On self-doubt

I’ve thought about stopping. I’ve had days where I wondered why I thought I could do it in the first place. English is my third language. Third. I have an accent that shouts out loud it’s not my Mother Tongue. I studied Math in university. Not English. How could I ever be a writer?

Every writer struggles with self-doubt at some point. We all have those little voices in our heads that tell us the many reasons we can’t be writers. I’m not going to tell you that you can do it or that you can’t. But I can share what other authors have written on self-doubt that helped me.

Bryan Hutchinson wrote a great article on self-doubt. The quotes alone he includes are worth the read (at least for me).

This one by June Whittle is a great post with links to resources for overcoming self-doubt and also has a link for those of us who’re not native English speakers!

Jeff Goins talks about dreaming when others think you’re…well nuts. It’s a lovely post and really encouraging.

Jody Calkins has this great post on positive things you can do to shut up those negative thoughts.

I absolutely loved this one by Joanna Penn on persistence. She has great advice and tips for authors struggling with self-doubt.

Finally, Kelly Leitner did this great article on overcoming self-doubt and this one on the fear of writing.

As always, I hope these help you when you’re thinking of shutting the laptop for good. Hang in there. 🙂