"It's a Story"

 
When I'm planning my stories, and then while I'm writing my stories (especially while I'm writing them), I find myself wondering, "Is this a good story? Or a bad story? A mediocre story? Does it even make sense?"
 
I've learned to answer myself the same way every time: "It's a story."
 
Because I don't know if the story is good or bad or meaningful or anything subjective like that. I know the idea appealed to me enough to plot it out and start writing. But excitement fades into the daily/weekly word production and the inevitable diversions of both the story and the life of the author trying to tell the story get in the way.
 
All I know for sure is that it's a story, and that the story begins somewhere near where I started, and ends roughly in the neighborhood of where I wrote (or hope to write) "The End".
 
This is somewhat analogous to Dean Wesley Smith's advice, "Dare to be Bad", because I'm removing from my shoulders the burden of writing a good story. I tell myself, "It's a story", and I can dodge around the self doubt and the second guessing and keep moving forward.
 
It might be a bad story. It might be great. I don't know. I'm not sure I can know–not until I'm finished, anyway. Even then, it's not my call. All I get to do is choose the story and write the words as they come to me. Whoever reads the story (eventually) will be the arbiter of good or bad or meh or weird or long or whatever.
 
Me? I'm just a writer, writing a story. What kind of story? Well…it's a story.
 
-David