[Aliventures newsletter] Aliventures Survey Reminder (& Lacking Confidence in Your Writing)

Published: Fri, 05/28/21

Hello!

Final Reminder (Survey Closes Today):

Would you like to help shape the blog posts I write and the resources I create over the next year? I'd be super-grateful if you would take part in the annual Aliventures survey. All the questions are optional, and you can write as little (or as much!) as you want in your responses:

Aliventures survey (via Google Forms)

I'll be closing the survey after today (Friday 28th June) and going through the responses over the weekend. If you had a specific question, I'll get back to you by email next week (and I might well use your question as the basis of a blog post, too).

Today, I wanted to write a little bit about one theme that has come up in many responses to the survey: confidence and self-belief.

Is it Normal to Lack Confidence in Your Writing?

In the survey, a lot of writers have mentioned their lack of confidence as a major challenge, often alongside finding time.

I think a lack of confidence is very normal for writers at all stages of their craft. If you're struggling to stay motivated, if you're worried that you're not good enough, or if you think that maybe everything you've ever written is rubbish ... then please know you're not alone!

My science fiction book group met on Zoom earlier this week to discuss The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin. It's a fantastic, far-reaching novel that won the Hugo Award in 2016. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But I was struck by the acknowledgements section, where N.K. Jemisin writes:

'Big props to my editor, Devi Pillai, and my agent, Lucienne Diver, for talking me out of scrapping this novel. The Broken Earth trilogy is the most challenging work I've ever written, and at certain points during The Fifth Season the task seemed so overwhelming that I thought about quitting. (Actually, I believe my exact words were, "Delete this hot mess, hack Dropbox to get the backups there, drop my laptop off a cliff, drive over it with a car, set fire to both, then use a backhoe to bury the evidence. Do you need a special license to drive a backhoe?")'

N.K. Jemisin wasn't a new author when she wrote The Fifth Season: she'd already written a number of successful novels. But I think we all have those feelings about our work at times, however experienced we are as writers ... especially when we're tackling something new or challenging.

Of course, there are things you can do to feel more confidence (and to silence that inner critic ... at least for a little bit). You might want to check out my post on Three Types of Self-Confidence for some practical suggestions. But please be reassured that a lack of confidence doesn't mean there's anything wrong with your writing. On the contrary, it may well mean that you're doing your very best work and stretching yourself.

Whether you're struggling with a lack of confidence, a lot of self-criticism, or very little time to write, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the Aliventures survey.

The survey is really simple and quick to fill in. Your answers will help me decide what to write about over the next year. So if you've got a question you'd love to see me tackle on the blog, or simply a broad topic area you'd like me to write about, I'd love to hear about it.

Aliventures survey (via Google Forms)

Happy writing,

Ali

P.S. Here's this week's blog post, in case you missed it earlier in the week:

The Writing Process: Five Essential Stages for Anything You're Working On

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