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How do you deal with your self-doubt?
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/clap poetically put.
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Yours is one of the most inspiring, beautiful messages I have seen on here. I have learned by seeing things happen to others that, yes, today is precious and tomorrow is not a promise.
I'm a newbie author and am working on a non-fiction at the moment. It has kind of gone through many changes since I began writing it a month ago. I mean I had a different plan for the book originally but it's gone through a lot of enhancements and adjustments over the last few weeks from its title to it content to the concept. This morning I toyed with the idea of turning it into a 3-book series. Now doubt has started creeping in. Am I on the right track? Is this normal? How is it all gonna turn out in the end?
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My book started out as a romance novel when I first started writing it. But then i changed it to it's current theme due to my change in reading genres. But I was terrified when I first started because I had to research everything on the fly and I wondered if I did a good job conveying what I was trying to get across. But then someone who read it paid me the highest compliment. They said that it was like Sandra Brown and Mary Higgins Clark got together with me and helped me write this. At times, I wonder if I got in over my head but then I look back on this and smile.
Rose wrote: "I'm a newbie author and am working on a non-fiction at the moment. It has kind of gone through many changes since I began writing it a month ago. I mean I had a different plan for the book original..."Mine ended at one but recently I started writing a follow-up to be what I hope is a series. So i think that is normal.
Sometimes you have to listen to the characters and what they want!
Lorine wrote: "Sometimes you have to listen to the characters and what they want!"Agreed. I thought BLOOD TOY would be part of a three book series. Then my bad guy came back....again.
One of the great joys of being where I am, where we are, is that we are unsupervised. No adult supervision at all. We are free to write what we want when we want and the only person who can stop us is that pest in the mirror. If you have a good group of readers on your side listen to them. Don't listen to that rotten little, wee-hours of the night, whiner. We're writers ... we ... write. My voice of inner doubt ... well ... "forget" 'em if he can't take a joke!
Thanks Ann, Lorine, BK and D! These are all great comments and I appreciate it. Looks like I am not alone and our books CAN evolve along the way. I guess I'll just keep writing and see where it goes. For now, I'm enjoying the writing process and the creative aspect of it :)
Chris wrote: "Ah yes, that little voice in your head that keeps chipping away at your resolve. Is your writing style good enough? Will your readers enjoy your book? Are you doing things the correct way? Are your..."Chris .... The last line mentioned by you in your comment is my biggest fear.There are so many Authors nowadays with explosion of unconventional medium that it is getting difficult to succeed.But as the rules of game are changing , so there are huge number of options for writers like us to get appreciation for work.Important is how to distinguish and propagate across several mediums .If one can master that , than he rules ....
A.L. Your book has only been on Amazon for a week. Everyone will tell you that it's perfectly normal for it not to have any review yet. It can take months before you get your first.
A.L. I'm in largely the same position. I published mine on Amazon on 6th March and have had about 20 sales but have only started to promote it. What kind of promotion are you doing? I'm currently promoting mine through a FREE download starting 1st April through 2nd April for the Kindle version on http://www.amazon.co.uk/Did-Socrates-... and am giving away 20 copies of the book itself on Goodreads Giveaway running to 1st May. I'll check back here after 2nd April on how the FREE Kindle downloads went. Having previously written and sold "How to" books before having a crack at fiction, you simply have to promote, promote, promote all the time...I don't know of any easy route.
A.L. wrote: "Desmond wrote: "A.L. I'm in largely the same position. I published mine on Amazon on 6th March and have had about 20 sales but have only started to promote it. What kind of promotion are you doing?..."I had thought of using the full 5 days as well ..but restricted it to 2 days .. since using 5 days all at once stops you from offering another FREE download for approximately 3 months (5 days allowed FREE in a 90 day period). I have doubts about online advertising since it has had adverse criticism here on Goodreads and elsewhere .. through generating a large number of Likes .. but no sales, which implies that your advert is simply being sent out to a click farm ...probably somewhere overseas for click operators simply to click on but who have no interest at all in buying your book.
Chris wrote: "Ah yes, that little voice in your head that keeps chipping away at your resolve. Is your writing style good enough? Will your readers enjoy your book? Are you doing things the correct way? Are your..."Brother, the only thing that you need to worry about is writing your book. Enjoy the process, fall in love with the creation, pound away at it until you've got your draft out. Then pound away again until it's not a steaming pile. Then, pound away again until you've hammered all those large parts that were hanging loose back into place. Then consider showing it to other people. Then let them help you make it better.
If every writer who ever had doubts about their own abilities stopped writing we wouldn't have any books on the shelves save for cookbooks, self-help primers, and romance novellas (which are not, it should be said, bad.)
I remember one of my old English Professors once said that Herman Melville is reported to have said he would have been a real writer were it not for "Courage, Time, and Money."
Sometimes you need to write through it and remember why you enjoy the story to begin with. Other times you need to get out and experience something good away from the keyboard. Just write, friend. Writer's write. Worry is for agents, editors, and parents.
I suggest sand volleyball, biking, or laser tag.
Hi there,Newbie to the site and forum. Look, this isn't to disparage established authors, but the pedestal they are placed atop with respect to where we might be isn't that high. I've read through the greats and the great-right-now and it all boils down to a formula many of you jokers have loads of talent but it is "unrefined." I wish I could divulge such intricacies of this formula, but it is as intangible and subjective as the whole writing industry itself. One thing I can say for sure, you have to believe in your words; not just the ones you commit to page, but the ones that come out of your mouth. If you can speak with conviction, so can you write with conviction.
Ann wrote: "I had this problem for many years. My parents didn't encourage me to write. In fact, they told me that it was highly unlikely I would ever be an author -- it was too difficult. They tried to teach ..."I LOVE this thought Ann. I need to remember that--I write because I want to, even if no one buys or reads it--I accomplished an item from my bucket list, something that's been on there for so many years--and I can't imagine NOT writing. It's part of who I am.
If I can't open up to my piers then to who? I remember a writing professor who said that the greatest novels will never see print because the authors were not tough enough. The most difficult time I had with the inner voice was after a senior editor at a mega Lit. agency called me from London and told me how great my book was. A year later he called to say how bad it was.That was difficult, but we've all had to fight our own worst critic, right. I've been crushed by neg. reviews and saw a novel that took 3 years to write float belly up. But you know, just recently here on GR I saw a woman in New Jersey gave the book a wonderful review. The thought that my work had touched one person made me laugh like a boy. Maybe the book was bad, but it was my story that needed to be told after a terrible trip through Africa. That is why we do it. It is hard. It always has been, but there is something in us that wants/needs to express and touch and arouse and thrill, to add to the experience of life.
I also forgot to add that I read my children's books and stories for children at a local bookstore. I know right away if it's good or bad. And it is when I capture them, those twinkling eyes, precious sponge minds, waiting for every word, that is when I feel fulfilled professionally. It is how I charge my writer's batteries.
Secretly, I also go on Amazon and read the negative reviews for Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet. I have to admit that makes me snicker.
So, is it the struggle that makes us great writers if we stick with it?All the pain and doubt, is it like our one great love that leaves us broken and crying and hopeless on the floor. And because of that break we are able to find 'the one', find love, and open our hearts to it? That lover who left gave us a gift none other could have--love.
There's a difference between being genuinely good, with the potential of getting better, or an unrepentant, unchanging, delusional douche hack. I believe this site along with other forums such as this would give you an indication either way. If you're the former, then KEEP WRITING!!! Everything in your immediate world will give you reason to tap out, EVEN YOU!!! But you have to keep pushing. Because what you may write could help someone in the Netherlands. Think about that, because it may very well be true.
Rhonda wrote: "Ann wrote: "I had this problem for many years. My parents didn't encourage me to write. In fact, they told me that it was highly unlikely I would ever be an author -- it was too difficult. They tri..."I so agree Rhonda - I write because I enjoy it and have fun with it and I'm able to fulfill a personal dream to write & publish a book.
This is something I wish I could carve into the core of my soul with letters as deep as a spear.
But I may have my own internal issues that prevent me from always living by this. Still, I do when I am able.
Excellent advice for the approach of any endeavor. Thank you.