Friday, February 25, 2011

The Doubt Monster World Tour

As a soon-to-be-published writer, I know I'm supposed to be my own greatest advocate. I should be promoting myself and my work, stirring up excitement for my book, sending out happy good vibes into the digiverse at all times, etc.

As a regular old writer though, it's difficult for me not to still fall under the spell of The Doubt Monster, which - unlike The Fame Monster - is NOT glamorous, universally revered and often pantsless. It is, however, way, way scarier than anything I ever thought lived in the tiny walk-in closet my sister and I shared growing up.

It creeps up on me - usually when I'm reading over my work - and it's been hanging around a lot lately, making me wonder things like what on earth did my editor ever see in this book? Who is actually going to read it and like it? Why can I not make this sentence sound right no matter how many times I rewrite it? And how will I ever finish the new manuscript I'm working on?

I usually let the monster come, let it whisper whatever it's going to say in my ear, sometimes respond back with some sort of sound of frustration/annoyance/impatience/dire distress of my own and then - after a little while - get back to work. Getting lost in a story or a task relating to a story is the only way I know of to stop the monster from crippling me entirely. That or occasionally putting on "Poker Face" and challenging it to a dance-off.

Which means...back to outlining the second act of my latest work-in-progress. And secretly hoping that no one else thinks that pesky sentence is as bad as I do.

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