Epic Advice from Chuck Wendig on Creating Things and Self Doubt.

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Epic Advice from Chuck Wendig on Creating Things and Self Doubt.

Saw this on Twitter and had to share for those of you who either aren’t on twitter or would not be following Chuck Wendig if you were. All credit to Chuck for his thoughts on creativity and self doubt, and this is a must read for you creative types out there.

(sorry for duplication but he replied to each tweet, so that seems to be how the embeds work.)

I know it’s early, but — buckle up, my precious artmonkeys. Time to talk about self-doubt and how we are our own worst enemies.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

First, let’s just say this up front: self-doubt for writers and artists and other creative-types? SUPERNORMAL. Common as clockwork. Really!

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

We all feel like, I CAN’T DO THIS. I DON’T BELONG HERE. I AM A STOWAWAY AND AN IMPOSTOR OH SHIT SHIT FUCK SHIT.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

And it makes sense that it’s normal. MAKING THINGS is often a long, weird, uncertain journey. It’s a trip into a dark, faraway forest.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

You don’t know how long you’re going to be gone. Weeks, months, years. Very hard to find your bearings. We crave certainty, but find none.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Creating a thing – novel, painting, whatever – isn’t like a quick little tapdance. You get no feedback. This isn’t PUSH BUTTON FOR TREAT.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

(Actually, sometimes it feels like PUSH BUTTON FOR ELECTRIC SHOCK TO MY SELF-ESTEEM AND ALSO PROBABLY MY GENITAL REGION OW OW OW OW.)

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

It’s a process. A journey. A test.

It’s just YOU and THE THING in an emotionally unstable, uncomfortable roommate situation.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Halfway through and it’s, “I don’t understand this thing anymore. It smells weird and won’t wash the dishes. MISTAKES WERE MADE.”

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

It’s why we give up in the middle. We’re lost out there. Easier to turn around, go back to civilization. “FUCK THIS POOP PARADE, I’M OUT.”

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

And this is true no matter how many times you do it. I’ve written a bunch of books and feel lost every single fucking time.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

And yet, you must persist! Art demands commitment in the face of good, clean common sense. Story requires the absence of reason.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Big question is, how do you defy common sense? How do you join the circus and tell self-doubt to go get fucked in a ditch somewhere?

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Okay, part of this is mechanical. You can give yourself tools to make it through, and those tools are different for everybody.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

(You know how, in D&D, you always get the character who brings 50 feet of fucking rope? THAT IS THE SMARTEST CHARACTER IN THE GAME.)

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

You gotta bring the rope. Something to hold onto as you haul your ass through the long dark forest.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

That might be an outline. Or a notebook. Or a collage of characters. A whiteboard. Post-Its. Tools and touchstones to look at and hold.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

But there’s also a larger, less mechanical struggle going on when self-doubt is in play. And that’s the harder battle to fight.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Here, maybe, is how you fight it: recognize that you have two parts of you. You have THE ARTIST and you have THE CRITIC.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

THE CRITIC inside you is good at picking things apart. THE CRITIC is reason, logic, wisdom. THE CRITIC will tell you where you are wrong.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

But THE CRITIC has its time, and now is not that time. Now is the time for THE ARTIST only.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

THE ARTIST thrives on unreason, and chaos, and foolishness. We dismiss those as sins, but in this instance, they are virtues.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Creation is messy. It’s pyroclastic. It’s not neat. It’s lava spraying. It’s lightning and clamor, man. And that’s okay.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Ed Note: New favorite word that I want to work into everyday conversation: –

py·ro·clas·tic ˌpīrōˈklastik/ GEOLOGY adjective relating to, consisting of, or denoting fragments of rock erupted by a volcano.

Silence your CRITIC and let your ARTIST run naked and on fire through a field of blood and daisies.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Translation: recognize you are the worst judge of your own work. So stop judging the work in the middle. Run forward. JUST RUN. Don’t stop.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

MAKING STUFF is about momentum. Doubt undercuts your momentum. Which means you have to first undercut the doubt.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Undercutting doubt is about saying to yourself, this is the time to MAKE stuff, not the time to FIX stuff. The fix comes later.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Undercutting doubt is saying, I don’t trust my higher mind, the intellectual part. I trust my lower, messier mind. I trust my instincts.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

TRUST THE MESS. Find truth in pigeon guts. It’s all made-up stuff. This is not math, it’s a kind of crass, gutter, monster magic.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Undercutting doubt is being the monster, not the monster hunter. Say fuck it and EAT THE VILLAGERS. Greedily. Giddily. Chomp chomp chomp.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Sure, the monster hunter will come for you eventually. But now is the time to rampage.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

The hardest but most vital part of all of this:

You have to defeat your own brain in the Thunderdome that is your skull.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Some say that overcoming self-doubt is about trusting yourself, but I’d argue it’s easier to just not care about your own judgment.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Best attitude for this: “I’m not sure about any of this, but I don’t care, I’m doing this shit anyway. LET’S SEE WHAT HAPPENS, WOOOOO.”

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

So, when you’re faced with self-doubt, you just say, “SHUT UP, ME,” and hold up two middle fingers that explode like firecrackers.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Then you go make the thing by stepping over the bound and gagged and wriggling body of your own self-doubt. Because eat shit, doubt.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Otherwise, the reverse will happen: your self-doubt will have YOU bound and gagged in the trunk of its Buick.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

You just gotta say, I’m going to do this now no matter what. I’ll fix it later or I’ll do something new.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

Give fewer fucks. Don’t give zero fucks! You need some fucks in your fuck tank to fuel your fuckfest! But too MANY fucks kills the engine.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

To sum up: This isn’t easy. And it’s totally normal. But learn to doubt your doubt. Step over it. Go make the thing anyway. You can do it.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016

HERE.

THIS IS THE FLAMINGO OF DOUBT. IT IS A DUMB BIRD AND YOU SHOULD IGNORE IT.

THE END. pic.twitter.com/BeMZ7R9PSS

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) September 30, 2016