How to write more: Persevering through crushing self-doubt 

How do you write when that little voice in the back of your head tells you you’re being self-indulgent, and everything you’re coming up with is dumb, and do you remember that poem you wrote 7 years ago that was terrible? 

It’s a common problem, of course, and it’s not easy to fix, but there are some tricks you can try to cut out that whole horrible bit. They’re not particularly fancy, literary or even very creative for the most part, but they’re worth a try. 

1. Remind yourself that you are not writing alone 

Writing can be a lonely business, especially if you don’t have the kind of life that easily allows you to join writing groups, workshops or the like. So it can be very easy to feel like you’re just pouring out words on your own thanks to an inflated sense of self-worth. 

At these moments, it can be helpful to remember just how many people are out there writing as well, right now. They might have amazing ideas, or flawed ones. They might write so beautifully that every line is transcendent, or still be figuring out their style. They might be writing in their first language, or their second, or their third, sticking to a detailed plan, or making it up as they go. 

They could be any age, any gender, any race, have any kind of disability, health or mental health challenges, any kind of job, income, background, any kind of joy or sadness in their lives. 

What joins them all, and joins you with them, is that you’re writing. You’re part of a huge, invisible community of people that likes - or wants, or needs - to put words down on paper or screen or napkin or whatever else you have to hand. And all of you are completely justified in doing it. 

Writing is not reserved for those who are good at it, just like any other creative activity. All those other people are doing it too, and you are absolutely, 100% allowed to join them. 

2. Try giving yourself a time limit

Tell yourself you’ll write for 10 minutes. What harm can that do? Just 10 minutes, then you can stop if you want to (NOTE: this technique is also intermittently effective at getting toddlers to try new things). 

It’s hard to argue with 10 minutes, even if you’re in that ‘there are so many more important things I should be doing’ headspace, and if you stop at the end then you’ve still achieved something - or maybe you’ll keep going. Who knows?

You can adapt this in whatever way you like. It can be 10 minutes on an idea or a draft you’ve already got in progress, or 10 minutes of random freewriting. Or, if 10 minutes feels like too much, make it 5. 

You can set yourself a timer, or not, but try not to check the time every 30 seconds. Commit to your chosen timeframe and give writing your total attention for that tiny amount of time, and see where it takes you. 

3. Try some unexpected exercises and prompts 

Even if you’re not usually drawn to writing exercises, sometimes having a structure can make your writing feel like it’s serving a purpose, so you don’t have to interrogate how good or ‘worthy’ it is. If you can’t find anything that feels like a good fit for your usual style or WiP, pick something that’s totally out of your comfort zone. A prompt or an exercise doesn’t have to be your whole writing day - just a warm-up exercise to get over the hump of self-doubt and self-criticism. 

4. Drown it out 

It might sound a bit obvious (and it won’t work for those people who need absolute silence to get anything done) - but sitting in a quiet room can make your thoughts extremely loud - so try background noise. Music, white noise, cafe sounds… there are playlists for all of them on Youtube and Spotify and probably many other places besides. Sometimes it’s just enough of a distraction to allow you to start writing - which is often 90% of the battle. 

If you’re able, you could also try transplanting yourself to a (real) cafe or another environment with a bit of life in it, and see whether that focuses you better (this works wonders for me). 

5. DO NOT EDIT! 

Editing as you go is a surefire way to get your self-critical brain working on overdrive. Because a story, or a poem, or a book, or an essay, or whatever you’re writing (usually) isn’t just that one sentence - it’s a collection of them. And if you dive straight into editing so early on, not only will you prevent yourself from just carrying on and getting raw words down on the page, but you’ll also be judging that sentence out of the context that it will have when the whole piece is finished. So, try to turn off your inner editor whenever you’re drafting something, and silence the self-critical voice that can often come with it.

6. Remember that the more you do it, the better it gets

Realistically, your writing isn’t perfect - for the simple fact that no-one’s is. But the more you do it, the more you will get a sense for what you like, what you don’t like, what defines your style, what rules you like to follow and which you like to break, how you prefer to edit, which kinds of voices feel comfortable for you and which don’t, and how you like to challenge yourself. All of this is so important as a writer, and it’s also part of the fun! So if you’re not feeling super confident in the quality of your work, maybe today is more of a learning day. And that’s a great way to spend your writing time too.