by Joanna Penn

Joanna Penn with Lee Child at Thrillerfest

How does self-doubt feel?

“My writing is terrible. I’m terrible. No one will ever want to read what I put out in the world. I’m going to get bad reviews. No one’s ever going to buy my stuff. I’m wasting my time. What’s the point?”

All these feelings – a sense of worthlessness, worry, even anxiety – it all comes together into fear of putting our words out there. And this self-doubt can sometimes cripple you.

I want to talk about it today because the truth is that we all suffer self-doubt. Here’s a quote from poet Charles Bukowski:

Bad writers tend to have self-confidence, while the good ones tend to have self-doubt.

In my video, I’m talking about self-doubt because we all suffer from it. Some days are worse than others, and I’ve been going through a bad…