Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Read aloud challenge

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  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_header

Hi everyone! I’m back with some more self-doubt fighting action. A few days ago I spotted something on the Writers and Artists’ Facebook page. They were doing a read aloud challenge, where people would video themselves reading out the first few lines of their novel, and uploading it for all to see. Now being a fellow self-doubter while I loved the idea, I couldn’t imagine myself ever doing that. My mind filled with all the negative comments I could receive. However, after having to read out my work for my writer’s group it got me thinking about all the ways you could possibly try the read aloud challenge, and this is where I got the idea for this post.

Before joining my writing group I never imagined that at this stage, in my journey, I would be reading out my work to a group of people; I haven’t even read my stories out to my family. But with the challenge set, even though fear and doubt threatened to cripple me, I took the challenge on and once completed I realised that I was worried for no reason. On the second reading challenge people were even impressed with what I had written, which was a surprise to me. The one thing I have learnt is that it is important to read your work out, not only can it help boost your confidence, it can also help you see how potential readers react to your work, and allow you to receive valuable feedback. Therefore, to help you find a way to try the read aloud challenge I have listed some ideas for you to consider.

Ways to do the read aloud challenge:

  • Read out your story in your writing group: An extra challenge, I will be trying, is standing up, and reading out your story while standing up in front of your group. This will be terrifying for some, but trust me, you’ll feel great once you’ve done it; it’s a real achievement.
  • Do a reading in front of your family and friends: If you are not ready to start reading in front of strangers, then why not get all your family and friends together. You can imagine that you are an author who is reading out their novel to an audience, even offer coffee and tea.
  • Attend an open mic night: If you write poetry there are places that allow you to get up and read your poem to the people in the pub or bar. This is something I never knew about before. It has been advised that you choose a suitable location to read your work out first, i.e. don’t read a poem with blood and guts in a family pub.
  • Read your story in front of your work colleagues: Of course you shouldn’t stand up and randomly start reading your story while people are working, but if during a lunch break you ask if people wouldn’t mind listening to you read out your story then you will have an opportunity to read out your work and see what they think.

 

Here are some examples, but if you believe you could manage the actual read aloud challenge then ignore Mr Self-doubt and try it.

This journey will often require you to step out of your comfort zone, be it submitting your story, uploading your story for feedback, reading aloud. Rather than letting Mr Self-doubt talk you out of it, rise to the challenge, even if you are shaking to the bones, you stand up and shout, “I accept!” I set you all a challenge, you don’t need to video it, but I want you all to read out your work, and let us know how you get on. Trust me it doesn’t hurt as much as you think it would.

To end this post, here is another inspirational quote:

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” – Author unknown

 

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