people out on Twitter feel like it’s necessary to tag the creator in tweets when they don’t like their work. I kind of get a lot of these but this one said, “@girlinspacepod,” which is my Twitter handle, “is a bit too slow and thin for my liking, to be honest. It’s finally getting interesting and it’s already episode 10. I like the lead well enough. She makes you want to stick around to see her story through but it doesn’t evoke much emotion or interest. It’s only okay.”

So I read this. This review is from July 2018, so almost, almost a full year after I first released the show. I’m at a point now where it didn’t bother me as much as it would have had I read it back when I first launched the show and I was sort of new to criticism. I want to tell you the more criticism that you get, I feel like the thicker skin, you get a thicker skin and it doesn’t punch you in the stomach so much. You don’t take it as personally. And so that’s been kind of nice. I can see reviews like this now and say, “You know what? That’s fine. My show is not for everyone. There are people out there who love it. And even if my brain with its negativity bias decides that it wants to focus on this review, I’m just going to let it roll off my back.”

And I say that I’m not telling you to ignore all criticism, especially if the criticism is constructive, but this criticism is a little bit more of a sort of personal taste. It’s just a little bit too slow for them, and that’s okay. Now, if it said, “Your audio is garbled and I can’t understand it,” or “I can’t hear the dialogue over the music and sound effects,” then that would be a criticism that I would want to fix. It doesn’t mean that my work is bad. It just means that this person has different preferences. And that’s totally fine. Also, this is something I want to talk about briefly.

As writers, I think we assign power to words, and it’s power that’s legitimate. It’s power that’s there. There is power in words and there is power in naming things and it can hurt especially bad… That’s terrible grammar but I’m going to go with it. It can hurt really bad if somebody names or assigns a word or a label to your work. If somebody says, “This is a good podcast,” or “This is a good book,” that assign-nation, I’m not doing well with words today which is hilarious and ironic because I’m talking about the power of words. It doesn’t mean that that label is true. It’s true for them in a subjective sense, but it doesn’t mean it’s true with a capital T. It doesn’t define your work and it doesn’t define you. If you publish a book and someone says your book is terrible, it does not mean your book is terrible. It does not mean that you are terrible. It means that one person thought your book was terrible and maybe your book was not for that person.

I think that’s why criticism hurts so much, because we see the criticism and we know how much of ourselves we’ve poured into a work. If you look at Girl In Space, every single one of those characters is a facet of myself. That’s me in there, that’s my heart. This is my story that I’m sharing with people. And it’s my baby and I love it and I created it. We are very attached to our works. And so when somebody says your baby is ugly, we get defensive, we get hurt. But that’s just that person’s opinion. Or sometimes if people say your baby is ugly because there’s a smudge of dirt on forehead, then you can wipe off the dirt and everything’s okay. That’s constructive criticism.

I was talking with a friend who is a writer and she published her first book. I think this was for her first book, and she sold it on Amazon. She received some really hurtful criticisms. She got a one-star review on Amazon that said, “Why did you write this book? It’s terrible. And you should feel bad.” It was just this really mean-spirited criticism that was attacking her personally and not her work. And yeah, every once in a while you might get something like this. In fact, I have gotten something like this, and I want to share it with you because, selfishly, I think that sharing it is maybe a little bit cathartic, but also so you know that this happens. I received an email from a listener of Girl In Space. I’m not going to give names or anything.

It was sort of couched in complimentary terms and so it took me a while to sort of digest what they were saying. Here’s what the email said. “Dear Sarah, I like your show… But… How did a Girl In space ever get that stupid Valley girl speech impediment? You know what I mean. When you make a statement and it sounds like a question because the last word ends on a high note, like a question is being asked. After about a dozen of those plain statements that sound like a five-year-old girl talking, I’m about ready to say forget this crap. I can’t tolerate a grown woman sounding like a child talking, like they’re not sure about anything they say and they’re looking up at grandpa wanting some feedback from him to see if they’re right about what they just said. Please tell the girl in space to drop that silly Valley girl speech impediment.”

The email goes on from there but that’s kind of all I’ll read for now. So I read this and I was like, “That’s how talk.” I voiced the main character on Girl In Space and it’s pretty much just me speaking. I read this and I kind of stared at it for a while. And I was like, “Oh my gosh, I never realized I had a speech impediment.” Because this criticism wasn’t about the work. It wasn’t about my creative work. It wasn’t really even about my show. It was about me and the way in which I speak. I received this email at a time when I had also been sort of used to receiving criticism about the work at this point so I’m kind of grateful that this was not the very first review that I ever received for the show. Because I think that would have been really devastating, and it might have either really affected the way I continue to create show or it might have stopped me from creating the show altogether.

I’m going to be honest. I think that criticism and the fear of criticism either hampers a lot of writers or keeps them from creating altogether. And I don’t want this to happen to you. So I read this email several times just because I think when you receive something like this, your inclination is to read it several times to make sure you’re actually reading it correctly. The first thoughts that went through my mind were A, how come no one ever told me I have a speech impediment? B, what compelled this person to write me and tell me how much they disliked my show? C, am I doing everything wrong? Because, of course, that’s the question that jumped into my mind. D, why am I even doing this?

That was sort of the progression that my brain went through upon reading this email. And as a relatively new creator in this space, I wasn’t sure if it was legitimate, if I should learn from it, how I should learn from it, how I should respond to it, and what I should do about it. And so I did something that ended up being very helpful, and that was I shared it with a few people whose creative opinions I genuinely trusted. There are people in my life who if anyone says anything negative about me, they will be like, “Mama bear,” up in arms. “How dare you say anything about Sarah?” And I love those people. My husband Tim is one of those people. My siblings are these people. My dear close friends are some of these people. And even if I do create something that’s not really great, they’ll say it’s wonderful and they’ll get defensive on my behalf if anyone criticizes it. Those people are wonderful people to have in your life. But these are not the people I went to with this email.

The people I went to with this email were fellow creators whose opinion I respected in the field. I said, “Hey, I received this criticism and I really want your honest opinion whether it is valid. And if it is, I would love your insight on how I can move forward and course correct. I would love your opinion on how I can make my show better, because someone out there had labeled me as having a speech impediment. And I needed to know if I needed to change.” The responses I got back from these very thoughtful and intelligent people were varied. Several of them just said flat outright, “Sarah, you do not have a speech impediment. This guy is trolling you.” Or, “This is this guy’s opinion.” They advised me to delete the email and dismiss this person and move on with creating the show in the way that I saw fit.

Others though said, “Why does it matter? Why should it matter if you have a speech impediment?” And as a quick side note, I’m not sure if speech impediment is politically correct or politically incorrect. I’m just using the language that this person wrote to me with. But they said, “You’re creating something. You’re creating something that you love. You’re creating something that other people love. Keep doing that.” So I want this to be my advice to you. You are going to create things. You may or may not publish them. And by publish, I mean either published traditionally or release somewhere online to an audience. The word publishing has changed with the advent of the internet and so sharing your work publicly is publication. And when there’s publication, there will be an audience. And where there is an audience, there will be people with opinions. And where there are people with opinions, there will be critics.

These critics may be legitimate. They may offer constructive criticism about your work. They may say, “Hey, I love your novel, but the middle is a little bit soggy. Let’s tighten that up.” They may say your book is bad without giving any explanation. They may say your book is bad and you are bad. It’s up to you to put aside your personal feelings. And I know it’s hard. To realize that the people who read your work do not know you as a person and cannot tell you your worth. They cannot tell you you are a good or a bad person. Remember, these people are coming to your work with their own biases, with their own prejudices, with their own context. And just because they may not enjoy your work does not mean you are any less of a person. It does not mean you are any less of a creator. It does not mean you are any less of a writer.

If someone tells you to give up, ignore them. If someone tells you you personally are worthless, they don’t know what they’re talking about. If someone tells you the character arc of character X in your novel is a little bit flawed because of this and this in this specific example on page 23, then maybe listen to them. But please be discerning with the criticism you receive, because you will receive criticism. Nothing you create will be perfect. And that’s okay. I want to say that again because I know that so many of us are perfectionists. Myself included, and this is something that I struggle with on a daily basis. Nothing you create will be perfect, and that’s okay. Create anyway, publish anyway. By continuing to create and continuing to publish, you will continue to grow and get better.

The first thing that you publish will probably not be the best thing that you publish but that’s awesome because the next thing you publish will be even better. And the next thing you publish will be even better. What you create, even the best work that you create, is not for everyone. And that’s okay.

I am really glad to be making this episode for you this morning and I hope that it’s helpful. If you have questions, if you have comments, if you have any sort of feedback for this episode, perhaps even some criticism, please feel free to share it with me. You can find me at sarahwerner.com. That’s S-A-R-A-H-W-E-R-N-E-R.com. You can navigate over to the Contact page and send me a note there. I may not be able to respond to every email I receive since I do get a lot of email, but I do read every single email that I get and I really appreciate feedback. And so let me know your thoughts.

You can also join my I Am A Writer Facebook group where I’m a little bit more present. You can hang out there, talk about writing, post your own work on the appropriate threads. If you would like to be invited to that group, I will add, gosh, I want to say there’s a link to it on the front page of my website sarahwerner.com, if you scroll down. It’s a closed group but all you have to do is answer a simple question about why you love to write and we’ll let you in. That just assures me that you are not a robot because I don’t want any bots in my group because they suck. It’s a great community. It’s a great place for encouragement. And I hope you join.

If you’re interested in checking out the Girl In Space podcast and assessing whether or not I have a speech impediment, you can check that out on iTunes. It’s just Girl In Space. You can also check it out pretty much I think everywhere. It’s even out on Spotify, iHeartRadio, or you can go to girlinspacepodcast.com. When I talk about creating the Write Now podcast, I do not create this show alone. There are so many people out there who lend their love and support to the show and, gosh, I deeply appreciate you all. I want to give special, special, thanks today to my Patreon supporters, notably Elise Jane Tabor, who is just a rockstar and I appreciate your financial contribution so thank you. I’d also like to call out Sean Locke, Rebecca Werner, Gary Medina, Lilith Black, The Sioux Empire podcast, and Katelyn Heron. Special thanks to Caffeinating Me. Special thanks to Caffeinating Me, special thanks for caffeinating me. To listeners Bill Honnold, Megan Coreno, Lucille Valentine, Chris Carapatois, Harrison Werner, War Writer, and Colleen Cotolessa.

Everyone that I mentioned here is a rock star and I love them and they’re amazing. And they keep me caffeinated. They also helped fund the show. They helped me pay for hosting costs, equipment, all of that good stuff that’s related to the production costs of this show. Thank you all so, so much. If you are interested in supporting the show and supporting the work that I do here at the Write Now podcast, consider becoming a patron on Patreon. It’s P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com. Patreon is a secure third-party donation platform that allows you to support creators. And so you can kind of give on a, I believe it’s a per episode, yes, it’s a per episode. You can give $1 per episode, $2 per episode, a billion dollars per episode. What have you.

If you are not in a good place financially, which I totally understand, and you would like to show non-monetary support for the Write now podcast, oh, you can totally do that as well. You can do that by just telling a friend to listen. Word of mouth is the absolute best way to bring new listeners into the show. And gosh, I love to have new listeners. And so, spread the word about the Write Now podcast. You can also follow me on Twitter, @WriteNowPodcast. That’s write now with a W, which I hope you know because you’re listening to the show and you should see it. But yeah, follow me on Twitter, join the I Am A Writer’s group on Facebook, become a patron, tell a friend. There’s so many things you can do.

But really, the most important thing you can do is to write. Get out there today. Despite what critics might say, despite what you think critics might say, do some writing today. Whether it’s for yourself in a journal, whether it’s on your novel or a poem or a memoir or a non-fiction book that you’re working on, whatever it is that you’re writing, do that today. It’ll make you feel better. We’re doing work that we love. We’re doing work that fills our cup. Like I talked about in the beginning of this episode, I do the Write Now podcast because I love to do the Write Now podcast. And I denied myself this joy for a really long time. I don’t want you to do that. I want you to find that joy in creating and creating something for yourself, something that you want to create. I want you to do that today.

And with that, this has been Episode 66 of the Write Now podcast. The podcast that helps all writers, aspiring and otherwise, to find the time, energy, and courage you need to pursue your passion and write every day. I am Sarah Werner, and I believe in you.