Book in a Month: Day 10

Doubt is something I struggle with a lot, and not just in my writing. Doubting runs in my family. Every single person, my parents and my siblings, all struggle with massive amounts of doubt. We doubt different things about ourselves, but we all doubt something. For me, my doubt comes when I have to create something. Anything, be it a report, a story, an idea, a new method, I doubt it. I always have.

Doubt is something that every writer deals with. Will the story work? Will the characters be believable? Will people want to read what I write? These questions open the door for doubt, not because they are invalid questions, but because they are valid.

See that's the problem with doubt, worry, and questioning yourself. For me, it always has a basis in something valid. It's not wrong to double check your writing, your motivation, you choices. My problem is that I have a hard time getting out of the double-checking stage. Those creeping doubts cling to me, holding me back from actually letting myself achieve something.

What does this have to do with BIAM? Kind of everything. Doubt and fear is what's kept me from writing or rewriting or finishing a draft. I second guess myself right out of writing. So doing the BIAM has been incredibly helpful in that it doesn't let me stay in that place. I can doubt, but I have to keep writing. Question what I'm doing, but keep writing through those questions. Instead of letting myself get away with a someday goal, I have a concrete goal, 30 days. And that means there's no time for wallowing in self-doubt.

Sure I might not totally like the result. But I'll have finished the draft, and that will give me that much more strength against that doubt. And next time, maybe I won't have as many doubts.

Now for the numbers:

Pages: 8

Total Pages thus Far: 83

Words: 2,761

Total Words thus Far: 26,656