What If I'm Not Good Enough?

One of the questions we always ask ourselves, no matter what we do, is: What if we're not good enough?  What if we make mistakes?

I like this quote from DangerousBill on AbsoluteWrite:

When my students were about to deliver a paper to a large audience, I'd pump them by telling them that their audience wanted them to succeed, that they didn't travel all that way to look for mistakes and make fun of the speakers. I said if they slipped up, they should ignore it and just keep going, because the audience would forget the mistake and remember the good parts.

That's one of the lessons I learned as an actor. Actors goof all the time, but a skilled actor would make it look flawless and effortless, and the audience never need to know. I was in a play once and, one night, the main actress forgot a line -- an important line at that. All of us backstage gasped. "Oh no!" Fortunately, the actor playing against her continued and found a way to work that line back in. They didn't skip one beat, and continued to look professional and in character. The audience didn't suspect a thing.

So, what is the moral of that anecdote?

It takes skills and experience to look perfect. These actors couldn't have done that if they never failed, miserably, before. Also, they need good partners.

Failure isn't something to fear, if you can learn something from it. And find yourself a good writer partner/beta.