Browsing Tag

limiting beliefs

Writers and the Fear of Failure: How to Get Over It for Good

Sometimes I feel like I’m in the unique position of having my fingers on the collective pulse of writers today. I talk to unbelievable amounts of writers every week. Some of them are my clients, some of them are new people thinking about becoming a client, and some of them are completely random strangers from the internet who email me to talk about writing. I talk to sci-fi writers and memoirists and bloggers and romance novelists and everything in between.

The thing that always astounds me is that almost every single one of these writers, sooner or later, brings the same problem to me. Continue Reading

The Hard Truth about Writing: Sometimes You Seriously Just Want to Give Up

I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to give up on writing.

This is not something people usually expect to hear. My circle of friends and colleagues know that writing is something I am deeply passionate about; it’s the thing I sacrifice my free time and extra sleep for, and the thing I seemingly never stop pursuing.

But what they don’t know is how many times I have really, seriously, TRULY thought about throwing in the towel. Continue Reading

Writers and Self-Judgment: Why It Happens and How to Fight It

Out of the entire world population, writers are the harshest on themselves when it comes to self-judgment.

No, I haven’t done a study or anything, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this was true. Based on the emails I get from writers, and the blog posts I read written by writers, I can see clearly that self-judgement is one of the biggest, ugliest problems we deal with on a constant basis. Continue Reading

Writers with Imposter Syndrome: You Are Not Alone

You are such a fraud.

As a writer, how many times have you heard your inner critic say that to you whenever someone compliments your work? What if your work comes up for an award or you get an awesome review from a total stranger?

How about the times you hear that phrase just because you dared to say out loud to someone that you—yes, YOU—are a writer?

For me, it has been thousands and THOUSANDS of times. Continue Reading

Taking Time for Your Writing…and the Guilt That Comes With It.

If you’re a writer—and especially if you’re a writer who isn’t bringing in a significant (or any) amount of income from your writing—then you probably struggle with feeling guilty a lot of the time. I know I do. Because you see, I’m not just a writer. I’m also a wife and a mother and a good friend to a few wonderful people. I work a day job and I have a side business that I pour my all into. Simply put: I wear a lot of hats. I have a lot of other people counting on me.

And sometimes…okay a lot of the time…my writing gets in the way of that.

But what I probably feel most guilty about is the fact that my brain arranges it in reverse order: The rest of my life tends to get in the way of my writing. Continue Reading