How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side – One Step at a Time. Do the messages you send yourself light your way up the mountainside? Or do they shove you downward into shadowed places? Are you on your fan page or your enemies list? Do you believe you have what it takes to write and be published?
Self-Doubt is the Mighty Adversary of Motivation. Do you say to yourself, “I’m not good enough,” or “What chance do I have?” Wrong-headed thinking steers you in the wrong direction when it comes to pursuing your author ambitions and traveling toward your writing goals.
How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side – Step 1 – Answer this Question. What is your right-now writing goal? A one-sentence answer, please. Clear, concrete, and very specific. Stop reading this post and craft that sentence. Write it down, big and bold, for your psyche to see. First step taken. You have identified where you want to go.
Step 2 – See Your Goal as Here with You Today. Not somewhere off in a vague future, but sitting next to your keyboard. Waiting within each sentence you write and story note you jot down. Giving you a kickstart into every writing task you undertake.
Step 3 – See Yourself Moving toward Your Goal Today. If you make any progress at all, even a nudge or two, then this is a productive day. That nudge can be on the page or in your imagination. Visible, or maybe invisible to everyone except your storyteller’s soul.
Step 4 – Take Stock. Before today ends, make a written record of everything you have done or thought or said since waking that relates in any way to your current story or your on-going career strategy. If you don’t yet have a Writer’s Journal for this purpose, I urge you to start one.
Step 5 – So Crucial that it Could be Another First Step. Make sure your goal is realistic. Do not defeat yourself by filling your plate impossibly full. A tyrannical to-do list is the monster you create for yourself all by yourself. Set reasonable, self-sensitive goals.
Step 6 – The One We Too Often Ignore. Savor what you have accomplished today. Don’t rush off to the next thing just yet. Haste makes waste of your ability to experience your achievements as fully and deeply as you deserve to experience them.
Follow these 6 Steps Every Day. Know your overall goal. Break that goal down into daily expectations, or not. Some of us want a set plan for each day. Others prefer to go with the flow. Do what is comfortable for you, what keeps your head in your writing life game.
If You Don’t Believe You Achieved Enough Today – Look Again. Ask yourself, “Have I done what I undertook today as well as I could?” Factor in the obstacles and setbacks you encountered. If you can answer, “I have done what I could as well as I could do it,” you have had a successful day.
Think of Each Day as a Jewel on the Thread of Your Life. A jewel on the thread of your writing career. Place it artfully, and never underestimate its worth. Never forget to admire its beauty.
You are Headed up Your Mountain One Step at Time. Building belief in yourself lights the way one day at a time. Nurture that belief always. This is How to Put Your Writer Psyche on Your Side.
Meanwhile, ask your crucial questions. How does your attitude need to be adjusted? What fears do you face about your writing career? What do you most eagerly desire to know? Add a question comment to this post, or email me at aliceorrbooks@gmail.com. I will be honored to respond.
Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com
Alice Orr’s Christmas story A Vacancy at the Inn – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3 – is available on Amazon HERE. Enjoy!
Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.”
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I like the advice to reconsider how much you’ve done. Sometimes I am too hard on myself. When I start listing all the things I’ve accomplished, it helps. One other thing I consider is how I would teach what I know to another. When you start looking at all the steps involved or the skills needed to do something, it puts it into perspective. You know more than you think you do, and you’ve done more than you know. Great advice, Alice.
Hi Kayelle. I do the same thing. I rush from one task to the next without stopping to notice what I have already accomplished, much less to admire it. That is a tiring road to travel in too many ways. At the end of the day, hours of activity, of ticking off bullet points on our to do lists, feel like something of a blur. Nothing stands out to be recognized or enjoyed. Instead, all we see are the list items yet to be addressed. We anticipate another day, and then another, without the spark we would experience were we only to stop and say, “Wow. Look what I did. I rather like that. I’m quite proud of it and of myself.” We would smile then and feel a rush of warmth, a wave of gratitude, to ourselves and the day. I am trying to do more of that, to use the more relaxed (believe it or not) pace of pandemic life to cut myself some slack. You definitely deserve to do the same. And, speaking of you as a teacher, I was talking about you with my daughter just yesterday, telling her how an article you wrote quite some time ago was my introduction to SEO, an explanation I could understand that lessened my intimidation. You made clear something I had thought of as unfathomable, and my work is still benefiting from your guidance. You may not realize how often you have done that for so many of us. You are definitely a teacher, and a gifted one, an accomplishment you should definitely savor. Meanwhile, savor the holiday season please. Best and brightest wishes to you and those you love. Alice