Fighting the inner self

This is one of the most gruelling part of the writing process. You think you composed a masterpiece, and the next time you read it, it feels like crap, and you feel devastated.

“How can I make it?”

You start asking yourself.

Now, I know it is a signal to pause and redirect my attention to something else. Otherwise, the negative thoughts would eat me alive. Recently, I adopted a meditation habit. I watch my pocket watch tick under the candlelight, listening to a ticking sound for around 5 minutes. This helps to forget about it and gives energy to come back stronger the next time, making cuts, edits and polishing the text.

Facing the fear of failure, I also decided to enhance my knowledge. I bought a few books in English to study the techniques authors use. I also attended a few online courses related to creative writing on Skillshare.

I described the characters and their conflicts. I printed it out, and I am keeping it handy when I am writing.

This gave me a little confidence and helped to shape the story afterwards. The most important thing was to not be scared to write.

I definitely did not have it as a habit at that time. I wrote on random occasions.

Once in the plane and the other time lying on the swing during a summer night. It was not perfect, but at least I was slowly moving forward. I knew I would not write a book over a single afternoon, but it was not enough.

As a result, I decided to set up a goal to have the draft of the whole story by the end of this year, and now I know how many words I have to write every month. Now, I feel a huge productivity boost. I have no idea if I reach my goal by that time, but I will be closer to it.