What gets me through is repeating over and over, “Do it anyway”–which is my hard-won strategy of not trying to justify the project at hand. Believe me, I’d lose every argument. The day I decided NOT to engage myself in that debate was a breakthrough.

- Julie

One moment I’m writing and happy about the work. Also surprised when I reread the stuff later. I have a good sense of pride that I wrote and wrote it well.

Then, I read something by another author, especially fiction by member of my writing community, and then I fall into a second guessing spiral: “What am I doing here? How can I even pretend to call myself a writer” etc. etc.

It does pass and I start all over again.

Negativity–from myself–is most damaging.

So thank you for your tips, I definitely needed to read this.

For me, when I sense it, I guess my catch phrase is “write something!” But by that I mean write something “easy”… something that I am likely to “succeed” at. I use quotes because it’s all a matter or perspective, of course, but for me I tend to break the spiral by turning to poetry, even if I’m in the middle of a novel or screenplay. And not epic, great poetry – often it’s just “write a couplet.” For me, that’s pure fun, but it’s also writing. And once I’ve done it, I am hard pressed to stay as negative.