Self-doubt is one of those things we tend to treat as a curse when we’re talking about writing. I’ve been guilty of it plenty of times over the years. If you doubt yourself, we so often assume, you’re weak. You’re letting your fear hold you back too much. But as is so often the case with these sorts of things, a so-called “weakness” can become a strength of every writer, over time, if it’s framed in just the right way.
Your Mind Is Both a Prison and a Wonder
The reason writing is so hard often has nothing to do with the actual writing itself. Many people who want to become writers have the creative drive to do that, and plenty of those who do will also figure out how to turn that drive into success for themselves. The hardest part of the process is quieting — or ignoring — your brain’s insistence that you can’t or shouldn’t actually try to become a writer.
Your mind can be an amazing and seemingly endless source of ideas. But it can also keep those ideas and all your desire to write worthwhile stories locked away because of self-doubt, or a lack of confidence. Fear. Anxiety. Frustration.
Every successful writer in history has managed to, somehow, push past all those barriers and write anyway. The specific solutions can differ for every individual, but I can still give you some advice to get you started.
Writing Will Always Pull You in Two Directions
You’re going to spend your entire writing life switching back and forth between two mindsets: “I can definitely do this” and “no way can I actually do this.” This is actually a good thing. If we never stop to question whether or not we should be doing something, we would forget why we started doing it in the first place. It would lose all meaning for us. And that’s not what storytelling is all about.
Believe it or not, doubting your abilities can actually give you a solid advantage over time. Those who doubt seek to improve, at least that’s what I’ve discovered about myself since I started writing when I was a kid. Every time I wrote something I didn’t think was good enough, I found myself striving to do better. Not believing in myself, for a very long time, might actually be the reason I’ve successfully made a career out of writing and editing. You can capitalize on this too, if you let yourself.
Stay Focused on What You Dream Could Be Possible
You are always going to doubt yourself here and there, if not constantly. No matter how much you write or how many years you do it — regardless of how successful you may become — part of you will always struggle to believe you can accomplish what you’ve set out to do. That you’re good enough. That your words matter.
Use that to your advantage. Let it fuel your path forward. Let your curiosity be the reason you keep writing. Because how will you ever find out the truth any other way? The only way to discover if you can actually do it, whether or not you’re good enough, how worth it the years of work was — is to write, pitch, publish, until all the answers finally become clear.
Meg Dowell Writes 