Writer’s block, vs writer’s doubt

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? If you have then you’re in good company because at least you are writing something and may just be stumped for a little while. But writer’s doubt is much different. I think writer’s doubt manifests in the beginning of your writing career.

If you are a writer or want to be one, one day then you will most indefinitely encounter writer’s doubt. Is the story I am writing any good, will people want to read it, are my characters strong enough, is the setting good enough, and the pacing and the dialogue and the subject matter…. All these are symptoms of writers doubt.

And it is a hard thing to overcome because in order for you to even have a story to be critiqued on you have to write one with all these doubts circling in your head. At some point there must come a shift in your thinking when you are reading the story you wrote and think, damn that is pretty good. When you get to that point I challenge you to go further and rewrite the whole thing even better because once you reach that point in confidence you will see the beginning of your story that was written in doubt.

All readers want to read material where the author has the authority to write what they are writing whether it is fiction or nonfiction. If it is fiction you must know your world inside and out, your characters; your story. If you don’t have the confidence in what you are writing your readers will not have the confidence in your writing.

More to come on this subject…