5 Steps to Creating Powerful Writing Affirmations

Imposter syndrome is real.

You’ve been told you’re a good writer all through school. You took all the right classes. Maybe you even majored in English or earned an MFA in creative writing. Yet procrastination can drive you so off track that you wonder how you can consider yourself a “real” writer if you never seem to get around to writing. And if you rarely have time to practice, how can you be any good?

Alternately, you love to write, and you write well, but life took you on another path. Now you don’t think it’s valid to consider writing as any more than a hobby. You don’t have the benefit of an academic background in English and certainly not in the more commercial or kind of genre fiction you prefer to write. You’re not sure of what makes a manuscript marketable or what you need to do to get yours to fit that bill.

Either way, receiving any kind of feedback — even from well-intentioned and constructive readers — only seems to confirm what you knew all along: you’re a terrible writer who shouldn’t waste any more time trying to make it as an author. Who were you to think you deserved to enter this space at all?

Having to rework text you've poured your creative soul into can make you feel like giving up because it wasn't "perfect" the first time. Even after everything you’ve studied or all the English courses, you feel you have so much to learn. But you have no idea where to start. Plus, you have so much work ahead of you to get your manuscript into publishable shape that you don’t think you’ll ever get this story off your heart before you die.

Of course, when we think of these ideas in this way, we hear how unrealistic such expectations are, and we can hear how doom and gloom the doubts sound. But that doesn't often stop the demoralizing self-talk from making you feel like a failure.

My own story encompasses pieces of all these examples. I was a good academic and had my writing skills affirmed by teachers and other students alike. I learned how to write a good essay and tick all the rubric boxes. But even my creative writing courses in college never taught me any solid strategies or tools for writing fantasy and science fiction. They were all fluff or geared toward a more literary register.

When I got into publishing after editing a newspaper and teaching writing, literature, and journalism courses, that still wasn’t enough to affirm for me that this direction was my calling, my vocation. In fact, it only seemed to bring my fraudulence into the open.

As I started in my new editing job, I thought I certainly must have been prepared. But I found I was sorely mistaken (or, at least that’s what my mind told me). I could fix some grammar, but I had no idea what each story really needed to shine. I had some correct instincts — my approving editors would leave comments that touched on the very issues I questioned in my head but didn’t feel confident enough about to put on the page in feedback. I learned to write up in feedback every little thing about the story that seemed off if it crossed my mind. This was a good start, but I still wanted to know the whys behind my instincts. Analyzing literature academically helped some, but I still felt ill-equipped for seeing a manuscript all the way through from development to proofread.

As you might guess, I probably wasn’t as ill-equipped as I felt — that was just the imposter syndrome talking. Yet, there was some truth to my frustration with my level of knowledge. Most traditional academics do not cover the nuts and bolts of writing fiction commercially. So, naturally, I blew up that gap in my knowledge to epic proportions, deciding I needed to learn anything and everything I could first before I would possibly be qualified for my position. You’ll recognize this as a common imposter syndrome/procrastination pitfall in order to avoid the scary reality of actually putting myself or my work out there for judgment.

Thankfully, I had an amazing managing editor who supported my self-driven goals to learn more about writing really good fiction. While I still had to do my job, she allowed me time to do a ton of professional development in the area of writing craft for fiction. Because in truth, I did need to learn more in that area. But my imposter syndrome had me hiding behind that guise of “learning more” into eternity before feeling ready (spoiler: we never ever feel ready).

I can’t say I regret that time spent learning instead of doing. It gave me the foundations for everything I do today in helping authors get their books ready to enchant readers and to do it with far more clarity. But I still needed a bit of help and internal mindset work to feel confident in that knowledge and to eventually take the leap of going rogue with my editing (and writing, more generally). I still battle imposter syndrome anyway, but one strategy that has really helped me is affirmations.

These are short, affirming statements that help to combat all the negative, subconscious thoughts that run rampant through our minds. Affirmations have a knack for calming the spiraling thoughts and helping me feel ready to face whatever it is I need to face. With editing and writing alike, affirmations balance priorities and keep me putting one foot in front of the other. One of my favorite writing affirmations to recite to myself is this one:

With every word I revise, and with every comment I receive, I make my story stronger.

Such affirmations are small but mighty positive mindset shields for any writer to use to finally quench the spreading flames of fear and doubt. Finally get that story off your heart and on the page so that you can share your message with the world through your characters, plot, and words. Instead, of letting your doubts and fears invade and take control of your mind, tell your mind better stories first. Then come back to your WIP renewed with the positive reinforcements that will help you carry on to breathe your message out into the world.

How can you formulate such powerful affirmation statements? I have five tips I follow to make sure that my statements pack a punch:

1. Get specific. Break down broader wishes or hopes into things that you can comprehend in a more tangible way. (Example from the affirmation mentioned above: If I want to better handle the daunting task of revision mentally and emotionally, instead of saying something like, "Revising is good for me," think about the specific parts, such as accepting feedback, changing one word, and remembering why you're revising at all.) But remember…

2. Keep it short. You want something you can use like a mantra. Having to memorize a monologue before using it won't be conducive to getting out of the funk you're floundering in right at this moment. Make it something you can easily repeat many times!

3. State it as a command or an absolute fact — don't be hesitant or wishy-washy! Take that one step further by listening to it in order to add that sensory input. Try copy/pasting it many times into a Word doc and let the "Read Aloud" feature speak it to you. Or, if you can't get past a robotic voice, record yourself or someone else saying the affirmation. Play on repeat!

4. State it as if it's happening right now. Writers, that means present tense is key here! This tense includes verbs such as "is" and "am" or verbs ending in "-s" not "-ed" or no "-s" such as in the future tense.

5. Make your statement say what you want to be the case, not the opposite. Don't use negative words here even if it means eliminating something "bad." For example, turn "I do not procrastinate when I sit down to write" into "When I sit down to write, I start typing easily" or similar. Don't give your mind even the slightest idea of the thing you don't want.

What are your most helpful writing affirmations? Let’s flood the warring thought battlefield of our minds with positive reinforcements.

For more affirmation ideas and to share your own, come over to Instagram @inkybookwrym for Sunday Affirmations, where we work on busting negative mindset traps through positive inspiration and affirmations. Then get to the creative work with renewed confidence and a ready weapon whenever the doubts come sneaking back.

In case you didn’t know, I have even more ways to support you in taking action to make your writing and publishing dreams more than just a fantasy! ↓↓↓

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The Workshop Route
Cut through the overwhelm and revise your sci-fi/fantasy draft or partial draft one easy progress win at a time! I am putting together a small group to support through the novel revision process in a LIVE online workshop to level up your manuscript. In addition to the developmental self-editing course, take advantage of the critique partner program and exclusive author community as you finally get your story ready to enchant your readers. Click here for more details and to be notified when enrollment opens!.

The Editing or Book Coaching Route
To see all my service options and testimonials to help you decide if I might be the right editor or book coach for you, start here.

Are you ready to learn the brain science hacks to help you get your stories on the page or ready for readers? Let me know what you're working on, and I’ll let you know how I can help!

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