How many of us hear voices in our heads? Okay, maybe not those kinds of voices, but a different kind. The kind that tries to get in the way of everything you want to do. The negative voice in your head that wants you to give up on all your dreams.
We’ve all heard that voice at one point or another before we began our journey as writers, and unfortunately, that voice doesn’t go away after you start. Nor does it go away after you first get published. And plenty of successful writers who will tell you it doesn’t even go away when you write a best-seller.
So while your negative writing voice may not tell you the same things mine does, here are 5 of my most common negative writing thoughts and how to push them aside.
You don’t have time to write
This one is the worst for me, because I live in a perpetual state of “You don’t have time to…” But can you blame me? We’ve got four young kids and I have an hour-long commute to the day job. Sometimes it feels like I keep adding things on and not finishing anything. I’ve written about time management a lot on this blog, but I’ll quickly share my new strategy (as of April 1, 2019) on how I do find time to write.
It basically boils down to this. I picked the four most important extracurricular activities to work on. In no particular order, they are:
- Theme of Absence
- 52 Dragons
- Write Good Books (blog and podcast)
- Fiction (short stories or novel)
What I started doing was to focus only on this four items, and before I sit down and get to work, I decide how much time I have, and then divide it by four. On a typical night, I have two hours to work after the kids go to bed. That makes 30 minutes for each topic. When I’m on a time budget like that, I can stay focused, stay off facebook and twitter, and have a productive session for each of these things.
That idea has been done a million times before
This can be difficult, especially when writing in a genre full of tropes like horror or fantasy. That feeling that you’re not doing something original can be daunting and enough to make you stop working on a project.
There are a couple of things to remember. One is that…yes. It’s true. What you’re working on probably has been done before. Maybe not “a million times”, but many more time than you’re aware of. Fiction is formulaic and in genre fiction in particular, your story will fall into that formula. It will also have a lot in common with other stories in the genre. It’s difficult to write fantasy without borrowing from Tolkien. It’s difficult to write science fiction without borrowing from Clarke. These are just facts that you need to accept.
Don’t focus so much on what makes your story seem like you’re copying the legends, and instead focus on what makes your story–and your style–unique.
So many people could write that better than you
This sort of falls back to the last point about focusing on what makes your story unique. You know what? You’re not the best writer in the world. There are people who can write better than you. But who cares? Outside of a handful of literary snobs, most readers don’t care. They want to be entertained or educated.
So find your unique way to educated and entertain. Focus on your strengths, and tell a good story. And even if someone else could write your story better than you, they are not writing it. You are.
You really have no idea what you’re doing
This one gets me all the time. Whether it be writing, parenting, the day job, driving, or pretty much anything else I’ve ever done in my life. But the funny thing is, none of us really have any idea of what we’re doing. We basically go through life faking it and hoping we make enough good decisions to success and not die early.
It’s a weird way to look at things, but it makes it easier to keep pushing, keep trying, and not be afraid to takes risks when you need to get something done.
This genre is out of your league. Go work on something easier
If you’re struggling with a genre, it might be that it’s not the genre for you. Or most likely, it’s just not a genre you’ve not yet got a lot of experience with. There is no shame in stepping away from a project and getting more familiar with the genre before stepping back in and if you’re not feeling confident with your current project that’s the thing to do. Take me, for example. I’m was working on an epic fantasy trilogy, but it just didn’t feel right. So I put aside the “writing” for a little while and focused more on the plotting and outlining while I read some books and researched the genre.
So to close out this post, I hope this didn’t make me look like a worrisome mental case, but I also hope this little tour of what goes through my head at any given moment was enough to keep you upbeat about your own negative voice and know that it’s something you can overcome.
What negative writing thoughts do you have? How do you overcome them and keep going? Let us know in the comments section!
