A Writer’s Just a Unicorn. Here’s Why

Above my desk, I have a poster of a unicorn. But it’s not just any unicorn. It’s a unicorn on a therapist’s couch. The therapist, seated in a chair to the side, gives one line of advice:

“You need to believe in yourself.”

You sparkle more than you realize

On the one hand, I have the poster as a general motivational tool. I have to have confidence in a very general sense.

But a big reason the poster is funny is because the therapist also is playing on the idea that unicorns are so rare that people just have to have faith they exist. When I considered it in the realm of writing, it occurred to me unicorns represent something super special. They’re full of this pure beauty. And don’t writers forget sometimes how wonderful they are? How magical it is that they can make something exist out of nothing? We have to have faith in ourselves and what we are making, even when no one else can see it.

That’s hard for writers to do these days.

But if no one else has told you, lately, you sparkle.

You are real (and so is your talent).

Think now for a moment what might be if you really did believe wholeheartedly in yourself and what you could produce. Think what might be if every writer believed that way.

Unicorn, duckling, same difference

The last thing is, remember that you don’t have to believe you are a unicorn to still be one — that is, think of the story of the ugly duckling. The duckling didn’t realize he was a swan, but that’s still who he was. You might not realize you are a unicorn yet. But that’s who you are. Someday you will look at your reflection in the water and know. But until that day, I’ll believe for you.

Image credit:
Poster Foundary