Home   >   Writing for a Living   >   How To Become A Confident Writer

How To Become A Confident Writer

By on December 1, 2017

One thing that many writers suffer from is a lack of self-confidence. In fact, even some of the most prolific and celebrated writers have admitted to feeling overwhelmed, uncertain and so full of doubt about their writing abilities that they have thought about giving up altogether.

Thinking you are not good enough, feeling vulnerable and finding it hard to come back from a rejection are all common writer ailments! However, we must be careful not to let these overwhelm us or inhibit us from following our dreams and achieving our goals.

Being a confident writer means that you remain positive, have self-belief and lots of determination - all incredibly helpful to anyone trying to get published or pursue a writing career. A lack of self-confidence, if left unchecked, can have a severe impact on our writing, so it is essential that writers make an effort to improve their confidence and to opt for positivity even when the chips are down.

So how do you become a more confident writer? Follow these useful tips:

Develop consistent writing habits

If you can write every day, or at consistent times throughout the week your writing will turn into a habit. The more ingrained this pattern is in your day to day life the less likely you are to struggle with it. Just like exercise, the more you do it, the easier it will become, and you’ll soon notice if you skip a session you start to miss it. So the sooner you start to flex and work those writing muscles the better!

Make small, achievable goals

Don’t overwhelm yourself with massive goals and deadlines that are far too far in the future to realistically contemplate. Break your writing goals down into, smaller, more manageable aims and make sure you give yourself time to achieve them. Each time you can tick something off that list or reach that milestone, your confidence will improve.

Seek the support of friends and family

Make sure you let your friends and family know how important writing is to you. The people that care about you will be there to support and encourage you, and give your confidence a boost when you need it most.

Start a writing blog

Starting a writing blog will not only help you reach out to potential new readers, but it will also help keep you writing frequently, and just seeing your writing published online will give you a real boost. You could write about anything on your blog, but don’t put pressure on yourself to get a certain amount of followers or comments, just do it for you and see where it takes you.

Join a writing group

Meeting regularly with other writers can be so helpful, not only to keep you motivated to write but also as a kind of group therapy. A sensitive group of writers will help one another with their work, give each other feedback and will also be an excellent source of support through the ups and downs as you progress through your writing journey.

Take breaks

If you start feeling yourself getting overwhelmed or stressed when writing then make sure you stop and walk away from it for a little while. If you are not careful you could end up putting too much pressure on yourself or burning yourself out, so make sure you give yourself a break from time to tome.

Know what inspires you

Reading books, baking a cake, walking in the countryside - whatever it is that inspires you, do more of it!

Become a great editor

Every writer knows that the first draft of any piece of work is unlikely to be their best. That’s why learning how to edit successfully is so important. Learning how to edit is a skill, but the more practice you have, the more proficient you will become and you'll soon see pieces of writing you may have thought were awful, become something to be proud of.

Experiment

Finding your writing voice requires you to experiment. Don’t be afraid to test out different writing styles and forms of writing. One day something will just click, and you’ll know you have found a style of writing that works for you.

Write from the heart

If you are writing your truth and doing so from the heart, you should always feel confident and proud of your writing, no matter how well it does.

Remember that writing can be learnt

It is so important for every writer to understand that writing is a skill and there is always more to learn. Even if you don’t have much faith in your writing skills at the moment, there is so much you can do to get better. So don’t despair but instead just write and learn as much as you can and you'll soon see a massive improvement in your work.

Find publications and competitions that work for you

Aiming to win the Man Booker prize straight off might be a little ambitious. Look for low key publications of small, local competitions to enter your work into, if you see your work in print or win a competition your confidence is sure to soar!

Learn to have acceptance

Not everyone will love your work, in fact, some people will think it is dreadful. Learn to accept this as soon as you can. This is one of the hardest lessons a writer must face. But if you can truly accept that your writing will not be universally adored then you’ll be able to deal with rejection, bad reviews and any other obstacles that come your way, safe in the knowledge that for every critic there is a reader who’ll think your work is fantastic.

By following these tips you will slowly but surely improve your confidence, learn how better to deal with a period of uncertainty and self-doubt and become a better writer in the process too!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

About Ty Cohen