I find it easy to lose heart, especially when I’m distracted from my writing by other demands on my time, as I am now, and also facing challenges in my life outside of writing. Those days, I’m tempted to look negatively on this whole project and my potential future career as an author.
But after I woke up this morning feeling that way, I managed to talk myself back into a positive focus. Yes, I may be filled with self-doubt that I can make this work. I think any first-time author must be. It’s terrifying to put all of this work into something without any idea as to whether it will work or not, whether I can write a satisfying book or not.
But living with that doubt sucks, and there is only one way out of it: Finish the damn book and get it out there. As long as I sit here worrying that my writing won’t be good enough and letting that keep me from writing, then I am guaranteeing that it will never be good enough because it will never get done. So, the only way to address the doubt is to test it. To put out the best story that I am capable of producing now and then get better next time.
To do that, I have to keep writing, write harder, write faster, write with a purpose. (. . . but first I have to get this coaching project off my plate).