Overcoming Fear and Doubt

                Fear and doubt is one of the biggest things anyone has to face, especially a writer. We doubt our abilities to write a novel. We doubt our novels will sell. We doubt we can write a best seller, like some of our favorite writers. Doubt leads into fear and questioning. What if I do not have the skills to write a full length novel? What if no one wants to read my stories? What if I begin a story and never finish? What if I am not good enough? What will happen if I cannot find a publisher?  What will happen if I get writer’s block? Self-doubt and fear can keep you from achieving your dreams to be a writer. There are ways to overcome these fears and doubts.

                The first thing you need to do is admit to having them. The only way you will ever overcome them is to acknowledge them. Write down how your fear and doubt is affecting your progress to becoming a writer. Doing this will show you how you perceive the gravity of the situation. After you have acknowledged your fear and self-doubt, you can find practical ways of coping with these issues. Take the time to imagine the worst case scenario of becoming a writer. For instance, you may think the worst case scenario is that your book will never sell. You can take steps in the marketing and promotion of your book to ensure that you sell copies. The next step to overcoming fear and self-doubt is to build a support group of friends and family who believe in you. Their encouragement and support will help in making you believe that you can achieve your dreams. When someone makes a negative comment about you abilities, you will need to learn to take it as constructive criticism.

Keeping this criticism close to you at all times will force you to strive to do better the next time.  Letting go of the things that were said in the past about your ability to achieve anything will help you to succeed. Create a list of your goals and then take action to achieve one a day. For instance, if your ultimate goal is to write a novel, your list can begin with coming up with the characters to your story. Then on the day you plan on achieving the goal, you can sit down and begin thinking about character traits and what you want them to look like. This may change as you are going through with writing your story, but you will have accomplished your first goal. Taking the action to complete one goal a day will help you overcome your fear and self-doubt.

Personally, I have been down this road. I had plenty of fears and self doubt. When I began writing, I took my time and began slow. I started with an article on our local bands. With the bands feeling grateful that I wrote about them and placing what I said on their websites, I began expanding my horizons. I have written articles on many topics. I have even ventured into writing books. I have written one fiction short story, a poetry book, a cookbook, and a book on body language in the workplace, that have all been published. I have ghostwritten books for clients that have gone on to being published. I have edited books for clients that have gone on to being published. I have entered a couple of contests for fiction writing that I will know the results later this year. Do I still have doubts about my writing ability? Yes, of course, I do. But having a support system that believes in what I do, helps to alleviate that self-doubt and fear. I write my goals out for the day and achieve them daily. There will always be a bit of self doubt and fear in this business, but with some hard work everyone can achieve their goals of being a successful writer.