Post series: Setting Self-Doubt on Fire

Setting Self-Doubt on Fire: How to Set Realistic Goals for NaNoWriMo – Improve Your Writing Skills with AuthorTube

Hi all, it has been a long time since my last post — I seriously didn’t mean for it to be so long, but you know how life goes. Anyway, I have a new post for you today, and this post is part of my ‘Improve Your Writing Skills with AuthorTube’ miniseries.

If you want to know more about this new miniseries, you can read my ‘Setting Self-Doubt on Fire – AuthorTube – Learn How to Describe Emotion’ post, but make sure you return to this post if you do check out the first one. 

So, let’s look at the second video in this series: Setting Realistic Writing Goals for NaNoWriMo by The Courtney Project, see video below. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3ATREY2Seg

Courtney is the owner of The Courtney Project YouTube channel. She is a self-published author who writes under the pen names Lyra Parish and Kennedy Fox — she’s one half of this USA Today Bestselling duo. So far, she has published over 35 romance novels.

November is the month of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) — NaNoWriMo is where writers aim to write 50,000 words of their novel in November. As you’d expect, this is a big challenge. So I have a video that will help you to make realistic goals for NaNoWriMo. 

In Courtney’s video, she explains how to set a realistic word count goal — writing 50,000 words is a brilliant achievement, but sometimes you can’t do. So, it’s a better idea to set a goal that you are likely to achieve, even if it’s as small as 5,000 words.

Courtney then goes on to show how she used to plan her month when she worked full time. It is suggested that you write 1667 words a day to reach the 50,000-word goal. But if you work full time or have other commitments, you might not be able to write that amount of words a day. So, she suggests using different daily word counts based on how much you can write on that specific day.

She also shares what to expect during NaNoWriMo, which is great for all you NaNo newbies. And she manages to do all of this in less than 15 minutes. So, if like me, you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo, you should watch the video above. 

Oh, before I go, if you struggle with self-doubt and you want to be part of a group where writers can share their fears, motivate each other and offer support, then join my ‘Setting Self-Doubt on Fire Squad’ group. 

Okay, that’s all I have for you today. Stay safe, everyone. And I’ll speak to you again soon — I promise, it will be soon.

“Your goal should be just out of reach, but not out of sight.” — Denis Waitley and Remi Witt

Setting Self-Doubt on Fire –  Improve Your Writing Skills with AuthorTube – Learn How to Describe Emotion

Hi all, it’s been some time since my last post, but today I want to introduce you to my new Setting Self-Doubt on Fire miniseries. 

During my writing journey, there have been many things that have caused the terrible Mr Self Doubt to make an unwelcome appearance. And one of those things was fearing I didn’t know enough to be a good writer.

So, did I give up and allow Mr Self Doubt to celebrate? Hell no! I knew there were storytelling tips and techniques I needed to know, so I did the sensible thing and found ways to learn the writing craft. And one of those was (and still is) watching videos on YouTube.

So I present to you my new miniseries: Improve Your Writing Skills with AuthorTube.

What’s AuthorTube? Well, it’s just writers (published and unpublished) on YouTube. These writers share their writing journey (the good and the bad), share their experiences and share their writing knowledge.

The purpose of this miniseries is to show you that you can beat self-doubt by learning the writing craft and improving your writing skills. And you can do this by watching AuthorTube videos.

So, let’s start with the first video: Describe Emotion without Being Melodramatic or Cliché by Ellen Brock, see video below. 

Ellen Brock is a professional freelance editor, writing coach, plot consultant and YouTuber. On her channel, you’ll find advice on how to write great characters, outline your story, find your author voice, plot your novel and write your novel. 

In her short video, Ellen explains how best to convey character emotions. It can be difficult to convey your characters’ emotions without relying on clichés, melodrama or too much showing or telling. She reveals that introspection is the solution. And in the video, she explains how to use introspection to show characters’ emotions.

I’ve always struggled to show the characters’ emotions. And I find that my characters do a lot of banging their fists against something, rubbing their heads, throwing something, twiddling their hair, snarling, etc. But thanks to this video, I finally understand how to convey emotions without making my characters appear overemotional when they aren’t supposed to be. 

So, if like me, you struggle to show what the characters are feeling, you should watch the video above. 

Oh, before I go, if you struggle with self-doubt and you want to be part of a group where writers can share their fears, motivate each other and offer support, then join my ‘Setting Self-Doubt on Fire Squad’ group. 

Okay, that’s all I have for you today. Stay safe, everyone. And I’ll speak to you again soon.

‘I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.’ — Maya Angelou

Happy New Year! Yeah, I know, we’re already three months into 2020 (nearly four), but hey, this is my first Setting Self-Doubt on Fire post for 2020. 

I hope you’ve had a good start to 2020. If not, you’re not the only one.

So, what do I have for you today? Well, I want to talk about how online groups can help you with your writing journey.

As you may remember, I was unwell last year, which resulted in me having to put my plans on hold. Now, I’m feeling better, but I’m still not as well as I used to be: I’m easily overwhelmed, my concentration is poor, I can’t spend too long on the computer, and it takes me longer to do things. All of this has made me doubt whether I’m able to reach my goals, especially when I have Mr Self-Doubt reminding me of my fears. 

When you’re struggling with self-doubt, you can feel alone and lost. But the one thing I’ve found that helps is being part of a writing group and talking to other writers. 

If you have other writers to talk to it can help you to push doubt aside so you can continue to work towards your writing goals. This is why I started these ‘Setting Self-Doubt on Fire’ posts and why I joined my writing group.

But what if you can’t join a writing group? Well, there’s a solution: you can join an online group.

An online group allows you to interact with people without having to leave your home — this is a perfect solution for many of us at the moment, especially with us having to stay at home due to Covid-19. 

My writing group has had to become an online group for the time being. We already had a private Facebook group, so we could keep in touch. But since we’ve been put on lockdown, we are now using Facebook chat and video calling to continue our meetings. 

My writing group isn’t my only experience of an online writing group. Last year I created a Facebook group called ‘NaNoWriMo for Self-Doubters’. This group was for those writers who wanted to do NaNo differently or for my fellow self-doubters. Now this group didn’t have many members, but it still helped to motivate me to reach my NaNo goal, and it also helped the other members. 

Are you still not sure whether you should join an online writing group? Here are more ways an online group can help you:

• You can speak to writers from all around the world.
• It allows you to interact with people when you are too ill to leave your home.

• You have people to talk to when you’re struggling at various times through your writing journey.
• You have people who can challenge the negative things Mr Self Doubt tells you.
• You have people who understand the challenges a writer goes through.
• You have people who can celebrate your achievements with you, even the small achievements — some people don’t see selling one book as an achievement, but a writer knows that selling one is better than nothing.
• You have people who can give you advice and feedback when you doubt or struggle with your work, as long as the group is private.
• You have people who can encourage you to get back up and try again when faced with rejection.
• You feel less alone. 

So, as you can see, an online group has many benefits. The main one for me was being able to keep in touch with people even when I was too unwell to leave the house. And this is why I decided to create a support group for writers. 

Even though I have the NaNo group, I wanted a group that could offer support for my fellow self-doubters all year round. And this is why I created a new Facebook group called ‘The Setting Self-Doubt on Fire Squad’.

The Setting Self-Doubt on Fire Squad is a support group for all writers who struggle with self-doubt. It’s a group where writers can share their fears, offer support and motivate each other to achieve our writing goals. So, if this sounds like the group for you, please join the ‘Setting Self-Doubt on Fire Squad’. And together we will defeat Mr Self Doubt.

Okay, that’s all I have for you today. Stay safe, everyone. And I’ll speak to you again soon.

‘Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.’ — Helen Keller

Hi everyone, I’m back with some more self-doubt fighting-advice. It’s October, and you know what that means—no, I’m not talking about my birthday. October is the month before NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

Yes, it’s nearly NaNo time already—I can’t believe it. For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is where writers from around the world pledge to write 50,000 words of their novel in November. It’s a great way to motivate you to start writing your novel.

I had planned to do NaNoWriMo again this year—it would be my first attempt since 2014—but due to ill health, trying to write 50,000 words in a month would put too much pressure on my struggling brain.

But I still wanted to take part in NaNo, so this got me thinking. Why do I have to aim to write 50,000 words? Yes, that is the purpose of NaNo, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it differently. I have done NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month) instead of NaNoWriMo, and instead of working on a novel, I worked on a novella and some short stories.

So I decided to do NaNoWriMo differently. Instead of aiming to write 50,000 words, I plan to write 10,000 words of a novella, but even if I don’t reach that goal, I still plan to celebrate any achievement I make, see my ‘My NaNoWriMo 2019 Goal’ post to find out more.

For many of you, the challenge of writing 50,000 words in a month is too much for you to attempt. It could be because of your health, lack of time, responsibilities or fear. And trying NaNo will do nothing but add extra stress to an already stressful life. So you decide not to take part at all.

Well, this isn’t the only option. If you still want to take part in the NaNo fun, there is no reason why you can’t tweak it to make it more suitable for you. You could reduce the word count (as I am doing), do NaNoEdMo instead if you have a novel to edit rather than to write or write something other than a novel, such as a short story collection or a novella. The choice is yours. So instead of missing out this year, do NaNo differently instead and join the fun. And if you don’t reach your goal, don’t beat yourself up, be proud of the work you have done so far.

If you decide to do NaNo, then read my other NaNo posts for more tips and advice:

• NaNoWriMo and Self-Doubt
• Get Ready for NaNoEdMo
• It’s NaNoWriMo and NaNoEdMo Time

And, if you do decide to take part in NaNo, I have created a Facebook group called NaNoWriMo for Self-Doubters. This group is for writers who suffer from self-doubt but want to take part in NaNo or anyone doing NaNo differently. So, if that’s you, then do join please join the group and let’s support each other.

That’s all I have for you today.

‘It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.’—Confucius

Hey, everyone, the self-doubt-fighting writer is back! Where have I been? Well, fairies abducted me and brought me to their Pinkfey Kingdom, and because I’m so pinkalicious, they begged me to become their Queen Pinky — the original queen fell down a well and turned into something resembling that chick from the film The Ring.

So for months, I ruled their Pinkfey Kingdom, and… okay, okay, that’s a load of crap. But, the real reason just isn’t as interesting. The truth is I was unwell, but I won’t bore you with all the details here — I explain all on my blog. But now I’m recovering it’s time to return to my self-doubt fighting ways.

So, what do I have for you today? I am going to talk about how you can beat the fear of self-publishing.

Self-doubt makes you feel like you’re not good enough, so the thought of self-publishing your own stories (or poetry) will terrify you — I know it terrifies me. For some of us, the submission process is a test of our abilities. If you make it through and an editor or publisher accepts your work, then your work must be good enough.

With self-publishing, you don’t have that test. And, the only way you know if your work is good enough is if readers read and review your work — yep, scary thought, right? The thought alone will fill your mind with so many questions: Will people hate my story? Did I publish too soon? Will people buy a book from me again? With these questions swirling around your head, self-publishing will no longer look like a good idea.

Well, we can’t have you giving up now. I have recently experienced self-publishing for the first time. And, I put fear aside (it wasn’t easy, but I did it) and allowed the world to judge my baby (I’m referring to my book. I don’t have a real baby). How can you do the same? Well, my fellow self-doubters, I have some tips for you:

1. Start small. If fear often cripples you, it might not be a good idea to jump into self-publishing a novel-length piece — diving into the deep end might work for some, but others (like me) might benefit more from paddling in the shallow end first.

So, if you’re like me, I suggest you try publishing short stories (or flash fictions) on your blog or story sharing websites like Wattpad. Then you can see what people say and take on board any feedback to help future projects. Believe it or not, there are some people out there who will give feedback to help you improve and not to tear you down. Sharing your stories this way might even help you find a readership.

Then from there you can try publishing a short story collection e-book and work your       way up to a novel.

2. Find beta readers to check your work before you publish it. If you’re part of a writing group, you can ask the members to be your beta readers. This will help you to spot any issues before your book ends up in the hands of your readers. You’ll also get valuable feedback, and any positive feedback will be a boost to your confidence.

If you’re not part of a writing group, you can find writers online, or you might know people who love reading. What’s important is that you get honest feedback.

There’s also an option of hiring an editor to edit your work for you. Having your book professionally edited will be good for your book, but it’s not something that we can all afford to do.

3. Fear of something can often be reduced by gaining knowledge of what you fear. So, find out as much information as possible about the self-publishing process. This will allow you to find out how to avoid mistakes and how to make the process easier. You can also read about other author’s experiences of self-publishing, and this will allow you to see that you’re not alone in your fears.

4. Seek support. Sometimes all you need is someone to listen to your concerns. And once you have got your fears off your chest, you’ll find yourself feeling more positive. So, if you do need to talk, then reach out to your loved ones or a writer buddy, either off or online.

5. Just do it. Like I mentioned in my ‘Let’s Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway in 2019’ post, sometimes the best way to overcome fear is to do what scares you. So edit that book, format it correctly and press on that publish button — of course, don’t forget to give it to your beta readers first.

When it came down to publishing my e-book, I kept checking all the details I had entered, even though I knew I had entered everything correctly — I was trying to avoid pushing the publish button. But, I knew I had to just do it. So, I pushed the button and threw my book into the pool of hungry readers. I have to admit it was a huge relief when I finally did it.

So, there are my tips. I hope they help you to beat the fear of self-publishing and share your amazing stories with the world. If you have any tips of your own, please comment below. I’d love to hear how you push fear aside.

For those of you who are interested, my e-book, The Book of Drabbles, is available to download for FREE from Smashwords and any other e-book retailer.

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”– Vincent Van Gogh

Writer or Author? by Nicole Simms

I have seen many websites that say that if you have work published then an author is what you are. I was even told that due to having work published I could call myself an author, but I have always associated the word author to those who have had a ‘novel’ published. So realising that I may not be alone in my confusion, I have decided to do this post.

A recap of our article ‘Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Dealing With Fear’ by Nicole Simms. In this installment, she gives ideas on how to deal with finishing a novel and being worried that it won’t go anywhere.

After watching the video, please like, share, and subscribe to our channel!

We hope you’ve been enjoying these video refreshes. Please let us know if you have or have not been in the comments below! Also, have you been preferring articles in this format, interviews, or both?

You can read the full interview here: https://horrortree.com/setting-self-doubt-fire-dealing-fear/.