It’s Friday, friends! Time to . . . do exactly what you’ve been doing for the last month. But maybe with a little weekend sizzle.
Before we jump into today’s blog post, let me first congratulate the winner of last week’s giveaway.
CONGRATULATIONS, EMILY GRANT!
You are the random winner of Kara Swanson’s DUST! I dropped you an email last night, so check your inbox for details.
And thank you to everyone for making Kara’s giveaway so fun.
And now, for today’s monster. That’s right, I said MONSTER. For the next few Fridays we’re going to talk about the monsters that make life difficult for all us.
First up, DOUBT.
I have these moments, friends. Moments where I feel like an author.
They come hard and fast, surprising me with their intensity. Like drops of sunlight through the shade of a tree. You know that feeling right? You’re riding in a car, eyes shut, almost dozing, and suddenly a battering of light through the branches startles you upright, the light there and then gone.
In these rare moments, I FEEL like a writer. Like a published author. Like someone who has the enviable job of writing stories for a living.
They’re wonderful, these moments. They bring with them a simple, pure, always fleeting feeling of confidence.
They remind me that I can do this. I can write another story. I can BE this person.
I work hard to respect these moments. To honor them by sitting down in my office chair and dumping words onto a page. Because the truth of the matter is, these inspirited moments are fragile. They dissolve at the very hint of negativity, at the first wind of frustration, at the stink of words like trending and bestseller.
It takes very little to scare my muse away. And without that confidence, without the itch of inspiration compelling me to write, it can be a fight to keep my head in the game.
I’m not alone in this, I know that. This isn’t even a problem unique to writers, but the truth is, these battles are fought in a place where you are of little help to me and I am of little help to you. Bloody battles are fought daily between my ears. In the noisy, crowded, aching place where my thoughts churn and churn with little relief.
And when I’m losing, my very own mind flips those once sunny moments inside out and uses them against me.
We writers spend so much (too much?) time here. In our own heads. We dissect everything we read, everything we watch, everything we hear. We try to fashion it and shape it and invert it into something usable. Into something we can write about.
We pass a man yammering to himself on the sidewalk and, within minutes, we’ve concocted an entire backstory and plot. We know how we’d write this man.
Or we don’t. And that kills us.
We sulk away and claim writers block. We doubt we ever had THAT THING. That spark, that gift, that mojo.
We doubt. We doubt. We doubt.
We’re afraid to fail. So we stop writing. But that only angers the beast inside us and we’re reminded that just because we may not write in practice, we cannot simply walk away from the lens we view this world through. Whether you sit and write or not, your brain will not let you be. And so you have a choice: to write through the doubt or to let it gnaw on your gut as you wait for another passing moment of enthusiasm.
Should you take breaks? Yes, absolutely. Weeks? Sometimes. Months? Maybe. But should you ever let doubt be the reason you walk away? I think, no. Doubt is a monster we should never, ever feed. I don’t know that there is one answer to the problem of self-doubt. But I think there are things that can help.
1. Re-define success. This word doesn’t have to mean what you’ve always assumed it meant. Redefine it. What is success to you? To me success is mattering, making a difference to someone. That’s success. I’m a Christian so I want to honor Christ. Success. I want to be of value to my publisher. That’s real, that’s success.
Your definition of success might not match mine, but you should take a moment to figure out what it is. And be willing to adjust your definition as you grow.
2. Write through the doubt. It’s hard to swallow sometimes, but the only way to chase away the I CAN’Ts is to prove that YOU CAN. So prove it to yourself. Put something on the page. And then put something else on the page. And give it time before you decide if it’s any good. Just put down the words. Judge them later.
3. Write fearlessly. Being afraid to fail is very real, but if you let it hold you back, fear wins. Want some truth? We’re all afraid. Doing it anyway is what makes us brave.
4. Look for inspiration. Those of us who write as a career have to learn something early on. Inspiration will not pay the bills. That said, perhaps you’re missing daily inspiration by assuming it will look as it always has.
Right now, with the world so upside down, it can be hard to find any inspiration, and generally speaking, you might have to look a little harder. Normally, I’d suggest going out. Being with people. I’d tell you to scrounge through bookstores and libraries. I’d tell you to go on field trips. Investigate the world around you.
But all of that is a little challenging right now. So, we have to generate some of our own inspiration. I’ll be honest, it’s been very hard for me. I need adventure in order to thrive on the page, but this week I realized I was going to have to generate creative energy in an entirely different way.
I downloaded THE ARTISTS WAY by Julia Cameron, and I listen to it when I’m on the treadmill. The author recommends starting the day with a free-writing session, a practice I used to do much more consistently. Because my well has been so dry, I picked it up again after hearing the suggestion. And it has helped. It’s made these challenging circumstances easier to process.
Consider deep diving into an inspiring podcast or craft book. Maybe search for videos of televised creativity in any form. Theatre, painting, woodworking, whatever you find compelling. Watching others connect with their art can spark something in you.
The truth is, inspiration may attack us on occasion, but that’s less common for many of us right now. I say we stage a muse hunt, make her really work if she’s to stay hidden.
And finally,
5. Inspire someone else. Be the wind in someone else’s sails for a while. Put your pride, your competitive nature, your angst, fear, and doubt aside and lift someone up. Give them a sunshine moment. Not because you’re fishing for inspiration from their lips, but because we all need a little encouragement from time to time.
And because others need to know just how valuable their contributions to the world are, tell them.
These are just a few of the things that help me when I’m lost in the darkness of my own mind.
What have I missed? What advice would you give? Today, let’s choose action in the face of paralyzing doubt.
Shannon Dittemore is an author and speaker. Her books include the Angel Eyes trilogy, a supernatural foray into the realm of angels and demons, as well as the fantastical adventure novel Winter, White and Wicked. Its sequel, Rebel, Brave and Brutal is due out January 10, 2023.
Shannon’s stories feature strong female leads grappling with fear and faith as they venture into the wilds of the unknown. She’s often wondered if she’s writing her own quest for bravery again and again.
It’s a choice she values highly. Bravery. And she’s never more inspired than when young people ball up their fist and punch fear in the face.
To that end, Shannon takes great joy in working with young writers, both in person and online at Go Teen Writers, an instructional blog recognized by Writer’s Digest four years running as a “101 Best Websites for Writers” selection.
For more about Shannon and her books, please visit her website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Love this! So many good tips!
Thank you, Ashley! And happy Friday, friend.
“We pass a man yammering to himself on the sidewalk and, within minutes, we’ve concocted an entire backstory and plot.” This is soo true!
All your tips are quite powerful and applicable right now. Thank you for sharing! You’ve given me the motivation and tools I need to write this next scene.
Most of us have written at least a short story or a couple chapters, if not a book. Sometimes in doubt it can be encouraging to read something you’ve written as proof that YOU CAN write, and you’ve overcome doubt before.
Oh good! If I can gift folks motivation today, I will consider that a great success.
This post was exactly what I needed to hear today, thanks for sharing! I recently started my WIP and this really helped me think about the doubt I was feeling in my writing skills and start to work through it. 🙂
I’m so glad and cheering you on!
Doubt has really been screaming at me this week. It’s so hard for me to get out of my head (and that goes beyond writing) I have to constantly remind myself I can’t improve if I don’t write, so I might as well write badly! But it’s still hard.
I’ve heard of morning pages & I love the idea. Right now, I’m having a hard enough time finding regular writing time. I often feel guilty that I can’t write every day. So I haven’t quite figured out how I can do the free writing.
It’s okay not to have a schedule! Sometimes it’s every other day, or thirty minutes here and there, and that’s okay. Don’t feel guilty about it! Everything is changing, and we’re all learning a whole new way of life. We all struggle with that sometimes, and it’s perfectly fine to not write all the time.
You’ve got this, Tonya! As the phrase from Finding Nemo goes, “Just keep swimming!”
Thank you so much, Shannon, for these kind words! They came at the perfect time for me. 🙂
One thing that I’ve been learning is to remember one of my main purposes in writing my book: bringing people hope through my writing. I’ve found that pointing out and naming what my purpose is in writing the book really helps me. The purpose can be anything, it depends on the writer and the book.
But by remembering that my intention in writing this book was bringing people hope, I’ve learned that it’s okay to struggle. It’s okay to have to fight. I just have to keep on fighting and not give up. And I’m learning to love the mundane, hard parts of editing 🙂
I wish you the best of luck, everyone!
I love this, Adi, and I totally agree. The WHY behind our writing is so important and it serves us well to keep it in focus.
Thank you so much for this! “To me success is mattering, making a difference to someone. That’s success. I’m a Christian so I want to honor Christ. Success.” Yes, I love this! I find writing prompts very helpful, whether it gets me writing a few sentences or a multi-page story.
radiantwords.wixsite.com/blog
Okay, this has totally been me. I’ve completely finished a book before, from first draft all the way through editing and publishing. Now with the second one, I’ve been struggling with feelings of doubt and that I’ve forgotten how to craft a story. It’s been such a struggle. Although lately things have been coming together, which is exciting. 🙂 Thanks for the encouragement!
I really related to the part where you said writers spend to much time in our own heads. I feel like I’m like that a lot- either daydreaming stories or just thinking about life stuff. I feel like being at home constantly has been both a blessing and a curse in that regard. Less human contact means more time to get swept up in my thoughts, but it also means more time to sort through them, get to the root of them, process everything, and decide how to go about it.
All these tips were great. I actually have been free writing a lot lately. It’s incredibly freeing. And I really hope that I can take the last tip about inspiring others to heart. It’s part of how I define success, and it’s something that I’ve lately realized I want/need to incorporate into my life more.
Good luck to everyone as you battle your anti-writing demons. You’ve got this!