Hi, my name is Rita Avellar, and I am a writer. (Sigh) I have to say, this is such a short sentence but full of strong meaning for me, and extremely hard to say out loud. The reason is, when I say 'I am a writer,' imposter syndrome comes slapping me, saying, 'How come if you don't have a book published?' 'How come if you don't have a project like a film, TV series, or whatever media out there with your name on it!' Well, I've been dealing with this inner voice for a while, and I am more than ready to say, baby, that's enough!
Yes, I don't have a book published. Yet. I don't have a film or TV series with my name as the main writer on it. Yet. However, like I say every time I want to 'explain' my passion for writing and telling stories, since I learned how to write and read, I've been creating stories and sharing my thoughts.
It literally started when I was 7 years old. I wrote books and short stories - one even almost turned into an animated short film when I was about 10. I joined a writer's club in which I had the opportunity to improve my writing. Later, as a teenager, I helped write plays and wrote a couple of poems and different diaries. These ones were absolutely secret writing, but for sure helped put the words out of my chest and avoided some psychosomatic diseases, like sore throats. As an adult, the blog world caught me, and for years I had a blog in which I would share my thoughts (it was in Portuguese) about life, and I even had some fans along the way. At the same time, I also wrote for several newspapers and magazines about fashion - trends but also human behavior linked to fashion, a subject that I loved due to my major in Fashion Design. I ended up opening a content marketing agency back in 2009, in which I and my team used to - guess what? - write content for blogs and social media. This was even before Instagram existed. Like Jurassic Park of social media. During the same period, I started writing a book about the saga of a family in Rio de Janeiro and its implication with the 'jogo do bicho,' Rio's type of mafia. It was when in 2013 I went to San Diego to study Creative Writing at the UCSD summer course. My final project, a short story, was selected as one of the best ones among 20 students, and I was the only foreigner (this short story was the one I am turning into a short film). After this, the instructor invited us to be part of a club for writers in which we would meet once a week to share our writing projects. I translated to English my so-called book project and shared it with them. They loved it! Back in Brazil, I studied screenwriting for one year and entered another Universe, and I was completely hooked. This was in 2014.
Well, 10 years have passed, and the imposter syndrome was trying to attack me again. During these last 10 years, I rehashed some comebacks to writing, which I did here and there, but I sabotaged myself a lot, in partnership with this syndrome guy. Why? This is one of the main topics of my therapy sessions. It freaks me out tons of stories I wrote have appeared in books, TV series, and films. No, nobody copied me, of course. As one teacher I had during the Fashion Design college mentioned, ideas are flowing in the air, whoever has the antenna to capture them will catch them first. I had these antennas, I still have them, just need to activate them again. But more than activating them is to say it out: I am a writer, yes, I am
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