This post is all about how to be a confident writer so you can start trusting yourself every time you write.
When you don’t feel confident as a writer, you start doubting your ideas, your ability to write and create something beautiful for your readers, and you no longer feel excited about your book. But it is possible, dear happy writer, to train your mind to feel and act with more confidence as a writer.
Confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build over time. In this post, I’ll show you how to be a confident writer.
Let’s start working on increasing our confidence as writers. If you prefer the video version, check out the YouTube video below for tips on how to be a confident writer.
Being a confident writer is a work in progress
Confidence isn’t something you need to wait for. You can build confidence as a writer day by day. You might be tempted to think that you’ll become confident once you publish your book. Maybe you don’t currently have a book published, and you start wondering if you can even call yourself a writer. If you’re writing, you’re a writer!
Or maybe you already have several books published, and you keep waiting for confidence to come when you publish the next book. But if you keep saying that, you might miss out on the fact that you can already be confident right now.
Confidence comes from what you do every day. Just think about how you show up for your writing sessions and keep moving your craft forward. Taking action and not giving up on your dream is already proof that you’re building confidence. You’re trusting your ideas, you’re showing up, you’re writing, and you’re improving.
This is how you become a confident writer. Not by waiting for your writing to be perfect or for the next book to be published. You gain confidence one small step at a time.
Confidence comes from knowing that you’re improving every day, that you’re doing something you love, and not from wondering if people will like your book or if they’ll buy your next one.
Keep writing and watch your confidence grow.
Mindset shifts to increase confidence as a writer
As writers, we can be really critical of our craft. On a particularly bad writing day, and sometimes even on good writing days, we say to ourselves things like, “This whole chapter is absolutely terrible,” or “They will hate my writing and nobody will buy my book,” or “I can’t call myself a writer, I haven’t even published my first book yet,” and many other similar thoughts.
Whenever these kinds of thoughts creep in, remember that we’re our own worst critics. We judge ourselves in ways no one else ever will. And all that does is diminish your confidence even more.
So the best thing you can do is change the narrative so you prove to yourself that you can make it. Instead of letting those disempowering thoughts take over, reframe how you view your writing. Even if your chapter feels terrible right now, it can absolutely be improved. Every first draft usually looks terrible and needs to be much improved before it looks like the final, published version of your favorite novel.
So keep going. Keep writing, keep editing, and keep improving. That’s how you build confidence—when you see how much you’ve improved from the first version of your draft to the final one.
And those thoughts about whether people will or will not buy or love or hate your book are just as disempowering. Especially since you can never control what other people like. I actually checked the Amazon reviews of some of my favorite books and was really surprised to see how critical some of them were. It’s very difficult for me to understand that, but what can you do… not everybody likes the same things.
There are also books that others love that I couldn’t even finish reading. And that’s okay. Not every book is for everyone.
So the best thing you could do is change your mindset from “People will not like my book” to “I love what I’m writing.” If you’re enjoying what you’re writing and having fun writing your book, that’s already a powerful boost of confidence, and it will help you finish your book faster.
And if you’re wondering if you can even call yourself a writer because publishing your first book is taking a lot longer than you had initially planned for, I know exactly how you’re feeling. It’s been a long time since I wrote my first novel (and my second one, for that matter) and still none of them are published yet. But I did write them! Two full-length novels.
So yes, I am a writer. And so are you!
If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Don’t let other people’s comments on the matter drain your confidence. Just keep focusing on writing and editing, and improving your craft, and eventually your novel will be published.
So every time any of those disempowering beliefs show up again, immediately replace them with empowering ones, like “The final version of my manuscript will look much better than my first draft,” and “I’m enjoying what I’m writing and there will readers who will enjoy it as well,” and “I’m writing, therefore, I am a writer.”
The proof that you are already a confident writer
If you still doubt yourself and feel low on confidence even after reframing how you see your writing, it’s time to gather some proof that reminds you just how far you’ve already come. And I promise you, there’s plenty of it. You just have to look for it.
Think of how many writing sprints and sessions you’ve completed. Every single one of them is proof that you’re showing up, doing the hard work, and not giving up on your story. And all of this contributes to building your confidence as a writer, one writing sprint at a time.
If you’re not already tracking your word count for your sprints and daily sessions, I highly recommend starting. When you don’t track it, it’s easy to forget how often you showed up and how much your novel has actually grown. But when you can see all that hard work and the progress you’ve made, it can really help boost your confidence.
So keep a tracker, whether it’s in your planner, a journal, or a digital spreadsheet, and keep tracking your word count. And celebrate every small step forward!
When you celebrate your wins, you signal to your brain that you are proud of your achievements. That’s how you build confidence—by recognizing and celebrating those small, consistent achievements.
And if you need help keeping track of your word count, I created a Google Sheet that you can download for free and use it to track your writing sprints, your daily sessions, your total book progress, and how many words you still have left until your manuscript is completed.
But it’s not just the word count that you should keep track of. I also recommend keeping track of snippets of your writing that you are really proud of.
I sometimes go back to something I wrote a while ago, and some of those sentences sound so good that I’m actually surprised that I’m the one who wrote them. So add these sentences to your confidence-boosting journal. They are another proof that you are growing as a writer.
Practice and growth lead to confidence
No writer is born an excellent writer. Even the greatest writers who ever lived learned to write through constant practice. So trust that the more you write, the better your writing will become.
Don’t wait until you feel confident to start writing. That’s not how this works. You become confident by doing the work. You may feel like you’re not ready to write yet, like you still need to read a few craft books before starting your novel. But the best way to learn is by doing. Obviously, learning about the craft of writing does help, but if you just keep reading and not actually start writing, you might never write your book.
So start writing now and keep learning more along the way. That’s how you become a better writer, and that’s how you build confidence—by writing.
It’s not going to be perfect, and that’s okay. The next draft will be better. And the one after that will be even better. The same goes for your second, third, and future novels. The more you write, the more you grow as a writer. And the better your craft will be, and the more confident you become.
Confidence is built one word, one sentence, one chapter, one draft, and one book at a time. Keep focusing on growth and trust that if you keep writing, tomorrow you’ll be better than you were today.
Enjoying the process leads to increased confidence
Lastly, a very important part of building your confidence is actually enjoying the writing journey. If you turn writing into a chore—something you have to do instead of something you enjoy doing—that will drain your confidence faster than anything else.
When you start dreading your writing sessions, you’re more likely to avoid them, less likely to make progress on your manuscript, and much more likely to be critical of your writing. And when you feel like you’re not making progress on your book, you start thinking that what you’re writing is not good. And then your confidence drops even more, and it makes you even less likely to continue writing.
That’s why it’s so important to enjoy the entire writing journey instead of waiting to feel happy only once your book is published.
So do everything in your power to make your writing sessions more fun. Creating a cosy writing atmosphere, write in the company of other authors, or write from your favorite café, or somewhere in nature, tracking every small win, and even reward yourself for them. All of these can turn your writing time into something you genuinely look forward to.
RELATED POST: How Writing in a Café Makes You a Happier, More Productive Writer
As for the writing itself, try shifting your perspective. Instead of setting a word count target for the day, how about thinking of your writing session as a mini adventure where you get to see your fictional friends, a.k.a. your favorite characters from your novel, and explore your fictional world together?
Isn’t that a lot more fun than constantly checking how many words you’ve written?
When you’re enjoying your writing sessions, you feel a lot more excited to show up. You’ll write more and finish the sessions in a much better mood and with higher confidence because you’re having fun.
This post was all about how to be a confident writer. If you enjoyed it, you might also enjoy this post:
How to Overcome Self-Doubt as a Writer
Now it’s your turn. Let me know in the comments what small win from your writing journey you are most proud of right now.
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