Friday Forum: Confidence

Our heroine asked in Twitter if anyone had a topic to be tackled this week in the Forum, dear Reader. She has a list of topics so long, she was overwhelmed. She got an immediate reply: Self doubt.

Well, you may notice that the title of this week’s Forum is not “Self Doubt.” No, I just went for the opposite, more optimistic, side of the coin: “Confidence.” In my mind, they are merely different aspects of the very same thing. Facets of the same gem, and all that.

No, I’m not turning Pollyanna on you, not about to suggest you turn that frown upside down or some other nauseating thing. (No offense to Pollyannas who are inspire by such.) Self doubt is an important concept and needs to be explored to be understood and overcome sometimes. At that point, bolstering with the concept of Confidence fills that void immediately, helping to avoid backsliding. And so we begin…

Jason A. Myers wrote in his blog about Uncertainty, which I see as an aspect of self-doubt. This is a well-written and personal accounting of how he faces down this demon. Take a look and see if you can relate.

The blog In Search of Dessert has an extensive and thorough exploration of self-doubt and its effects upon a person’s writing. Take some time to read Self Doubt and Writing: Taming the Beast. It’s a good article. Highly recommend it.

Here’s a useful post from Brad’s Reader entitled 5 Ways to Overcome Doubt While Writing! Hard to mistake the thrust of this article. Stuck or not, this is a good overview of the topic and how to get past it. If you’re dealing with it, give the techniques an honest try. If you’re not, file them away. You or a friend may need them some day.

Lee Masterson at Fiction Factor wrote an article called Writing with Confidence. Let’s look at things from a different perspective now. What can happen when you approach this world of writing with a little oomph? You may want to give it a shot and see.

Now here’s a useful one. Dan Goodwin wrote How to Boost Your Creative Writing Confidence: 5 Top Tips You Can Start Using Today to Write with Confidence. It’s a really good look at the self doubt that can make us stumble and, more importantly, the getting back up and moving on that brings us back to center.

Self doubt plagues most, if not all, of us from time to time. It’s how you handle it that makes all the difference. Are you going to wallow in it and let it define you? I prefer to pull myself up by my bootstraps, dust off and keep on going. (Maybe after a tiny wallowing.) Perspective is everything when it comes to the coin that is self doubt on one side, confidence on the other.

Perspective. Use it or lose it. – Richard Bach.

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