7 Signs You’re a Writer in the Grips of Hidden Self-Doubt

Are you suffering from hidden self-doubt?

Being in the business of writing means we regularly come up against experiences that can leave us shaken and unsure about what we’re doing.

There are times when you’ll know that you’re doubting yourself. At those times, you probably have ways to cope. Maybe you curl up with a good book for the evening, overindulge in some ice cream, or go tear it up on the basketball court. Whatever you do, as long as it helps you rebound and get back to writing, you’re probably all good.

But there will be other times when you’ll get caught up in the throes of self-doubt…and not know it.

Really? Is that possible?

It’s actually quite common. This type of self-doubt is more dangerous than the more visible, in-your-face kind, because as long as you remain unaware of it, it can continue to work its negative mojo on you, and that means one thing—little progress in your writing career.

Below are seven signs that you’re suffering from this kind of hidden self-doubt, and what you can do to about it.

Sign of Hidden Self-Doubt 1. You haven’t submitted any writing for six months or more.

Writers not only write, they seek ways to get their writing in front of readers. If you haven’t done that in the last six months, you could be under the shadow of self-doubt.

You may tell yourself that you’re busy working on your novel, and that may be true, but have you published any guest posts, articles, blogs, short stories, or other pieces in the meantime? If you haven’t, that sounds more like hiding than writing—and self-doubt causes us to hide, for fear our writing isn’t good enough.

Action step: No matter what else you’re working on, add something to it that you will submit within 30 days. Could be something as easy as a blog post, or something like a poem or short story. Always be getting your work out there. The instant you actually take action toward getting your work in front of readers, you’re self-doubt will lose its power over you.

2. You’re making excuses not to write.

You’ve been so busy lately. There is so much going on in your life. Why, the car broke down and your son had the flu and then you got the flu and the roof started leaking and then your boss left the company and you had to try to impress the new boss and your younger brother called wanting a place to stay for two weeks and…etc. etc.

Writers can be really good at coming up with excuses for not writing. I’m willing to bet that 90 percent of the time, self-doubt is behind those excuses. Think back—did something happen that made you doubt yourself? Did you get a difficult critique or bad review? Did someone close to you say something that caused you to doubt yourself?

You may not have realized at the time that you were as hurt as you were, and you may not realize now that your “busy life” is actually a way to protect yourself from being hurt again.

Action step: If you’re not writing regularly, ask yourself why. Take 30 minutes and journal about it, or talk it over with a good friend. Consider that you could be doubting your ability as a writer, which makes it more difficult to face the blank page.

Journaling is a really good step to take, as it gets you writing, and that action may remind you what you liked about writing in the first place, and send you back to your work.

Signs of Hidden Self-Doubt 3. Your attention has turned away from writing.

Most of the time, writers eat, breathe, and sleep writing. We love to talk about writing, read about writing, attend writer’s conferences, Tweet about writing, enjoy our writing groups, you name it.

Of course, not every writer is like this, but if you used to be, and now you’re not, something may be up. Have you let your subscriptions to writing magazines lapse? Do you no longer visit your favorite writing blogs? Have you even looked at attending a writing conference this year? Are you interacting with other writers?

If you notice that there’s been a change in your attention level for writing-related subjects, you could be dealing with self-doubt. When we doubt ourselves, it doesn’t feel good, and one of the common coping techniques is to turn away from the thing that makes us feel badly.

Action Step: Revisit some of the things you used to do and see if they spark your interest again. Read some of those writing magazines, attend a writer’s group, hit up the blogs you used to frequent, or interact with some of your writing friends either in person or online.

If you’re still feeling numb about the whole thing, that’s okay. You may just need time. But realize too that self-doubt is devious, and it could cause you to abandon writing altogether, even if you don’t really want to.

4. When you think about writing, you have a heavy feeling in your heart.

Yes, you’re still writing. You’re still blogging, sending out your e-newsletters, running your giveaways, and working on your next book. But you’re doing it sort of like a zombie, because you have a heaviness in your heart, which means that your heart isn’t really in it.

This is self-doubt trying to sabotage you from the inside, out. If your heart isn’t in your projects, your writing is going to suffer. It’s going to lack the passion that it could have. You may not even be aware of what’s going on, especially if you’re still “doing your job,” so to speak. But you can detect it by scanning your body and your emotions when you get a minute to think and reflect on your writing.

Action Step: A half-hearted writer will produce half-hearted writing, and eventually, that could disappoint you and your readers. If you’ve lost the spark, so to speak, realize that it’s not okay to just keep going in a numb sort of way.

Your best bet is to take some time off. Get away and expose yourself to something new, let yourself relax, and after you’ve recuperated a bit, think back and see if you can remember the event that may have triggered any feelings of self-doubt.

It could have been something small, like disappointing sales one month, or an offhand comment from your editor, or whatever. If you can root out the reason for that heavy-hearted feeling, you’ll be more likely to find a way to recover your passion.

Signs of Hidden Self-Doubt 5. You’re hesitating to try new things.

An advancing writing career requires you to continue to try new things. Things are always changing in this industry and in the world of writing-related technology, which means you need to change and adapt to keep up.

Let’s say you know that you need to try something new to attract newsletter subscribers, but you haven’t done it. Or you need to move from traditional publishing to self-publishing, or you need to hire a book doctor for the first time, or whatever it is. If you know what you need to do to move forward but you’re not doing it, that’s self-doubt holding you back.

You may try to tell yourself you don’t know how, or you haven’t had the time, or you’re going to do it soon, but these are all excuses. If you’re not moving your writing career forward in some new way, you’re probably stagnating because of self-doubt.

Action Step: Try something new, now. Something small. Do a book giveaway if you haven’t before. Research book editors and contact one to ask about an edit. Look into a new marketing technique.

Ask yourself what your website needs to be more effective for you, and then follow that up with action to make that change. Force yourself to do something new and different. Just the action alone should be enough to help you wriggle out of self-doubt’s grip.

6. You’re often irritated or complaining.

It’s the oblivious market, the ignorant publishers, the editor who just doesn’t understand, the stupid readers who don’t get your stories, the public who doesn’t appreciate good art. They’re all standing in the way of your success, and man, does it ever get irritating.

If you find yourself blaming others, lashing out, or just plain feeling irritated most days about the writing profession in general, this could actually be your self-doubt talking. We often think of self-doubt as producing feelings like sadness, depression, and lack of confidence, but self-doubt can also cause you to try to protect yourself with feelings of anger and irritation, and by lashing out at others who must be to blame.

We all get irritated now and then, but if you find that irritation is becoming standard operating procedure for you, you may want to consider that you could be suffering from self-doubt.

Action Step: Drop the complaining for a day. Promise yourself you won’t complain about anything having to do with writing for at least 24 hours (do it for a week if you can). If you start doing it, stop yourself. Self-doubt or not, you have to stop this behavior to be able to crawl out of it. No complaining allowed.

After the 24 hours, see how you feel. Journal about it. Then try to repeat your performance the next day and the next until you’re able to restore a positive attitude. That in itself should help chase your self-doubt back into a corner.

Signs of Hidden Self-Doubt 7. You’re studying more than you’re taking action.

We can sometimes get so caught up in our education that we neglect the actual writing. If you’re reading writing books, taking writing courses, attending writing conferences, and marketing your past work, but you’re not actually writing anything new, self-doubt could be lurking around the back of your brain.

Maybe you worry that you can’t repeat a past success, or you fear that you can learn about writing, but you can’t actually put that education into practice. Depending on where you are in your writing career, you can evaluate what you’re doing (or not doing) and determine whether you may be doubting yourself too much to take the daily action you need to take.

Action Step: Education is something all writers need all the time. We always need to be learning about craft, marketing, and networking. Just make sure that you’re still making time for the work—the actual writing. Even if you’re a total newbie, you should be writing regularly while you learn.

Even if you’re taking time to learn more about marketing, don’t neglect your writing practice. That is the foundation of everything else you do.

Have you experienced hidden self-doubt?