How to Fight Self-Doubt as a Writer

Feeling like maybe you’re not meant to write, or questioning if writing is really your path? 

In this episode, Zena Dell Lowe dives into the reality of self-doubt for writers, offering insights on how to handle the emotional and practical challenges of creating consistently. 

Learn how to evaluate your dedication to the craft, embrace incremental improvement, and understand why effort and perseverance often matter more than raw talent.

Tune in for guidance on:

• Confronting comparison and impostor syndrome
• Moving past fear of failure
• Recognizing when your commitment signals your calling
• Practical ways to keep writing even when inspiration fades

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Transcript

people are feeling discouraged, and so the question that keeps coming up is some variation of, should I even be doing this? Am I good enough to be doing this? Does what I have to say even matter.

[00:00:12] It's so much work. I don't know. I mean, is it even worth it? What am I doing? And I think all of us have bouts of that where we wonder. And so I kind of wanted to just take a minute to address that and say, first of all, if you are an artist who has asked this question of yourself, then you are in good company.

[00:00:32] This is what artists. Struggle with regularly, it's going to be the ongoing existential question you'll keep coming back to, and here is the truth. I honestly believe this, like I honestly believe that the only way through that is to keep creating. You just have to keep doing it. You have to get your butt in the chair and keep writing.

[00:00:55] But in that. I think sometimes part of why we ask that question is because we have tacked onto it expectations of what we think it should look like if we were indeed called to this, right? Because that's really what it comes down to is none of us want to waste our time. I'm at an age now where I'm like, okay,I have a limited amount of time on this earth left. I wanna spend it doing something meaningful, but in my mind, I have tacked onto that. I will be financially rewarded or I will be successful in this, or I will, you know, whatever the thing is that I've attached to it, which may or may not be the case. And it actually, ironically, I don't think it means that I'm not called to it, even if I don't have a huge financial reward.

[00:01:46] but at the same time we have to make a living but none of us wanna waste our time. if you are not good enough to do this, you should go do something else. And so how do we know? I don't like the question, am I good enough? I don't like that question because I think that gets us into the compare game.

[00:02:04] And guess what? There's always somebody better coming along the pipe. So asking the question, am I good enough? Gets you into territory where you see people that are genuinely like maybe gifted beyond what you have. Been gifted and that's okay. There are some brilliant writers out there, but being gifted is only half of the equation, or maybe not even half.

[00:02:26] It's just one of the factors. 

[00:02:28] it's sort of the difference between relying on your, your muse and actually being a professional writer. if you are only creating, when you feel inspired, you're probably a hobbyist.

[00:02:41] That's part of the difference. So the truth is being gifted is only one part of what constitutes calling. We do have to be gifted to a certain degree. I don't think everybody can be a professional musician. I don't think everybody can be a professional singer or a professional painter or a professional writer.

[00:03:03] I think we have to have a measure of gifting in words. But then the question is. What are you doing with whatever measure you've been given? And if you are only creating, when you feel inspired, you might not actually be called because when you're called, you are compelled, and then you take action to schedule.

[00:03:23] To make it happen, to sit down and write, and you're putting in effort and you may not be the best writer on the planet, but by God you work your butt off. And if you're doing that, you have a greater piece of the equation to know whether or not you're truly called to this. How much effort. Now, again though, boy, that's really sad for people that have put in the effort or that keep putting the effort, but maybe don't have a lot of talent.

[00:03:49] And so here's a true acid test. I think that you should be able to look at yourself and look at this. How do I say this? With being gentle, enacting. One of the things I run into a lot are young actors who actually don't love the craft. They want to be stars. They wanna be famous. They're not really interested in the craft.

[00:04:11] They're not really doing the things that would make them even incrementally better. They're just relying on their talent or whatever the opportunities are, but they don't love it to the point where they want to get better. And one of the signs of this in writing. Our people who have a completed project and they turn it in for a critique or whatever, and the person critiquing them gives them notes, and that person then doesn't take the notes and try to improve the project because it's good enough as it is.

[00:04:46] Or they disagree with all the notes and think that that person just doesn't know what they're talking about, or they think they're applying the notes and then they bring back their new finished project in a too short period of time, and it's just as bad or worse as it was. These are three things that I often see in clients that I've worked with.

[00:05:09] They have no ability to really apply and improve the projects because they're not getting it somehow, or they don't wanna do the work that requires to actually do it. And I get. Sometimes we get feedback and it's like, oh my gosh, this is, ugh. When it rings true and you're like, this is a page one rewrite.

[00:05:31] I don't wanna do it. It's too much work. Sometimes we can have that reaction because it's so overwhelming. 'cause we know how much work it takes, how much effort it takes. Nevertheless. When you sit on it and you just, you process it and it's percolating, and it's percolating to the point, then you're finally willing to do that work.

[00:05:48] As hard as that work is, that says something about you and your desire for craft over and against the quick fix, the just wanting to be a star, just wanting to get published. Most of the time I think people, and this is really controversial. And I'm sorry if this is offensive to anyone, but I really feel like this is the case.

[00:06:11] Most people who are self-published, I find it's because they weren't patient enough to be good enough to get published by a traditional publisher. They wanted to get published quickly, and they weren't willing to really do the hard work to make it excellent because it's hard to take the, to do the work to make it excellent.

[00:06:31] Now. Now, that's not always the case. It isn't always the case. There are some good reasons to self-publish. I've even been looking into hybrid publishing, one of my nonfiction books. That would be a, you know, to go along with like the Hollywood story structure because I don't really need it in bookstores.

[00:06:48] It would just be to go along with the course, I'd sell it at writer's conferences and so there's sometimes there's good reasons to self-publish and it's not because it's not excellent. But for the most part, especially if it's fiction, I think most people just aren't willing to do the hard work to make it good enough to be published in a traditional setting.

[00:07:07] So if you're looking for ways to test yourself, look at your willingness. To do the work. How much work are you doing? How willing are you to rewrite your material? How willing are you to even incrementally improve? How in love with the craft are you? Are you a person that goes to writers conferences but doesn't go to the sessions on craft and you only go to.

[00:07:31] Sessions on how to get an agent, how to get published, how to write a good proposal letter, and you're only focused on the business element. Now, there's a time for doing that. There's absolutely a time for going to those, but are those all you go to? Because that's somebody that wants to be a star and not somebody who wants to be excellent at their craft.

[00:07:52] If that's all you're going to. So you've got to be able to self-evaluate and look at yourself. See, do I truly love the craft? Do I wanna be excellent at this? Because that is its own reward, and I believe that when we are people that are that way, eventually our work will be excellent, that it will rise to the top, that it will be.

[00:08:16] Good enough to be produced or published. So this is just a question to ask yourself. I guarantee the fact that you're here today says something. So that speaks very, very much to your favor, in which case you have to talk yourself off the 

[00:08:33] ledge,