If You’re Wrestling With Writing, Self-Doubt Might Be Your Obstacle

When I ask people who say they have a book “in them” why they don’t get it out into the world, the most common reason I hear is: “I don’t have the time.”

And on the surface, that is understandable. Most of us are too busy. And writing a book may seem like the kind of thing you need six uninterrupted months (or more) to do.

But is that the real reason? The vast majority of people who write books do so while holding down full-time jobs.

In fact, as I’ve written elsewhere, if you wrote two pages a day, you’d have 200 pages – the average length of a nonfiction book – in about 100 days. Or three months. Of course, there’s planning and editing time on top of that. The point is: Time is not an unconquerable obstacle. And some strategies can help even busy people finish a book.

So, if being busy is not truly the barrier, what is? Maybe you’re not sure you know how to structure a book, tell good stories, or how publishing or even self-publishing works. But, again, you can overcome obstacles like these. 

After all, “anybody can write,” as the English writer Alan Moore says. “This is not some divine calling that only settles upon a few special individuals.”

All of which suggests something else may be going on here.

The Most Overlooked Obstacle to Writing a Book — and Your Invitation to Overcome It

There are plenty of resources today that focus on how to write a book in 3 or 6 months. And how to structure it. And how to publish it. And this is all good stuff.

But beneath these practicalities is a more personal obstacle. It’s about what the novelist John Gardner spoke about as the “root problems” that face every writer. He names these as problems of confidence, self-respect, and freedom.

It’s the facing up to self-doubt about whether you have something to say, whether you deserve to say it, and whether you will claim the right to write your own book.

Chances are – especially, I believe if you are a woman – people have said things that have caused you to question your confidence, self-respect, and freedom to say what you have to say.

I know I have. I struggled with these obstacles for decades! But I learned so much about what helps the way. And I know that overcoming those obstacles is rewarding beyond words. It also positions you to reap the benefits of finally writing your own damn book.

Contact me if you’d like help.