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Let me be honest!
I had a long history of being face-to-face with these grotesques with jagged claws and gleaming teeth.
They stared at me endlessly with a cunning smile! To dispel the fears of the highest degrees for a common goal: Stopping me from being productive.
They would drag the ‘writer’ me down into a whirlpool of negative thoughts, instill low confidence, keep me occuiped in unimportant activities, overburden my mind with irrational perceptions until I put my pen to rest for another day.
They then faded away, only to knock again at an appropriate time later.
Let’s face it! It is not just mine, but every writer’s story at some points in their professional and personal journeys.
I’m talking about the monsters, who live within our minds, and survive by feeding on our shifting and vulnerable thoughts.
They are a writer’s best enemies. I’ve compiled a brief list mentioning some of them with reference to what I do to beat them.
Perfectionism
One thing perfectionalists hate to hear is – Perfectionalism doesn’t exist. But the reality is it actually doesn’t exist. The constant urge to produce the best work possible often led many writers to spend endless hours improving one sentence when the entire article is waiting for them. This delays delivery. Again, trying to write perfect content creates a false sensitivity to criticism. Premature editing, a lot of subjective touch, fear of external opinions and a wall of ego play in tandem, finally leaving the writer with a frustating thought – a “not good enough” work!
I think Sheryl Sandberg 1Goodreads, “Sheryl Sandberg” https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5333595.Sheryl_Sandberghas an expert answer on how to deal with this monstar: “Done is better than perfect.”
Imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome is another dreaded monster. I’ve come across so many people, who have awesome ideas to share; but they wonder if anyone would care about their opinions and if they were knowledgable enough to be talking about what they know and think. The result? They fail to break the self-perceived wall of doubt, remain unknown and then forgotten. Simply put, the nagging thought of self doubt results in lost opportunities.
The fear of not being “I’m good enough” is painfully suffering and the thought of the ‘backlash by pros after getting my words out’ is terrifying.
I failed to win over this monster many times, then gradually understood most people don’t care and as a writer, I should speak my mind consistently – no matter what anyone in whatever capacity thinks about it. It worked! Still see critics? Okay, I can’t impress anyone. Noone in this world ever could!
Psocastination
This monster exploits our natural tendencies connected with perfectionalism and self doubt. It thrives on delays and dies on acts. “I’ll write when I’m more inspired”, “I need to do more research before the first draft is ready”, “I should clean my desk before writing”. “things are not going well today, let’s begin with a fresh vibe tomorrow” … are self harming thoughts and they kill productivity.
Putting a task on hold creates a self-perpetuating cycle that gradually transitions into a chronic condition. The longer we ignore writing now, the more daunting it becomes in future. Each day of delay adds pressure and what should be a free flowing act of expression gradually becomes overwhelming.
The best way to elimiate this monster is to have a strong, unaltered opinion that the best time to act is now. This thought can be nurtured by breaking tasks into small chuncks, set a reslistic writing routine, and accepting that there’s no perfect time, but I should show up – even if I’m not perfectly ready!
Self-doubt
Self-doubt is a monster known for its chameleonic nature – It could knock us down in the disguise of perfectionalism by asking for endless revisions. Other times, it could menifest as an imposter syndrome by convincing that “Have not better writers already said this hundred times in more convincing ways?” It could even, actually more dangeriously, disguise itself as humility by suggesting that sharing our work and accomplishments is morally inappropriate becuase it is afterall boasting yourself (excessively salesly)
The only good thing about this monster is it pushes us beyond our comfort zones. But it does more harm than good. The best approach to overcome self doubt in my opinion is to replace the thought “I’m not good enough” with “I’m learning and growing everyday.”
Having supporting peers who provide constructive feedback is equally important.
Time management chaos
This monster thrives on writers’ own mistakes. Oftentimes, writers, without foresight and planning, overcommit, then find themselves frustratingly chasing a looming deadline and theb resulting outcomes are obvious. They fail to stick to a realistic schedule, can’t draw a balance between professional obligations and personal priorities and finally, feel overwhelmed and give up.
Add to this, the world is already unfair to writers: It demands predictable productivity from them, but doesn’t acknowledge that creative inspiration is not wired to appear between 9 to 5, it can flow in just anytime.
Given the sensitivity of the situation, it is important writers draw their boundaries, know their strengths, avoid distractions of all kinds, and be fully mindful while commiting to clients.
Perceived lack of originality
Writers are one of the most judged social beings in the world. They often face hard times justifying the originality of their work. Once, they had to run their content on plagiarism tools to convince clients their work is unavailable anywhere on the Web.
Today, they are fighting yet another battle, now with a stronger enemy: AI content detection tools. Grippled with codes, they have an affinity to flag original work as AI written causing writers their jobs (perhaps only source of their income) and peace of mind.
This overwhelming distress is further intensified by writers themselves. They often find themselves trapped in an exhausting cycle of second-guessing: “Has this article already been written? Am I just repeating what others have said? Why would anyone read my version?”
The best way to remove this monstar is to believe on our work, maintain unique styles, create a guided, transparent approach to writing, and unconditionally share our experiences and worldview by paying least focus on external opinions.
And, as far as forced fallacies (like AI tools in my example) are concerned, it’s important to understand how they work, and how to create AI proof content, rather than fighting them off.
The “Busy Work” Beast
It is perhaps one of the most underated monstars, and is the closest cousin of porocastination. It is deceptive and yields a fake feeling of productivity while actually keeping writers away from their real work.
While writers should focus on meaningful tasks i.e., drafting, editing, and/or publishing, this monster convinces writers that changing fonts multiple times, checking social media feeds at work, replacing an existing WordPress template and theme with something new and flashy, testing a plethora of writing apps and tools, writing author bios without starting the story etc., are equal to real writing. When in reality, all of this is just a mere wastage of a promising writer’s valubale time and effort.
The solution is not in abandoing all preparedness and organization, rather recognizing when such activities have potentially crossed a defined limit.
I will keep this list populated with more monsters who as writers we need to fight. Meanwhile, let me know in the comments who among the listed ones affect you the most, and how you handle them.
- 1Goodreads, “Sheryl Sandberg” https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5333595.Sheryl_Sandberg