Hello! First of all, thank you for joining me on the start of my journey towards becoming a children’s author. Since this is the very first blog post I have ever written, explaining who I am is probably a good place to start. I suppose I am three main things: a mum (with a 6-year-old son and an 8-month-old daughter), a teacher (at a primary school in Middlesbrough), and… maybe a children’s author? That one always feels like a bit of a lie, despite having published a children’s picture book, and that’s where the Imposter Syndrome comes in.
Advice from a publisher...
In an attempt to feel like a ‘real’ author, I met with the fantastic Gillie from Sixth Element, a local publishing company, who advised me, amongst other things, to blog. Although I am the right age to have witnessed the birth and rise of social media, I’m not a natural ‘poster’. For example, back in 2009 I was posting anything and everything. I think I set ‘Lindsey is moving house’ as my status for around 11 days straight until an American friend of mine commented, ‘Can’t you just move house already? I want to know what else you’re doing.’ Hopefully I will have improved since then.
The type of stories I write...
I love writing fun stories for children with an element of magic or fantasy; things they would love to happen like having magical powers or being in charge of everyone! Here is my writing career to date: I have written and published one children’s picture book called Bubble Burps and it is about a boy who eats all sorts and ends up burping bubbles (in case you didn’t get that from the title). I have written another picture book called Taylor Drake’s Magic Cakes and this is about a boy who can bake cakes that give him a magical power for a short while (again, the title does sort of give it away). This one is currently waiting for me to illustrate it and I hope to turn it into a series. And I have almost finished writing a chapter book for slightly older children (around 6 to 10 years old) about a boy who finds that he can magically transform into his headteacher.
What I have realised about Imposter Syndrome
Being the most thin-skinned person I know by far means that writing a blog and posting on social media feels a bit overwhelming for me. There are certain things that are absolutely not me, like TikTok dances and lip syncing: not that there is anything wrong with people doing these things at all. I also don’t want to shove my books in people’s faces all the time. What I want is to be brave enough to make the information about my writing available rather than hiding it and, instead of trying to please everyone as most millennials do, blog/post on social media for people like me: parents and carers, maybe teachers, people with young nieces, nephews or cousins or even grandchildren…
They say that when you leave your comfort zone, you enter the growth zone. So here is what I have realised about Imposter Syndrome: it is a good feeling to have because it is a sign you are growing and moving forward. And you need to feel slightly uncomfortable in order to do that. So, if you would like to, you can follow my journey as a children’s author and we can learn from my experiences, both good and bad, along the way together.
Let me know how you try to juggle all the different aspects of your life or if you have ever felt Imposter Syndrome too by clicking the poll below or in the comments.
Have you ever felt Imposter Syndrome?
Yes! Even though I know what I am doing.
Never have.