Marianne Kirby, body activist and novelist (Momentum System)

I had always had a really huge problem with defining myself as a novelist. Even with books published, even with an upcoming novel, I still had that question in the back of my head. I can’t tell if I thought it was pretentious or if I just didn’t think I was good enough.

And in the Creative Focus Workshop, maybe it was just the practice of saying, I’m Marianne Kirby, I’m a novelist, and get you can get my second book as soon as it comes out…that really flipped the switch for me of, I don’t want to say self-respect…but, you know what?

It is. It’s self-respect as a writer, and taking myself seriously, and allowing myself to take my own work seriously.

That is still—I mean months later—the biggest thing that I feel as a result. It has changed a lot about how I’m approaching my work, and how I am talking about my work to others.