How to Contend with the Mean Voice in Your Head
I overcame paralyzing self-doubt and you can, too.
“You should just give up now.”
“You’ll never be good enough.”
“This sucks. No one will ever publish it.”
“What’s the point? You’ll just embarrass yourself.”
Sound familiar? I know I’m not the only one who has this mean voice in my head constantly telling me I’m not good enough. We all have it, and I think it’s especially loud for artists.
It doesn’t help that being an artist — a writer, actor, filmmaker, painter, whatever — means you’ll face external rejection.
As a writer, you’ll pour your heart and soul into your work, spend hours on end polishing it up and then maybe you’ll even send it off to literary magazines and hold your hopeful breath for a publication.
And then… after months of waiting, your pulse quickens to see the name of your favourite lit mag in your inbox.
Excitedly, you open the email, only to find that obligatory “We appreciate the chance to read your work, however, it is not the right fit for us at this time.”
Your heart sinks. Then, to really drive the stake in, that mean voice in your head sneers from atop its high horse: “See? I…
