When You Doubt Your Writing

by | Feb 27, 2013 | Uncategorized

by Stephanie Morrill

Last Friday, on the Go Teen Writers Facebook Group, the topic came up of doubting one’s story, of being hypercritical of our work. How do you know when a story is good? How do you know you can stop editing and declare it done? Do the fears of the book sucking go away after a certain number of edits? Or will it always feel like a leap of faith when you send your manuscript to someone?

Connor, age 2, is all about the crazy leaps.

I know every writer is different in how they handle their insecurities, so I doubt everything on this list will be helpful to you, but hopefully something is:

Remember, all writers have doubts.

Occasionally I meet writers who are rather cocky about their book idea, but most of the writers I meet feel nervous about their story. They like the idea, and it’s meaningful to them, but will anybody else like it? I’ve often wondered if when Suzanne Collins was writing The Hunger Games, she ever thought things like, “I can’t believe I’m writing about a bunch of teens trying to kill each other! No one will want to read this!”

We all have doubts about what we’re writing. You’re not alone!

Try writing the first draft, then going back and editing. 
I’ve shared on here before that I embrace the “write bad first drafts” strategy for writing novels. It helps me write quicker, and the time I spend editing is more effective.

Something else bad first drafts help with is silencing the, “This book is terrible,” voices. I already know my first draft is bad, so when the voices kick up, I can say to them, “Yeah, I know it’s bad. But it’s just a first draft. I’ll fix it later.”

So if you haven’t given bad first drafts a try yet, it might be time!


Don’t read other books in your genre while you’re writing the first draft.

I’m currently working on the first draft for the second Ellie book, but I had really wanted to read a YA contemporary romance,  Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, for a while now. So I broke my rule and read it.
Bad. Idea. 
Because I no longer wanted to spend time with my character in her storyworld when it was so much easier to hang out with Lola. Lola was so quirky and fleshed out, the storyworld so easy to visualize, the dialogue so snappy…. I would sit at my computer to work and just pout at my screen. 
This only happens to me when I’m reading a book that’s in the same genre as the one I’m writing, so I’ve reinstated my rule of no contemporary YAs until I’m done with this first draft!


Experience matters

When I was a new writer, I had a lot of trouble knowing which story ideas were big enough to sustain a full-length novel and which weren’t. It’s a skill I’ve been able to improve over the years. While I still have lots of doubts during the writing process, I feel like my judgment of what works and what doesn’t has been honed in the last decade.

But I wouldn’t have improved if I hadn’t had all those story ideas that went nowhere, so it was definitely worth it to try them out!

Give Yourself Time Between Edits

I try to take six weeks off from a story after I’ve finished a first draft. It’s pretty easy for me now (unless I have a deadline pressing!) but it wasn’t always. I wrote right before Me, Just Different that I was WAY excited about. I loved the story, and I was dying to get it back out and start on edits.

To distract myself, I decided to go to the bookstore and find a few YA books to read. This is when I discovered This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen, which became one of my all-time favorites. I basically did nothing but read for a day and a half. (Ah, the days before kids…)

Reading her book made me panic about mine. After a day or so, I caved and pulled out my manuscript. Oh, it was horrible! Sarah’s book was so funny and sarcastic and bursting with voice. Mine had none of that! I started rewriting mine, which led to me dissolving in tears within an hour. I was never going to be published!

My best friend (who wasn’t a writer) happened to call in the middle of this. When I told her what was going on, she said, “Stephanie! You’re supposed to put it away for six weeks! What are you doing with it out? You put that book away right now and don’t look at it until your calendar says.”

That was the last time I ever did that! It can be  tempting to pull the draft back out, but I’ve found it’s rarely fruitful and that edits go much better when I’ve gotten some distance from the story.

Find writers who can help you along the way.

My first attempt at The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet (which releases this May) was a few years ago, right after I finished the Skylar Hoyt series. During the writing of Ellie, I had never felt so insecure about a story. I spent most the draft saying things like, “I just don’t know about this book,” to my critique partner, Roseanna White. When I sent her the edited draft, it was with a note that said something like, “Will you please read this and tell me what’s wrong with this book?”

Roseanna read it in a day and told me it was the best thing I had ever written.

I thought at first she was being sarcastic, but no. She really did love it. I couldn’t believe it. And then my agent loved it too. While I still had work to do on the story, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had convinced myself it was.

Sometimes it’s tough to see our own writing clearly, which is why writing friends are so valuable. (Also, I’ve noticed that when my main character is similar to me, the way Ellie is, my insecurity about the story skyrockets!)

Don’t discount fatigue.

When you’re on rewrite number seven and you’ve been working on the same story off-and-on for the last couple years, it’s normal for the story to feel boring and predictable. The phrases that once seemed fresh now seem to just die there on the page. So if you’ve been working on the same story for a while now, it might be the fatigue speaking. It’s possibly a good time to put your book away for a month or so, to work on something fun and new, and then come back to it.

Consider a paid critique and/or attending a conference

If you’ve decided to get really serious about your writing, it might be time to invest in a professional edit or in attending a conference. They don’t come cheap, but this is a great way to get an idea of where your writing is.

And remember, you may never feel ready.

You likely won’t wake up one day thinking, “Man, I feel ready for some really harsh criticism!” If you’re tender-hearted (like I am) you may have to make yourself send your book out. I was crazy scared, but I knew that I had to do it if I ever wanted to be published. Eventually you must decide if you want it enough to risk the pain involved.

Anybody have advice to add about dealing with doubts?