Author: Nicole Simms

Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Improve Your Skills with the ProWritingAid Writers’ Weeklong Online Summits

Hi all, I’m back! I know it’s been a long time, but I’m still alive and here to share some more tips with you all.

So, what do I have for you today? I believe that learning is a great way to tackle your self-doubts and fears, so over the last couple of years, I’ve attended many webinars and online summits hoping to improve my writing craft and business skills. And today I want to talk to you about one of these events: the ProWritingAid Writers’ Weeklong Online Summits.  

ProWritingAid offers genre focused weeklong online summits every year. The two events I have attended are the fantasy week and the crime week because I write in these genres as well as horror. (Side note: I hope they eventually do a horror week)
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Setting‌ ‌Self‌ ‌Doubt‌ ‌on‌ ‌Fire:‌ ‌Help!‌ ‌I’m‌ ‌Self-Sabotaging!‌ ‌

Help!‌ ‌I’m‌ ‌Self-Sabotaging!‌

Hi all, I’m back, even though 2021 is nearly over (or over, depending on when you read this post). Yes, I’m like the guest who turns up five minutes before the end of a party and shouts, ‘Let’s dance, baby!’. 

So, where have I been? Sadly, not Narnia. I’ve been drowning in a huge to-do list while not getting much done at all. Yeah, 2021 sure didn’t go to plan. You know, I’ve spent months trying to get this post topic to you all, but I just never had enough time. Actually, it was more like I was wasting time—procrastination, self-doubt, and fear have b**** slapped me this year. I’m not joking. I have the bruises to prove it. It’s due to what has (or hasn’t) happened this year that gave me the idea for this post.
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Setting Self Doubt on Fire: When Your Health Gets in the Way of Your Writing

It’s been a long time since my last post—a lot longer than I had planned, but I’ve been struggling lately, which has stopped me from getting much done. And it was while thinking about all of this that I realised I should share my story because I’m sure I’m not the only one struggling like this, and I have some helpful tips that I’ve discovered which are slowly helping me. So, this is what I’m going to share with you all today.

 

But first, I want to share why I’m struggling. I’ll keep it brief, but you can read my blog post if you want to know more. I have cavernomas on my brain, and during March 2019, one of those cavernomas bled. This bleed caused me to have numbness on the left side of my body, vertigo, chronic fatigue, memory problems, difficulty concentrating, balance problems and neuropathic pain. 
(more…)

Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 2021 Pledge for Self-Doubters

Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 2021 Pledge for Self-Doubters

 

Happy New Year! I can’t believe it’s 2021. 2020 flew by so quickly—I’m sure many of you are glad about that. 

So, what do I have for you today? Well, I haven’t got an ‘Improve Your Writing Skills with YouTube’ post. Instead, I want to talk about the start of a new year and what that means for us. 

So, it’s 2021, and a new year means new goals and a chance to take another step towards your writing dreams. But for self-doubting writers, this can cause a lot of fear and self-doubt to plague our minds. 

I want to publish more books, but this time, I will be asking people to pay for them. But there’s a voice (it’s that annoying Mr Self Doubt again) that says, ‘What makes you think anyone will pay for your books?’ 

Now, this voice makes me think that maybe it’s right. Maybe people won’t want to pay for my books. But there’s another voice, one that reminds me that if I listen to Mr Self Doubt, I will never achieve my dreams. And so, this will be the year that I push Mr Self Doubt back and move forward towards my goals, and I want you to join me in this fight. 

To begin our fight, let’s make the following promises: 

  1. I shall not miss opportunities. 
  2. I shall not make decisions based on fear. 
  3. I shall not give up on myself.
  4. I will trust my decisions. 
  5. I will be patient with myself (Patience is my word for 2021)

Okay, my fellow self-doubters, this is our year, and together we will beat self-doubt. Let’s do this.

If you want to see what my 2021 goals are, you can see them on my ‘2021 and Q1 Writing and Reading Goals’ blog post. And do let me know what your goals for 2021 are.

Don’t forget, 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.

‘Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.’ ― Oprah Winfrey

 

Setting Self-Doubt on Fire: Sarra Cannon’s NaNoWriMo Diaries

 Name of column: Setting Self-Doubt on Fire

 

Name of Miniseries: Improve Your Writing Skills with AuthorTube

 

Post Title: Sarra Cannon’s NaNoWriMo Diaries

 

Hi all, I have a new ‘Improve Your Writing Skills with AuthorTube’ miniseries post for you today.

 

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. 

 

So, let’s look at the third video in this series: The NaNoWriMo Diaries by Heart Breathings (Sarra Cannon’s YouTube channel), see the playlist below. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUWSYi5NvPw&list=PLg6zjsQP4Pwf9ONFNNJ_qdZ_2cLYIzQo9

 

Heart Breathings is a YouTube channel by the indie author Sarra Cannon. Sarra writes YA and New Adult contemporary and paranormal fiction, and she is the author of the popular Shadow Demons Saga series — I love this series. 

 

Sarra started her Heart Breathings channel in 2018 to help writers to create a writing career they love. So far, her channel has 245 videos, but the ones I want to focus on today are her NaNoWriMo Diaries.

 

Now, these videos don’t show you how to improve your writing skills, but I feel they have an important message for us writers. And, it shows us that even a successful author can be controlled by fear, but that doesn’t stop them from living their dream life. 

 

The diaries start well, and Sarra is excited about reaching her goals of writing 50,000 words of her book Witch’s Door and editing and publishing the final book in her Eternal Sorrows trilogy. But things soon start going wrong, and no matter how many hours she worked (and she worked hard) she wasn’t able to reach her goal. This was a devastating blow to Sarra, but she learned many lessons: 

 

  • The muse always wins — a story needs to be written the way it needs to be written. You can’t force it into being something it isn’t. 
  • Never make decisions based on fear. 
  • A missed deadline is better than publishing a book that isn’t the best of your ability.
  • Life not going to plan can sometimes be an unexpected gift. 
  • Sometimes failure is an important life lesson. 
  • The only way you fail is if you give up on yourself. (I want you to read this three times)

 

So, these aren’t tips on how to improve your writing, but they are all important lessons that we need to learn to help us with our writing journey. 

Before I go, I’ll like to let you know that I have a new Christmas horror flash fiction collection out called Merry Dreadmas that is available to download as an e-book and an audiobook for FREE.  

And, 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 have a Merry Dreadmas … I mean Christmas. 

 

“Don’t give in to your fears. If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Setting Self-Doubt on Fire: How to Set Realistic Goals for NaNoWriMo

  1. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s begin the Fight
  2. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Rejection – The Ugly Word
  3. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Learning to Juggle
  4. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: To Dump or not to Dump
  5. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Keep the Faith
  6. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Finding Your Identity
  7. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Just for the love of it
  8. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 5 Step plan for success
  9. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Planning Issue
  10. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Crossroads
  11. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Overwhelming Effect
  12. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Waiting Game
  13. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Reflection 2013
  14. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: New Year New Challenges
  15. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Am I a real Writer?
  16. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Taking The Next Step
  17. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Submission Phobia
  18. Setting Self Doubt On Fire: How To Get Ideas
  19. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Dealing with Fear
  20. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Only Guarantee
  21. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Doubts of others
  22. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let those positives shine
  23. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: First Draft Blues
  24. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Time-wasting issue
  25. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Embrace the bad ideas
  26. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writer or Author?
  27. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Negative Feedback; the double slap
  28. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Pat yourself on the back
  29. Setting Self Doubt On Fire: The Deflated Eureka Moment
  30. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The doomed quest for perfection
  31. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writing Group fears
  32. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Horror Tree Crew tackle Mr Self Doubt
  33. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Read aloud challenge
  34. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Find your inner belief
  35. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: NaNoWriMo and Self-Doubt
  36. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: We are NaNoWriMo winners
  37. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: New Year’s Resolutions for Writers
  38. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The benefits of organizing
  39. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Editing Strain
  40. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Writing Group Experience
  41. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Dealing with second stage fears
  42. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Reading aloud to an audience
  43. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Importance of perseverance
  44. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Self-Doubt or Gut Feeling
  45. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Get ready for NaNoEdMo
  46. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Benefits of Writing Goals
  47. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Rejection Gets Better
  48. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writers, take care of yourself!
  49. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How to Boost Your Self-Confidence
  50. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Why You Should Go to a Writing Festival
  51. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Help! A Publisher has Dropped Me
  52. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Setting Self Doubt on Fire Challenge
  53. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How to Prepare for a Book Reading Event
  54. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: It’s NaNoWriMo and NaNoEdMo Time
  55. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Help! I Didn’t Reach My NaNo Goal
  56. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s Beat Self-Doubt in 2017
  57. WIHM: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Female Horror Writer and Proud
  58. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Don’t Let Self-Doubt Make You Miss Deadlines
  59. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Hey! Where’s My Book Reading Audience
  60. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 5 Tips on How to Ignore the Negative Voices
  61. Video Refresh: Rejection – The Ugly Word
  62. Video Refresh: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Learning to Juggle
  63. Video Refresh: To Dump or not to Dump
  64. Video Refresh: Keep The Faith
  65. Video Refresh: Finding Your Identity
  66. Video Refresh: 5 Step plan for success
  67. Video Refresh: The Planning Issue
  68. Video Refresh: The Crossroads
  69. Video Refresh: The Overwhelming Effect
  70. Video Refresh: The Waiting Game
  71. Video Refresh: Am I A Real Writer?
  72. Video Refresh: Taking The Next Step
  73. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway in 2019
  74. Video Refresh: Submission Phobia
  75. Video Refresh: Dealing With Fear
  76. WIHM: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Female Horror Author Reading Challenge
  77. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writer or Author? Video Refresh
  78. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Beat the Fear of Self-Publishing
  79. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Do NaNoWriMo Differently This Year
  80. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How Can Online Groups Help Writers?
  81. Setting Self-Doubt on Fire – AuthorTube – Learn How to Describe Emotion
  82. Setting Self-Doubt on Fire: How to Set Realistic Goals for NaNoWriMo

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 – AuthorTube – Learn How to Describe Emotion

  1. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s begin the Fight
  2. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Rejection – The Ugly Word
  3. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Learning to Juggle
  4. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: To Dump or not to Dump
  5. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Keep the Faith
  6. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Finding Your Identity
  7. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Just for the love of it
  8. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 5 Step plan for success
  9. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Planning Issue
  10. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Crossroads
  11. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Overwhelming Effect
  12. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Waiting Game
  13. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Reflection 2013
  14. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: New Year New Challenges
  15. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Am I a real Writer?
  16. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Taking The Next Step
  17. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Submission Phobia
  18. Setting Self Doubt On Fire: How To Get Ideas
  19. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Dealing with Fear
  20. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Only Guarantee
  21. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Doubts of others
  22. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let those positives shine
  23. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: First Draft Blues
  24. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Time-wasting issue
  25. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Embrace the bad ideas
  26. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writer or Author?
  27. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Negative Feedback; the double slap
  28. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Pat yourself on the back
  29. Setting Self Doubt On Fire: The Deflated Eureka Moment
  30. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The doomed quest for perfection
  31. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writing Group fears
  32. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Horror Tree Crew tackle Mr Self Doubt
  33. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Read aloud challenge
  34. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Find your inner belief
  35. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: NaNoWriMo and Self-Doubt
  36. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: We are NaNoWriMo winners
  37. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: New Year’s Resolutions for Writers
  38. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The benefits of organizing
  39. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Editing Strain
  40. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Writing Group Experience
  41. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Dealing with second stage fears
  42. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Reading aloud to an audience
  43. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Importance of perseverance
  44. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Self-Doubt or Gut Feeling
  45. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Get ready for NaNoEdMo
  46. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Benefits of Writing Goals
  47. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Rejection Gets Better
  48. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writers, take care of yourself!
  49. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How to Boost Your Self-Confidence
  50. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Why You Should Go to a Writing Festival
  51. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Help! A Publisher has Dropped Me
  52. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Setting Self Doubt on Fire Challenge
  53. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How to Prepare for a Book Reading Event
  54. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: It’s NaNoWriMo and NaNoEdMo Time
  55. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Help! I Didn’t Reach My NaNo Goal
  56. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s Beat Self-Doubt in 2017
  57. WIHM: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Female Horror Writer and Proud
  58. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Don’t Let Self-Doubt Make You Miss Deadlines
  59. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Hey! Where’s My Book Reading Audience
  60. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 5 Tips on How to Ignore the Negative Voices
  61. Video Refresh: Rejection – The Ugly Word
  62. Video Refresh: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Learning to Juggle
  63. Video Refresh: To Dump or not to Dump
  64. Video Refresh: Keep The Faith
  65. Video Refresh: Finding Your Identity
  66. Video Refresh: 5 Step plan for success
  67. Video Refresh: The Planning Issue
  68. Video Refresh: The Crossroads
  69. Video Refresh: The Overwhelming Effect
  70. Video Refresh: The Waiting Game
  71. Video Refresh: Am I A Real Writer?
  72. Video Refresh: Taking The Next Step
  73. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway in 2019
  74. Video Refresh: Submission Phobia
  75. Video Refresh: Dealing With Fear
  76. WIHM: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Female Horror Author Reading Challenge
  77. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writer or Author? Video Refresh
  78. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Beat the Fear of Self-Publishing
  79. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Do NaNoWriMo Differently This Year
  80. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How Can Online Groups Help Writers?
  81. Setting Self-Doubt on Fire – AuthorTube – Learn How to Describe Emotion
  82. Setting Self-Doubt on Fire: How to Set Realistic Goals for NaNoWriMo

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. 

 

How to Describe Emotion Without Being Melodramatic or Cliche

 

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

Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How Can Online Groups Help Writers?

  1. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s begin the Fight
  2. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Rejection – The Ugly Word
  3. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Learning to Juggle
  4. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: To Dump or not to Dump
  5. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Keep the Faith
  6. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Finding Your Identity
  7. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Just for the love of it
  8. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 5 Step plan for success
  9. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Planning Issue
  10. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Crossroads
  11. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Overwhelming Effect
  12. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Waiting Game
  13. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Reflection 2013
  14. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: New Year New Challenges
  15. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Am I a real Writer?
  16. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Taking The Next Step
  17. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Submission Phobia
  18. Setting Self Doubt On Fire: How To Get Ideas
  19. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Dealing with Fear
  20. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Only Guarantee
  21. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Doubts of others
  22. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let those positives shine
  23. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: First Draft Blues
  24. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Time-wasting issue
  25. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Embrace the bad ideas
  26. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writer or Author?
  27. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Negative Feedback; the double slap
  28. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Pat yourself on the back
  29. Setting Self Doubt On Fire: The Deflated Eureka Moment
  30. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The doomed quest for perfection
  31. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writing Group fears
  32. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Horror Tree Crew tackle Mr Self Doubt
  33. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Read aloud challenge
  34. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Find your inner belief
  35. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: NaNoWriMo and Self-Doubt
  36. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: We are NaNoWriMo winners
  37. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: New Year’s Resolutions for Writers
  38. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The benefits of organizing
  39. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Editing Strain
  40. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Writing Group Experience
  41. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Dealing with second stage fears
  42. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Reading aloud to an audience
  43. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Importance of perseverance
  44. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Self-Doubt or Gut Feeling
  45. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Get ready for NaNoEdMo
  46. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Benefits of Writing Goals
  47. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Rejection Gets Better
  48. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writers, take care of yourself!
  49. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How to Boost Your Self-Confidence
  50. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Why You Should Go to a Writing Festival
  51. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Help! A Publisher has Dropped Me
  52. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Setting Self Doubt on Fire Challenge
  53. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How to Prepare for a Book Reading Event
  54. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: It’s NaNoWriMo and NaNoEdMo Time
  55. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Help! I Didn’t Reach My NaNo Goal
  56. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s Beat Self-Doubt in 2017
  57. WIHM: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Female Horror Writer and Proud
  58. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Don’t Let Self-Doubt Make You Miss Deadlines
  59. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Hey! Where’s My Book Reading Audience
  60. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 5 Tips on How to Ignore the Negative Voices
  61. Video Refresh: Rejection – The Ugly Word
  62. Video Refresh: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Learning to Juggle
  63. Video Refresh: To Dump or not to Dump
  64. Video Refresh: Keep The Faith
  65. Video Refresh: Finding Your Identity
  66. Video Refresh: 5 Step plan for success
  67. Video Refresh: The Planning Issue
  68. Video Refresh: The Crossroads
  69. Video Refresh: The Overwhelming Effect
  70. Video Refresh: The Waiting Game
  71. Video Refresh: Am I A Real Writer?
  72. Video Refresh: Taking The Next Step
  73. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway in 2019
  74. Video Refresh: Submission Phobia
  75. Video Refresh: Dealing With Fear
  76. WIHM: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Female Horror Author Reading Challenge
  77. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writer or Author? Video Refresh
  78. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Beat the Fear of Self-Publishing
  79. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Do NaNoWriMo Differently This Year
  80. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How Can Online Groups Help Writers?
  81. Setting Self-Doubt on Fire – AuthorTube – Learn How to Describe Emotion
  82. Setting Self-Doubt on Fire: How to Set Realistic Goals for NaNoWriMo

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