You would think writers would love their work. We sit for hours and hours holding pencil or pen to paper, or sitting in front of our laptops, or holding a microphone to our mouths weaving plot and character together to hopefully create story.

Yet, writers are first to degrade their own work so completely that if you listened to every word they said, you’d fully believe your kitten could do better.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

I don’t mean insecurity, or doubts while you’re writing. We all have those. We should have those. We all have more to learn and we need to stay open to new ideas. Thinking you’re the best will close your mind.

Mainly, what I’m talking about is Twitter behavior in the #amwriting community. And perhaps this isn’t such a big deal. But writers have to remember Twitter is still a public forum. Do you want a potential reader to stumble upon your handle, excitedly look through your tweets only to find you bashing your own work?

Of course not.

But we do it.

I’ve seen it enough times by authors that, no, I won’t spend money on their books. Why should I waste money on a book when its own author says it’s crap? They would know, wouldn’t they?

Why do writers hate on their own work publicly? I have a few ideas:

1. They do it to fit in.
   The #amwriting community is full of doubt, insecurity, and competition. We need allies in this writing war. Why stand out when you can blend in? You don’t want to alienate anyone by actually being proud of you what you’re writing. Blend in or get out. No one wants to be your friend if you know what you’re doing and like it.
2. You need sympathy and people to commiserate with you.
   There’s nothing more boosting to your ego than if you tweet that you just wrote twenty-five pages of crap and have ten people pat you on your virtual back and say, “You did not! Read it in the morning and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” Or, “I just deleted two chapters of sludge. Here’s a hug and shot of whiskey [insert whiskey GIF here].” Uplifting. Encouraging. You’re not suffering alone.  Well done.
3. You want to put your work down first.
   Say all the bad things before anyone else can. Beat them to the punch. There’s nothing better than posting a snippet with an “I know this is bad, but I’m tweeting it anyway” warning label. Besides, you know it’s not that great, even if you did rewrite it five times before you tweeted it.
4. You’re not going to brag because what if you think it’s good, but it really does suck?
   There’s nothing worse than saying you are super proud of your work, and then later finding out it’s only sub-par. Too many filler words. You tried to be too flowery, so WTF does your line even mean? Better to admit it’s crap because really, your betas and editor will tell you it is anyway.

The thing is, at some point, you have to be proud of your work. You have to be. Or you wouldn’t query, submit to contests, or publish. Very few authors honestly look at their work, say, “This is crap,” and while believing it, still click publish.

So if you have pride in your work, why not say so? Maybe your excitement will boost someone else. Maybe your enthusiasm will open a door. You could be invited to participate in an anthology, or an agent who is thinking of signing you will be charmed by the simple joy you have in your projects.

Why sabotage your writing career?

We all have doubts but find a trusted friend and vent offline. Not everything belongs in a tweet.

Stop saying you hate your work.

Because you don’t. If you really did, you would stop writing.

And we all know you don’t want to do that.