One Side Note on Confidence

[queenoftheskies]

One thing that really troubles me sometimes is that my ease of writing and comfort with what I'm writing is often tied to my confidence level at that given moment in time, and not to the actual quality of the writing.

Does that happen to anyone else?

Comments

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

as a person with zero confidence (no one believes this, but i have none whatsoever to speak of ~ largely due to emotional blockage in my childhood), i can say that i write better, more freely, when i just turn my brain completely off. write without thinking at all. the instant i engage my intellect, i start doubting, critiquing, and then it all goes south.

i don't think it's something you ever outgrow. i think you can gain confidence, but i think doubt is like a scar. it's always there, you just find ways of disguising it or ignoring it.

the way in which i have made peace with myself about this is to accept it as a necessary part of my process (don't fight it). while doubt and a lack of confidence is a very negative thing and sometimes impedes my progress in frustrating ways, it also has challenged me to continue to reach for higher and higher standards.

descartes once said: "at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things" ~ though he wasn't talking about the "self" explicitly, i recognize this as a measure of the manner in which doubt can sometimes be a good thing. until you have struggled through all the doubts, can you ever really be certain in your confidence?

i know writers who have no doubts whatsoever.

they are poor craftsmen.

as in all things, find the power in what you have to work with.

: D

[jbknowles.livejournal.com]

All the time.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Does that happen to anyone else?

No, because writing (and publishing) is just one more thing for me to fail at, so I have nothing to lose. Success in writing won't pay the rent at the moment, or supply me with anything other than enjoying the act of writing.

Donald Maass made me smirk when he informed a workshop full of writers that being published won't make you smarter or better looking, and it won't fix your marriage. It's just what it is, so he hoped we were all in it for the writing experience itself.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. It's a close cousin of the "am I depressed beause I'm not writing or am I not writing because I'm depressed?" thing.

For me, it's usually the non-writing thing that's causing the writing problems.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Yes.

And also for cooking, among other things.

[ammepyre.livejournal.com]

Always. This is one of the reasons why I've started writing first thing in the morning before all the doubts erode my self-confidence.

[everyonesakitty.livejournal.com]

Kinda... if you're saying what I think you're saying... I think the opposite happens to me. When I'm writing good stuff, I feel confident in all areas of life. When I'm writing crap (or blocked completely) I feel like the biggest loser on the planet who might as well spork herself. Instead of my writing being tied to my confidence level, my confidence level is tied to my writing.

Or is that what you're saying? hehe It's a bad day in our house when I'm not writing well. :)

[seajules]

Yes, but my confidence level is usually tied to the quality of the writing, so it all circles around again.