I’m going to play devil’s advocate here. Stay with me.
What if that voice is correct?!!! Your writing isn’t good enough.
Yet. (Don’t forget the yet.)
You gain the confidence in your writing by writing lots, failing lots, creating a whole lot of writing that never hits the mark. This is what it takes to get good.
Who told you that your writing was supposed to be “good enough” from the first attempts you make?
Also, make sure that voice isn’t saying YOU’RE not good enough. Make sure it’s only talking about the writing as it is right now.
Don’t make the mistake of asking your writing to prove your worth and good-enoughness.
If you’re doubting your self-worth then you need to work on your self-belief BEFORE you show up to your writing. And that starts with self-compassion and creative courage.
It’s not the job of your writing to prove you’re good enough. You don’t need to outsource your self-worth, it’s an inside job.
Get grounded in self-belief, self-worth and self-love FIRST.
Then the voice saying your writing isn’t good enough yet is no longer talking about YOU, it’s just about how to make the writing SHINE and SING the way you long for it to do.
Feedback from other people isn’t going to topple you when you’re grounded and open to growth and expansion.
Because you need to be able to hear feedback without getting defensive or wanting to quit. And trust me, so many people block the feedback they need through their emotional reactivity. I used to do it too.
Side note:
I was once in a writing class and the tutor destroyed my piece of writing in front of the class. The woman sitting next to me literally whispered in to my ear “Don’t give up, I love your voice.” So yeah, I had a strong, very negative, emotional reaction, but the woman next to me felt the force of the critque too.
Guess what I did after that? I didn’t write anything for another two years. Even though I’d had a ton of positive feedback too.
Because self-doubt won that time, and I did not know then what I know now about managing the emotions self-doubt and imposter syndrome create.
Where was I? Oh yeah….
Your writing will never be good enough and you’ll never achieve the standard to which you aspire to without feedback.
You’re too close to the work to get the impartiality you need to understand what’s not working from the reader’s perspective.
Also, without the self-belief in your own discernment and wisdom, you’ll never be able to persevere through the not good enough until your writing gets to where you want it to be.
There’s a huge difference between the quiet voice of discernment which lets you know when your writing still needs work and the mean voice of the inner critic who says your writing is crap and always will be so you may as well quit.
The energy is so different between the courageous writer who listens to her discernment and the tame writer who only hears the inner critics taunts.
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P.S. If you’re been here for a while you’ll know that I recently pivoted my coaching business to bring everything under the banner of creativity coaching.
I was offering separate packages for folks working on a book or folks working on creative courage and self-belief. But now I’m not.
So you may be wondering:
What is creativity coaching for writers?
Good question! I’m glad you asked.
The only slight problem it’s not the easiest thing to explain in a pithy post-script to my Substack post.
Why? Because every coaching journey is unique and the experience can only fully be understood when you well experience it!
So this is what it’s like, or what it’s like in words. (I stole that line from a poem, but I don’t remember which one!)
It’s a lot like life coaching but with the ultimate goal being for you to experience joy, freedom and flow in your creative & writing life.
I ask questions, you give answers. I hold a mirror up to your responses.
I offer my reflections and help you to notice and reframe patterns of thought and behaviour you may not be aware of just yet.
A lot of coaches talk about holding space for their clients. Making time and space for you and your dreams and desires.
I find this phrase a little vague. How do you hold space?
This is my take. There’s a gap between where you are now and where you want to be in your creative life.
There’s a space that needs to open up for you to grow into. My job is to hold that space and allow you to focus on your learning and growth as a writer and creative human.
My goal as your coach is to hold you accountable to the goals and dreams you share with me. And To help you see ways you may be undermining your ability to achieve those goals.
I offer suggestions, activities and writing prompts to help you get into alignment so that your dreams and your actions are consistent.
Through questions, reflections and creative writing prompts we get to the root of what’s causing you to feel stuck.
I’d like to invite you to sign up for a complimentary discovery call if you’re interested in working together and would like to find out if we’d be a good fit for coaching together.
But first why not take a read of my sales page and find out what I’m offering. You’ll find the link to book your call near the bottom of the page: