Building Self-Confidence As a Writer

 

Do you have confidence in yourself as a writer? It's a very important quality for writers to have on a regular basis. If you don't believe in yourself as a writer, can you expect your readers to believe in you? 

Writers in movies are often portrayed as people whose confidence level is quite low. They are poor souls who have not and cannot believe in themselves. Overcoming that problem is what creates the story line for the movie. In films, things usually turn out well in the end. But is real life like that?

If you don't believe in yourself as a writer, you'll probably do some shaky writing or none at all. The all-famous 'writer's block' is partly a lack of confidence in yourself as a writer. Since you don't believe that you're a capable writer, let's just stop writing--that's the thought process. You can say you're experiencing writer's block, and suddenly you have no guilt. You also have no writing accomplished. 

How do you learn to trust yourself as a writer? Once you've dug the hole of no self-confidence, it is not easy to climb out and be a person who believes in him/herself. It doesn't happen by snapping your fingers. It's a process that must be ongoing. 

Here are a few suggestions:

• Look in the mirror at least once a day and say out loud:  I am a writer. Say it with emphasis. Do it every day, and you might start believing what you are saying. When you don't believe in yourself as a writer, you are actually saying, I can't write.
• Make a list of the pieces you've written that satisfied you. You probably felt good about them because you felt you had accomplished some good writing.
• Make a second list of your publications. You would not have become a published writer if you were no good. An editor or publisher believed in you. It's time you believed in your own capabilities. 
• Dwell on the positives in each day. Ditch the negatives. They only serve to drag you down. 
• Make a list of the parts of writing in which you do well. Keep the list where you can see it and read it every day.
• Push yourself to do more than you have been. When you're successful, it is a natural confidence builder.
• Set realistic goals. If your goals are high in the sky and unreachable, it's a definite way to punch a hole in self-confidence. 
• Step out of your comfort zone now and then. It helps you grow and breeds self-confidence.
• Try journaling on a daily basis. Write about the positives in your writing life. At the end of each week, go back and read your Positives in Writing Journal. 

Don't ever use the fact that you don't believe in yourself as an excuse for poor writing or for not writing at all. Do that, and you'll dig a deeper hole. Today's poster gives the writer who has trouble believing in him/herself some good advice. A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking because her trust is not on the branch but on its own wings. Always believe in yourself.

The final sentence, Always believe in yourself, is one you can use as a mantra.Or make a sign with those four words, and put it where you see it every time you sit down to write. Then believe it.