A recent graduate from Carleton University’s masters of journalism program, Amanda Truscott, recently released her new book, Creative Unblocking; Bypass Self-Doubt, Tap Your Genius, and Complete Your Best Work. The book covers the creative process of writing for aspiring writers.
Even at a young age, Truscott said she knew that writing was in her future. She loved accompanying her mother to the local library, and had books in her hands whenever possible.
“I love books, I’ve always loved books,” Truscott said. “When I was a little girl I used to go to the mall and spend all my money on books, it was the most exciting thing I could ever do.”
When asked about the obstacles that most commonly deter people away from pursuing their goals, Truscott said she believes that perfectionism and procrastination are the two main vices.
The book encompasses many different aspects of why people decide not to do what they love, as well as a guide to overcome these factors. Truscott takes all of her personal experiences and intertwines them into the lessons in the book.
Truscott has received a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of British Columbia, before she moved across the country to pursue her masters degree at Carleton.
While at Carleton, she aced her masters paper, and even secured an internship at the Globe and Mail.
“Going to Carleton was a mixed blessing. It got me out of my comfort zone,” Truscott said. “I mention in my book that I’m naturally quite introverted, but they forced me to go out and interview people and meet new people, which was scary to me.”
Truscott said she soon realized that newswriting wasn’t quite what she wanted to pursue as a career, which added to her self-doubt, one of the main points she addresses in her book.
“When I graduated from Carleton I had zero confidence in my ability to make it as a journalist, even though I did really well,” she said. “For whatever reason, I just felt like I was terrible at it and that I wouldn’t be able to get a job.”
“I did a few interviews, but I’m pretty sure my lack of confidence really shone through,” she added.
Truscott said she had been working on two previous works, but decided to stop working on them when her confidence in those books was crushed.
“I do regret losing them, even if they were terrible. I could have had a laugh,” she said. “It would’ve been nice to see how far I’ve come, and how far I’ll go in the next six or seven years.”
With a lot of inspiring quotes included in her book, Truscott said her favorite inspirational quote about creativity was said originally by Jalaluddin Rumi, “Let the beauty we love be what we do.”
She added that it reminds her that we do what we do not because we think we’re going to be the greatest at it, but because we love it, and it makes us happy.
According to Truscott, it comes down to getting up and trying to get stuff done.
“I think you can do what you want to do in spite of self-doubt, you just have to go and do it,” Truscott said.
“It’s okay to doubt yourself, if you do, that doesn’t mean you can’t do what you want to do,” she said. “A lot of people believe that you have to believe in yourself or you can’t do it, but I just don’t believe that that’s true.”
