Episode Show Notes

This week’s questions is: How do you battle imposter syndrome and self-doubt?

Book recommendation this week Marketing Rebellion by Mark Schaefer

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3fz72rB

Amazon USA: https://amzn.to/2WgTLMB

Don’t forget The Anatomy of Prose is on preorder, you can get it in ebook, paperback or hardback now. Click the link here.

Preorder the Workbook here.

Find out more about today’s guest Sarah Painter on her:

worriedwriter.com

sarah-painter.com

Twitter @SarahRPainter

https://www.facebook.com/sarahpainterbooks/

https://www.instagram.com/sarahpainterbooks/

Listener Rebel of the Week is Alex Kourvo

If you’d like to be a Rebel of the week please do send in your story, it can be any kind of rebellion. You can email your rebel story to rebelauthorpodcast@gmail.com or tweet me @rebelauthorpod

Thank you to new patrons this week Yanni Jade and Angela Guido. If you’d like to support the show, and get access to all the bonus essays, posts and content, you can from as little as $2 a month by visiting: www.patreon.com/sachablack

How to Build an Audio Booth article https://sachablack.co.uk/2019/10/28/how-to-build-a-diy-audio-booth/

The post 030 How to Combat Self-Doubt for Writers with Sarah Painter appeared first on Sacha Black.

Self-doubt really is the queen bee of inefficiency, procrastination and pointlessness. Frankly, she makes Trump seem useful… did I? Lets move on before I offend anyone with something more than just my potty mouth.

I’ve talked about self-doubt before and given four suggestions to beat it. But like anything, as you grow and develop as a writer, you find new tricks to make you better and more efficient.

Writing is always likened to running a marathon. It’s great analogy because personally, I’ve well and truly hit the 18 mile wall. But even if I have to chew my kneecaps off in a bid to keep my arse in the proverbial chair, I will hand my sodding book-baby to beta readers on 30th September. But fuck me, the universe is not making it easy.

So here are some awesome techniques I’ve been using that you can implement to get you and your book to completion without having to gnaw body parts off.

SECRET 1 – Goal set and work backwards

I’ll get the obvious two out the way. I know it’s an age old concept, setting goals, but seriously kids… If you don’t set yourself a clear goal, with a clear deadline, how in the shittle sticks do you know what you need to achieve between now and d-day?

I set a deadline of 30th September. That means (from the date I set it) I have until 15th August to finish re-drafting. As I write this I have 47,000 words near enough completed. That means I need to write 25k (plus/minus 10k – I am not setting a strict word count the story ends when it ends) between now and the 15th, thats 3 weeks. An average of 5-8000 words a week. Not an easy task, but one I can do with a bit of reprioritising. (No social life, fuck loads of coffee and no sleep. Easy. *ahem*)

I need to edit said 25k during the last two weeks of August and then do a full (final) read through during the first two weeks of Sept – giving me 2 weeks slippage time.

That’s lot of mini deadlines to meet. If I hadn’t set a clear goal with deadlines I wouldn’t know what I was doing or when it needed doing by. And shit would slip into I’ll just watch another episode of blah blah and do it at five past never-never.

SECRET 2 – Track Progress

Okay, you’re either going to love this or hate it. It works for me, but it ain’t going to tickle everyone’s tummy fluff.

Even if this doesn’t work for you, find another way. There’s no point setting goals if you aren’t going to monitor progress towards them.

A few weeks ago, I had a geek out moment that would put Stephen Hawking to shame. After a minor meltdown on the phone to Suzie, I realised I needed to track progress, with pretty glitter and colour changing boxes. With a bit of conditional formatting, I made a spreadsheet, with among other things, boxes that change according to the number of words I write per week. As you can see, last week was green, yay me. This week as yet, is amber… clearly I need to stop fucking about on wordpress and crack my own self-flaggelating whip.

SECRET 3 – Accountability Partner

I stole this from a podcast. But in essence, you don your most pretentious writing cap and duly request the assistance of a fellow writer. One, you don’t mind calling you out on your bullshit.

Allie Potts, is mine.

There are two kinds of accountability partner. I suggest you find one that best suits your needs:

A) The softly-softly, stroke my hair and whisper me sweet sonnets for encouragement.

or

B) The no bullshit, no fucking about, drop and give me twenty for missing your target, bitch.

I’ll let you take a guess which one I am.

How does it work? Set your goals, set a deadline and then demand results. Communicate about twice a week demanding updates. If progress isn’t satisfactory, you better make damn sure you have a good reason.

The other handy thing is, when you set a goal, they then push you to achieve even more, by say, making you up your target by 10%… oh and they expect you to deliver!

SECRET 4 Stop asking everyone else

No one gives a shit about your book. They’re all too busy trying to write their own books. (Okay, not quite true. Writerly friends do care, but the point’s valid).

Every time you seek reassurance from someone else, you’re subconsciously telling yourself  you’re not good enough.

Stop it. It’s really annoying. As annoying as the guy at work that plays an operatic symphony every lunch using only his teeth, tongue and three day old spag bol.

SECRET 5 – Writing Tribe

Okay, now ignore what I just said because ultimately everyone needs a bitch now and then. I have a message group with two writers. Three seems to be the magic number because when there’s three, one is always having a good day. When someone  is down, there’s two others to perk you up, or tell you shut the fuck up. Whatever’s needed!

It’s also supremely motivational. When you scroll through the messages and see that your writing buds have written 6000 words and 800 blog posts you soon pull your finger out. Suzie has a great post on tribes, here.

SECRET 6 Ask yourself if your self-doubt is realistic?

Have you done something similar in a competent way before? If so, you know that you’re being a pissy little bitch and need to hush your gums.

If you’re doubting yourself because you’re about to do something new, ask yourself why you’re doing it?

Is it because you’re a writer and need to push yourself out your comfort zone? Are you doing it for family, love or friends? Or are you doing it because it will help you achieve your goal? If any of the above are true, stop doubting and get the fuck on with it.

When is self doubt okay? Feel free to doubt yourself when you’re standing on the precipice of a 1000ft drop off a sheer cliff face into a bed of volcanic lava and poisonous snake venom. If it’s even remotely related to your book, pick up your fucking pen up and stop whining.

SECRET 7 Mantras & Affirmation

Miracle mornings are all the rage at the moment. Wake up earlier, do a bunch of positive

shit, and feel good. For me, the finger of God herself couldn’t get me up an hour earlier. I have been a night owl from the moment daddies sperm hit mummies egg an I popped into miraculous existence.

But – the point is a good one.

Every time I complete another day in work, its a bloody miracle. A miracle that I acknowledge and thank the universe for at 4pm on the dot. There will come a day when I live the dream and can write all day everyday, but until then I will stick with my mantras and affirmations.

There is one other daily affirmation that I make. Every time I look in the mirror, (and I do mean every time) whether it be, while painting my eyebrows on in the morning, or washing my hands after a wee, I affirm my goal.

I tell myself that one day, I will sell enough books that I can quit the grind and write full time. I tell myself that I know this is true, because I will make it so. 

What do you do when you hit the novel wall? How do you smash it down and complete a book? Let me know in the comments below.

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The post Mantras, Mindset & 7 Secrets You Need To Finish Your Book appeared first on Sacha Black.

I’m frustrated because I have shit to do, books to write, stories to tell. Yet two things are standing in my way. Life bullshit and self-doubt.

What do I mean by life bullshit? Oh you know… The crap, the stuff and the things… Shit that incessantly fills my day like, work. Fuck work, I should be writing. Having to pay bills. Tut. Such an inconvenience. Chores, cleaning, cooking. ALWAYS cooking. Then there’s life admin, you know, keeping myself clean enough I don’t get lice, my eyebrows neat enough I don’t poke someone’s eye out with a stray hair, emails, meter readings, food sho….sorry I fell asleep writing the list.

If that bore list isn’t enough to prevent me writing, I have to wage a daily war against the smarmy king of mind fucking himself: self-doubt. I hate it.

So here I am. Standing Sitting in front of you sharing my battle plan to nuke my self-doubt into the next mass extinction.

There’s this phrase: ‘Surprise people. Be who you say you’re going to be.’ I love that. The concept that we’re spending the majority of our time masquerading as something we’re not. Like fat middle-aged men dressed as clowns…

But it’s kind of true, isn’t it? I mean… are you really the same you in work as you are out of work? I’m not. I doubt you are.

It’s like friend circles. We all have more than one circle of friends and usually they don’t mix. It’s so we can be (however slight) a different version of ourselves. I’ve spent a long time trying to hide different parts of me, thinking I couldn’t possibly show all of me because…because why? Because the skinny bitch at work with big tits and fake everything, except her really big nose, might think I’m weird? Jesus. I need to get over myself. I was born weird. What the hell was I thinking?

I can pin point the first broken link in my chainmail. Someone once told me my personality was a risk to my reputation. Over the last 5 years I’ve let that… and a bunch of other really helpful shit people have said to me, fester in my subconscious. The result is I can’t recognise the person looking back at me in the mirror. Worse, I don’t even like this version of me. I’m negative to the point of irritation. I’m plagued by fears, self-doubt and a chronic case of not being able to see the wood for the trees. So much so it’s paralysing my writing to the point where this year alone, I’ve almost quit. Several times.

No more.

Blonde bitch tits and her jumped up mates can go rubber duck themselves off the cliff…

*wipes brow, sips wine, takes deep breath*

Let me start again…

Where are you going to be in a year?

No, really…

Not where you tell people you’re going to be, but where are you actually going to be?

Are you one of these writers people who wants to be a writer and says they write but actually either a) fucks about writing blog posts instead of her novel, yes I am talking about me, procrastinates on social media and professes to write? or are you b) an actual fucking writer that sits down and bleeds claret over their keyboard?

Self-doubt is a plague. A fucking plague. It’s worse than Damien Hirst’s formaldehyde. It will freeze you up. For life.

So let me ask you again. Where are you going to be in a year? Are you going to continue to be person A? or are you going to be who you say you are and be person B?

STEP ONE – Decision Time

The first step to reducing self-doubt to a snivelling, pant wetting wreck in need of palliative care is to make an effing decision.

And I don’t mean the: “hmm, shall I have the custard or jam filled donut?” while you scratch your arse and fanny about with work emails, kind of decision.

I mean the: how much do you really want your dream, kind of decision. Do you want it enough you’ll work after work, late into the night until your eyes are bleeding and your fingers are begging for a hot oil massage?

Have you got what it takes? Are you prepared to make sacrifices? Are you ready for a marathon? To stick to your work until it is done and edited for the 29875248975th time?

If you answered yes, then what the fuck are you doing standing in your own way?

See that’s the thing. Once you make the decision. A real one. One that cuts deep into your soul, there’s no going back. Not even a little whiny bitch like self-doubt can get in your way. If it does,  punch it in the fucking face and walk on by. Unless you decide you’re going to achieve something, you’ll never try.

I choose person B: In one year, I’ll have finished two books, minimum.

Who do you choose?

STEP TWO – Draw your sword

You made the decision to achieve your dream, in spite of self-doubt and fear. Awesome. But decisions require action. If you’re guna achieve Stephen Kingdom then you actually need to, god forbid, do some writing.

So step two is to take your pen out. AND write. Write proper words, not a blog post, or a piece of flash fiction. Write that big scary horrible beast you’re afraid of…your novel, or your competition story, or whatever Hansel and Gretel yarn you’re currently spinning. Just for five minutes. Everyone has five minutes. Taking a dump can last longer than that, so do it on the toilet if you really can’t spare any other time.

Ease yourself in. Write for five minutes. Break for ten. Write for Ten. Break for five. REPEAT until you look up at the clock and find it’s actually 12pm Sunday and not 12pm Saturday.

Or if the self-doubt is eating away at your ability to share your work, then take just a snippet. Start with just 200 words. BUT GIVE IT TO SOMEONE other than mumsy. Feedback is a gift.

If you’re too scared to submit to a competition, then JUST DO IT. Do a flash fiction one if you must, but this is your choice and your career. If you don’t submit/write/share you’re always going to be person A.

STEP THREE – Reward your inner child

I can’t claim this one. Joanna Penn’s idea of using a calendar, setting daily targets and marking them on it, is proper good’un!

It appeals to my inner child (as well as hers) and reminds me of my stars and cloud chart I had as a terror tot, angelic child.

By appealing to my inner child, and the thought of a) a reward and b) knowing that my word count is there, visible for all and sundry to see, is enough to make the shame of having zeros on display beat the self-doubt back down.

As you can see I had a bit of a dodgy end to the month (but I only started on the 20th). Green ticks are days I achieve my target, which is a minimum of 1000 words a day. Edit days are different, the word count is irrelevant. However, really, I should still be writing 1000 a day. So here’s to hoping May is better.

If I get more than 15 green stripes next month, I’ll reward myself, I don’t know what with, but it’s something to aim for.

STEP FOUR – Theme Tune

Everyone needs a theme tune. Find yours. Whatever your song is, it needs to be the one that never fails to focus you, to motivate you and to give you that Rocky on the stairs moment where you know you’re guna smash it.

Once you found it, play it constantly, listen to it in the gym, whilst you’re cooking and ironing. Set it as your alarm clock so you wake up on the ‘write side’ of the bed. Every time you hear it, you’ll know a) you rock, and b) you should be writing instead of listening to it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NubH5BDOaD8

What do you do to conquer the self doubts? Have they paralysed you before? Let me know in the comments.

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The post Don't Let Writers' Self-Doubt Beat You – 4 Steps to Conquer it appeared first on Sacha Black.