Day 24

Quick check in for day 24 of my unofficial participation in National Novel Writing Month to say that I wrote for a bit this morning, but I’m already behind on my new goal of two sections revised each week. Everytime I get to a new section, I second guess myself based on what I had originally plotted in my outline. Lesson: Write closer to the outline in the first draft; trust your first instincts. Or maybe it’s ok the way it is. Here I go second-guessing myself again.

How do you stop yourself from second guessing?

Write On!

 

3 Responses

  1. Jamie says:

    You have to trust.

    Trust in yourself. Your voice as a writer. Everyone has that little person on their shoulder that sometimes gives them doubt.

    But you have to push that person away and allow yourself to experience the words, the writing. Allow yourself to create without thinking.

    If you’re following an outline make sure it’s an outline that you “created” not planned. Your inner voice will always come out if you just allow it to and not second-guess it.

    You will know instantly if that is happening. I would guess you already knew all this but it’s good to be reminded 🙂

  2. Thanks, Jamie. Good advice for all of us to hear.

  3. mand says:

    For myself, i make it a test of whether i can stick at it, complete a certain number of hours or pages – NOT whether i can write anything worth reading. Start wondering if it works, and sooner or later you’ll losing the argument. Imagination causes doubt, and imagination’s a professional hazard of being someone who wants to write fiction!

    It’s taken me a long time to get back to my 8-year-old ‘Just do it without watching the years fly by’ trusting writerly self. So i can’t preach.

What do you think?