Blogging Insights#22-Writer’s Self Doubt

You have heard a lot about Writer’s Block , read and perhaps written about it too. I did an installment of Blogging Insights about it which you can read here.

Self Doubt is an affliction that affects writers nearly as often as writer’s bock. You might have seen those stereotypical pictures: an author sits at his desk, writing feverishly. All around him on the floor, are crumpled and screwed up sheets of paper. Or he might have been fastidious and then you will see a huge bin overflowing with crumpled up sheets of drafts and revisions.

For the 21st century writer, the picture is a little different. You either keep editing or re-writing the same piece of work on your device or you hit delete and create a new document altogether. Whatever your modus operandi, the worm of doubt can cast a shadow on your best creation.

Today’s Blogging Insights is about this fear/doubt/lack of confidence that attacks writers from time to time. The format today is a little different as you have noticed already. I have begun with a longer preamble and I am going to ask only ONE question which I will answer myself first.

Question How often are you afflicted by self doubt and what do you do about it?

My Answer

Once I finish a piece of writing, there are rare times when I am thoroughly satisfied by it. These usually rare pieces of literary self satisfaction give me such a high that it carries me through the rest of the day.

What happens more often, is that once I finish writing something I ask myself “is this good enough for someone else to read?” or ” could I have phrased it better?” The question I ask myself most often is “Would someone even bother reading this?”

Fortunately for me, I don’t get a lot of time for writing. If I started indulging (introspection is self indulgence) in second thoughts I would not be able to post anything. So in my case, although I am visited by demons of doubt,lack of time protects me from them. Let me end this with a personal experience: I had never written poetry for my blog when I scribbled a few lines of free verse for a writing prompt. Thinking they were absolute rubbish, I almost hit the delete button. On a whim I posted the supposed “poem”. I was completely taken aback when it received many more likes and comment than all the posts that I had worked hard over. 

 

Okay! That was my bit.

Now I am really looking forward to reading YOUR answer.

Please remember to tag your post # blogginginsights, and leave a link in my comments section too.        

 

writer with crumpled drafts image courtesy dreamstime