Last night I sat through the auditions for American Idol for the very first time.

I’ve never quite been able to bring myself to do this before. I’ve seen the commercials, have heard the stories, and suspected that I would spend half the time wincing and feeling extremely embarrassed for some of these poor people. And I was right. For every person with true talent, it seems like there are ten who couldn’t sing if their life depended on it. And yet they audition! (The ones I find the most horror-inducing are the ones who actually believe they CAN sing.) Between Simon’s caustic comments and some of the accompanying dance moves, I found myself shaking my head in disbelief, unable to understand why these people would put themselves through this.

But after the show was over and I had time to reflect on what I had just watched, I couldn’t help but realize that these people are doing what we do as writers–or aspiring writers–all the time. Putting ourselves out there. As an unpublished author, I sent my work out to agents and publishers and waited with bated breath as I chewed my nails and wondered if any of them would like it. I knew I THOUGHT I had talent. But that didn’t necessarily mean others would agree, and sometimes it’s hard to be confident. As a published author, I put my work out there to be scrutinized by my editor on a regular basis, to be read by reviewers and readers, some of whom can be less than polite in their opinions on occasion.

As a normally shy person, this hasn’t been easy for me to do. Opening yourself up for criticism never is. To become a writer, you have to learn to have a very thick skin and to take the criticism as well as the praise, the good with the bad. But you believe in yourself and you persevere. If you don’t take that step of sending your work out, you’ll never become a writer. And if you don’t believe in yourself, no one will.

I now have a lot more admiration for the people who audition for American Idol. Whether they can sing or not, they are putting themselves out there. And that takes quite a bit of courage.