Building Confidence as a Writer

Recently, I was considering possible exercises for workshops that I may want to teach. One of my ideas was to start off by asking the participants to raise their hands if they’d ever been told that they were a good writer. Then I’d ask everyone that had raised their hands to put them down if someone had ever told them that they weren't a good writer. The purpose of the exercise would be to illustrate the biggest problem with relying on the opinions of others about your writing.

There will be people who will praise your work no matter what you do. There will also be people that will never be satisfied, no matter what you do. The key is to focus on your most important reader… yourself. If you aren't already your own biggest fan, then you need to be. Write the kind of story that you want to write, not the kind of story you feel you should write. You need to be laughing at your own jokes, crying over the tragedies you've written, and desperate to find out what will happen next in your stories.

Remember also that confidence comes from knowledge, not belief. ‘I think I’m a good writer’ isn't nearly as strong as ‘I know I’m a good writer.’ Knowing that your work is good does come in part from the praise of others that you respect and trust, but it should start with yourself and your opinion. However, be careful that confidence doesn't become arrogance. Think of all the successful, imaginative writers that have an amazing story and then follow it up with something depressingly lackluster. What happened? I think one problem could be that so many people told these writers that they were geniuses that they started to believe it and that they didn't have to work so hard anymore. Confidence means that you know you are capable of greatness, not that it comes easily. Consistently effective storytellers work hard at their craft. Very hard.

The best way to build your confidence as a writer is to work hard by constantly improving your craft while writing the kind of stories that you enjoy. Do that, and you’ll begin to gain the kind of fans you want to keep. You’ll gain fans like you.