Dear writer, the world is waiting for you to stop doubting yourself

You're writing along; maybe it's your first blog post or even your hundredth. Or perhaps a book chapter, sales page, or social post.

Something feels off, so you pause.

What do you do when your thoughts sound something like this? 

I'm not a good writer.

I need to know more. 

I should study more. 

Who am I to write this? 

Janet did it better. 

Where's this writing even going? 

What am I even doing?

Self-doubt can show up for even the most confident writers.

Here are some tips to squash it fast and get back to work.

Because the world is waiting for you to start writing.

Tip 1: Get curious. 

Ask yourself where the thought came from. Is this even your thought to begin with? You might discover right away that it came from someone else. And then, you can shift your focus back to your writing and get going again. It's not your brain telling you you're not a good writer. You may have heard this story growing up you may have heard it from a crappy teacher, a parent, or someone else. You can choose whether or not to believe them. 

Tip 2: A reframe: If you stop writing, you're letting darkness win.

One way to look at it is to see any negative thoughts trying to keep you from sharing your voice, your words, and your work as darkness, trying to keep you small, quiet, and stuck. 

We're not playing that game. We're here to share our voices. And anytime you put the pen down and hear these negative thoughts, darkness scores a point.

This reframing helps some of my writing students feel as if they're taking their power back. They see it as a competition — nope, I am not letting darkness win. I'm going to see this writing through.

Tip 3: Delete the thought. 

Use language that feels best for you here. It can sound something like "reject, cancel, delete," or "no fucking way." Whatever that is, think this as soon as you hear this thought pop into your mind and then recenter your focus back to the page. I know this can be challenging to do in the moment, but you'll get better at interrupting those thoughts with practice. The faster you interrupt it, the quicker it can go away. 

Tip 4: Imagine the thought is outside of you. 

Picture the thought going into a bubble. And then you can get curious about that bubble. Look at it. Study it. Figure out where it came from. Why is it showing up now? And then, you can pop it and let it disappear and not affect your writing work. Poof! 

You can also play with some mantras to write the opposite. And having these opposite mantras front and center will help you refocus. Here are some examples of some opposite statements. 

For the statement, "I'm not a good writer," Try on one of these...

I'm an excellent writer. 

I love writing. 

I am writing what the world needs. 

People want to read my words. 

I'm excited to show up and write. 

I trust the process of writing.

Write these statements using language that feels good to you. And then keep these front and center as you're doing your writing work — write them on a sticky note and keep it at your desk.

Tip 5. Get back in your body.

When thoughts creep in, we're not present in our bodies. We're letting our minds take the wheel. The mind is not for driving. The body is for driving. The mind is for thinking and refining. We don't need the mind when we're doing our writing. Especially when writing a draft.

The most useful piece of advice I share with students is to separate the process of editing from writing. Write as if you don't have a backspace button. Surrender at the page, write a surrendered first draft (SFD)1, and let it all out — no judgment of the process. No trying to control, force, coerce, or massage the words in any way. Simply let them out onto the page and then allow them to sit for at least a day.

You will edit it later. Give yourself at least a day space in between writing your draft and editing.

The more time you invest in nurturing your inner writer and showing up for yourself on the page, the quieter these voices become.