Bonus Tip: Battling Self-Doubt
Dear Storyteller,
This Bonus Tip: Battling Self-Doubt seemed necessary secondary to the fact that I found myself struggling with it so impossibly at the beginning of this year. Upon further reflection, as well as feedback I received from my editor, I realized the importance of nipping this creeping fear in the bud. And I hope you’ll battle self-doubt with me, and together we’ll finally conquer it.
Let’s read on to unveil why self-doubt is so crushing to your writer career and why it’s so incredibly important to destroy it before it sprouts.
Why is it so important to conquer self-doubt?
My number one reason for grabbing self-doubt by the horns and fully subduing it relates to time.
It is such an incredible waste of your time to give in to self-doubt and allow it to conquer you.
How is self-doubt a waste of time?
Four reasons stand out in my mind. Let’s take a look at each one, so you can see how devastating the battle with self-doubt can be, if we don’t conquer it early.
Reason #1
In some sense of it, it is first and foremost immobilizing.
Once you allow self-doubt to creep into your mind and you don’t conquer the battle before it’s begun (i.e. rid yourself of those thoughts before they’ve taken root), you end up almost paralyzed. You can’t move forward because you’re afraid what you’ve already done isn’t good enough. This, in my experience, leads to writer stagnation. You end up being a sad pond of despondency, where self-doubt stills the flowing waters of creativity. Now, instead of moving on and creating, you’re stagnating-ruminating on chapters and scenes and phraseology you shouldn’t be wasting your time on.
Why?
Because it’s already good. You just can’t see it.
Reason #2
You second guess everything you’ve already put your hand to. All those phrases, all those poetic descriptions, all that intro, lead-in, advancement of the story, it all turns to ash in your hands. A smoking heap of nothing, burned away by the battle with and aftermath of succumbing to self-doubt.
Again, why does this happen?
Because self-doubt tells you what you’ve done is no longer beautiful. It whispers that you’ve failed. It tells you everything you wrote is disappointing, needs improved, will bore your readers.
It lies.
Reason #3
It turns your focus from what you should be doing to what you’ve already poured your heart and soul into. It wastes time because now self-doubt has you zeroed in on what you’ve already accomplished, rather than leaving it behind and focusing on what you need to get done.
Reason #4
Self-doubt sends you back to square one. And now that you’ve gone back to the beginning, you’re wasting your energy on rewriting something that doesn’t need rewritten.
My personal battle with self-doubt
In my case, as you may already know, my own self-doubt crept in really hard in January of 2025.
What did I doubt? All of the following:
- my opening chapter,
- its level of interest to readers,
- its prose,
- its advancement,
- its ability to recap appropriately in a short amount of time what had happened since the end of Book 2.
In essence, I second guessed and doubted everything I’d written in those opening chapters. I feared they weren’t catchy enough. They weren’t compelling enough. They weren’t action-packed enough. The list could go on…and on.
So, what did I do?
As you may very well know based on this post here, I spent 4 months composing various Chapter One versions (a total of 15 at one point), drawing in bits and pieces of the original, and then fitting in new ideas and sequences to keep the story action-packed and moving along at what I believed was an awe-inspiring clip.
What were the results?
Can you guess?
My editor nixed everything. And I mean everything. Not in a mean way. Just in a practical, honest way. And to my even graver disappointment, she told me I’d “lost my voice” in the process of my rewrite. She told me it was as if a completely different person had written the story, and she didn’t like it. And as an author, that’s totally not what you want to hear. You’ve lost your voice? What?
Yea, you kinda can’t get much more devastated than that.
My greatest disappointment however?
That I’d literally dedicated so much time to crafting this rewrite-laboring over it extensively for months-only to find out that that time I’d devoted to my rewrite was nothing but wasted hours, days, weeks, and months that I could have devoted to other things, like writing up back matter. Conducting spell checks, name checks, etc. All the tedious things that require nothing else but… you guessed it! Time. *Sigh*
But was this time really wasted?
Actually, no.
Why not?
Because I learned a valuable lesson, so hopefully, you don’t have to!
I learned that this bonus tip: battling self-doubt is:
- something that you should conquer as soon as:
- it enters your mind,
- before its fledgling roots start sprouting,
- and well before it takes root.
It’s also something that you shouldn’t entertain because it only ends up:
- derailing the moment,
- causing you to doubt your authenticity and your talent,
- destroying what didn’t need fixed,
- and ultimately wasting your valuable time and effort that you really should be giving elsewhere.
How do you battle self-doubt then?
Quite simply by ignoring it in the first place.
I realize this seems a bit of a trite answer, but it’s the most honest one I can give you; and it’s the easiest one to employ. Kinda of like, running from evil. Don’t entertain it. Don’t welcome it. Just…avoid it altogether.
But what happens when ignoring it isn’t easy?
Ignoring and battling self-doubt is definitely a skill you will have to learn to acquire. If you are quite prone to worrying that your self-doubt is, in fact, legitimate, and that there’s some scene or phrase that does need a major overhaul in your story, then please do what I did…but in reverse order.
Do find a trusted person (a parent, your editor, a friend) who will give you good and honest feedback about the chapter or section over which you’re seriously battling self-doubt. This works best if the person you’re consulting actually has read your work before, or is at least familiar with it. This way their feedback is more constructive, rather than just an opinion, meaning they’ve read your other stories or fictional works so they know your voice, your style, your pacing, etc. And because of that they can give you feedback to the extent that my editor gave me, since she was super familiar with my writing style, etc.
Bottom line: don’t rewrite the passage and then seek consultation. I say this only because of my own experience. For something as large as the section I rewrote anyway, ultimately without needing to.
Are there exceptions to this? Always. Read on to discover what those are…
Exceptions to the above advice…
When you know that you’re just not happy with a specific section of your book and someone else genuinely liking it isn’t going to change your discontent with the way it’s written in any way, shape, or form..
Then yes. Definitely have at it, and then ask for feedback from your editor or friend, an alpha or beta reader, or your parent.
Or if you’re reading a passage and you really feel it needs further explanation from a character’s point of view or to improve the visual of the landscape, etc. This is definitely another case in which I would say, rewrite and then ask for feedback. Because these are things that you as a writer and artist aren’t going to get over. If it doesn’t sit right in your gut, definitely fix it. But always save your original work on another file. This way, if you end up not liking what you rewrite, or you prefer a word or phrase in your original work, it’s there for you. It’s not erased. This is a good trick that has always helped me throughout the years and is hopefully something you’re already doing.
So, what is the main idea then? How do I know when or when not to rewrite?
If you’re rewriting or adding to a chapter or section of your book because you know that adding to it or rewriting it will only improve what’s already there, then go for it.
If you’re only doing this because, as I was, you are concerned about how your work will be received by others, then stop right there. Don’t change a thing. Because, if you’re happy with what you originally wrote and only now want to change it secondary to concerns over how others will receive it, then you’ve already lost.
Why?
Because you’re changing things not because the story needs it, or even wants it, you’re changing it because you’re battling self-doubt. Something that should be crushed, not crushing you.
It’s the number one devastating plague for writers. Self-doubt is what takes us all down. One. By. One.
Well, this and one other thing. Something I hear thrown around a lot by writers and which I’m not certain the definition really matches the reference. Imposter syndrome. I’ll talk about this one later, as another bonus tip (I’m doing a lot of these lately), and give you my two cents (for what it’s worth) on why I think Imposter syndrome hits authors and why you should avoid it.
But in the meantime, I’ll look into this frequently-referenced phrase used by writers just to ensure I know and understand it myself…my gut feeling is that it’s a descriptor that most authors shouldn’t actually be adopting…
Conclusion
I hope you found this Bonus Tip: Battling Self-doubt helpful in some way, and I hope it was insightful to see that this is something that affects every author, no matter how many books they’ve written. It’s a constant battle that must be fought and won. Not in arrogance or conceit, but in the rallying call that you must, in a humble sort of way, believe in yourself. You must. You have to. Otherwise, you wouldn’t publish or seek publication in the first place.
And while you may not fully achieve this level of confidence in your work right off, it must exist to some degree. You must believe you have a story to tell and share, and you cannot doubt its worth or contribution to the world. Otherwise, if you do, then you will forever remain paralyzed, dejected, and yearning for someone to set you free.
All this must come from within. Again, not in pride, arrogance, or conceit, but in a biblical view of yourself. That God placed you here for a purpose, and as long as He wills it and allows it, that purpose for you is to write.
Never doubt again.
Miss my other Writer’s Nook posts?
You can pop over to The Writer’s Nook page and catch up on other tips and tricks that I found helpful or useful or learned along the way as I continue to undergo my own writing journey.
Until next time, dear Storyteller, remind yourself that your loyalty is to God and Him alone, and that His purpose for your life trumps your own battle with self-doubt, for He has already conquered it, if you just believe that it is so. So go ahead…and write. God bless, xoxo.
