All writers experience negative self-critique. Your inner critic whispers discouragement: You won’t finish your book. Your writing isn’t good enough. Who will read this anyway? New and seasoned authors alike often have trouble silencing their inner doubts. It’s important to learn how to conquer your inner critic to help you move past your doubts and strengthen your writing abilities. Here are some helpful things to focus on instead of your negative thoughts.
Read About Writing
There is lots to learn from other writers. Some valuable tools can be found in online forums, books, and seminars with a writing focus. Learn from experienced writers by reading about the writing process. This can help you strengthen your writing skills and style, and build your confidence as a writer.
Try Out Different Writing Styles
“Practice makes perfect” may be an old expression, but it still holds true. While we may never achieve true perfection, striving for perfection naturally improves your craft with every effort. You can try writing in varying styles to better improve your writing skills. Try writing in a light-hearted tone - and then try writing a darker, more serious narrative. Writing in different genres will also help you discover the writing style the best suits you and feels most natural. Writing well in multiple styles is another way to help build your confidence as a writer.
Do Not Edit Until You Are Finished Writing
Editing while you are writing is self-inhibiting. It’s hard to build confidence in your writing ability when you are constantly tweaking your unfinished work. By constantly rereading your work with an eye for correction, it’s difficult to proceed to a full manuscript. Your critical eye hinders your confidence, and your progress in writing. Every time you sit down to write, start right where you left off, without looking over your previous work. Let yourself be creative by pausing your self-critique. No one has ever produced a perfect first draft - and neither will you. Keep writing. A completed manuscript is much more rewarding than a few perfect chapters. Looking at your entire manuscript with fresh eyes will help shape your story into one that you will be proud of as an author.
Share with Other Writers
Writing can often feel like a lonely pursuit. Join a writers' forum or writers’ circle to help step out of your own bubble of writing. You can find writing groups through various writers’ associations, libraries, and through a simple Google Search. Sharing your writing may be a source of anxiety or fear for you, but it can provide a great sense of affirmation and validation. You will no doubt receive criticism, but this is part of your learning process and growth as a writer. Writers are happy to give out praise, though, for things that you have done well in your manuscript. Positive reinforcement will help propel your writing success.
Write Down Your Tangible Goals
Determine your why for writing a book. You may strive to be the next greatest American novelist. While this is a great goal, it is HUGE - which makes it sometimes difficult to obtain and may take a lot of time to achieve. Distill down your writing goals for more tangible, short term goals. It’s really easy to become discouraged after writing for many years and not being on the bestseller list. However, what if you have smaller, more achievable goals? What if your goal is to get a short story published? Or maybe it’s to simply submit your manuscript to many publishers? OR how about a goal of writing a regionally focused book? You are more likely to achieve these goals within a shorter period of time. Be realistic about your writing goals. And be specific with your writing goals. Have a goal genre in mind. Have a goal readership in mind. Don’t be too broad in what you hope your book will do. Having realistic and specific goals will allow you higher success - when you achieve multiple small goals, you will gain confidence to achieve your larger goals.
Have you written your story? Are you looking for a publisher? Canterbury House Publishing is always looking for writers of uplifting fiction, cozy mysteries, hopeful dystopian and more. If you would like to submit your manuscript for consideration, click here.