Although I’ve been writing for most of my life and working as a writer (or editor) full-time for more than a decade, I still feel a little self-conscious about declaring myself as one whenever someone asks me about what I do.
I’m not educated enough, smart enough, or creative enough to be a writer.
My work isn’t good enough. I’m not talented enough. I haven’t published enough books. I haven’t won enough awards.
I’m just not enough of . . . something . . . to claim the illustrious title of “Writer” as my own.
That always makes me feel like an imposter—and a bit of a fraud.
Many (if not most) writers can relate to that feeling—to struggling with imposter syndrome—especially around other wordsmiths who are more accomplished, or at least seem to be.
Imposter syndrome, originally coined as “imposter phenomenon” in 1978 by Dr. Pauline Rose Clance and Dr. Suzanne Imes, refers to “an internal experience of intellectual phoniness”—the feeling of being secretly underqualified, incompetent, or undeserving of accomplishments or status—while “fooling” everyone else to believe otherwise.
But the thing you need to realize is this: almost everyone else has felt that way about themselves, too.
One systematic review and meta-analysis examined 62 studies on imposter syndrome and found that up to 82% of individuals experience it to some degree.
It can affect people of any background or profession. Imposter syndrome can be especially debilitating for writers, who may feel like their work is simply not good enough—or that they don't belong in the writing world at all—and some of them will choose to walk away completely.
Leaving behind stories that will forever remain untold, they’ll never know what might have been had they stuck with it.
Writing is a creative endeavor but it’s also an intellectual and surprisingly competitive one. I get it.
Look, no matter how smart you are, there’s always someone out there who can kick your ass at Trivial Pursuit.
And no matter how brilliant of a writer you are . . . well, someone out there is wielding a sharper pen.
Knowing this, we shouldn’t necessarily focus on being the best—but on doing the best we can.
If you struggle with imposter syndrome or don’t believe the adage that “if you write, then you’re a writer” regardless of your progress, here are a few tips to help you deal with it and keep writing, anyway:
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Understand that you’re not alone in your imposter syndrome.
Neil Gaiman famously talked about imposter syndrome some years ago and referenced it again when he made the Time100 List for 2023.
Frankly, if he still deals with bouts of imposter syndrome at this stage of his career, there’s probably not much hope for any of the rest of us.
I’m kidding.
There’s always hope.
(I hope.)
But my point—if you haven’t gotten it yet—is that you’re far from alone if you’re dealing with imposter syndrome right now.
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Don't compare yourself to others (or their writing).
It's easy to compare yourself to other writers, especially when you're feeling down about your work.
(Or lack of it.)
Everyone is on their own journey.
Just because someone else is further along in their writing career than you’ve been able to achieve doesn't mean that you're not a good writer.
Sometimes I look at colleagues who are publishing multiple books per year and wonder to myself, “What are they doing that I’m not?”
(Well, writing for one, if I had to hazard a guess.)
While I was finishing my first novel, I was also working 50+ hour weeks at my day job to support my family and trying to balance that with some semblance of home life with my husband and two kids. On weekends, I was running errands, cleaning the house, or doing family-oriented activities I didn’t have time for during the work week.
Writing time and energy . . . well, that was practically nonexistent. So naturally, it took me a lot longer to finish that novel.
Would it have been fair of me to compare my progress to someone else who’s able to spend uninterrupted hours and hours writing every day?
No.
Life circumstances are what they are—and comparing our progress to that of others is a recipe for imposter syndrome.
If it takes you three months to finish a novel’s first draft, you’re a writer.
If it takes you ten years to finish that novel’s first draft, you’re still a writer.
(My first took 12, by the way. Between being a stay-at-home mom who was president of the PTO for some ungodly reason and later in the workforce full-time once my kids were older, navigating family tragedy and grief more times than I’d ever experienced before, and just life . . . entire years would sometimes pass between the days when I’d open that manuscript to add any words to it.)
Focus on your own path and don't compare yourself to the writer standing next to you.
If it helps, try looking at it this way:
Every successful writer was also an unpublished one at some point.
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Set realistic goals for your writing.
One habit that contributes to feelings of imposter syndrome involves setting unrealistic goals for yourself and then failing to meet them.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise because they were—(surprise!)—unrealistic in the first place.
It’s why I kind of get annoyed at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) if I’m being honest. I can appreciate the sentiment behind it, certainly, but life always has a way of stepping in and mucking up your “required” per-day word count.
It’s so easy to fall behind—and never catch up.
If you miss a single day of writing during NaNoWriMo, it puts you 1,667 words behind so you’ve got to hit 3,334 on the next one. Miss that day and you’re suddenly racing to catch up on 5,001.
It snowballs quickly. In recent years, only ~12% of participants actually “win” by hitting the official goal of writing 50,000 words in a month.
Instead, it may be better to focus on setting small, achievable goals, as they can help you to feel a sense of accomplishment and progress, which can boost your confidence.
The bonus?
You can do it any time of year.
The goals you set for yourself should reflect what you can actually accomplish and rather than setting a word count each day, it might be more helpful to set an amount of time.
For instance, if the most you can spend on a given day is an hour or even a half-hour, set a goal of sitting down and writing for that length of time.
In this way, you aren’t trying to hit some magical number of words, and what you get done during that timeframe is still tangible progress for each day.
But if you have to miss a goal, be kind to yourself too—as I mentioned earlier, sometimes life gets in the way here and there.
So give yourself some grace, because it’s not a race.
(That was halfway to a poem.)
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Remind yourself of your accomplishments.
When you're feeling down about your writing, take some time to remind yourself of your accomplishments.
What have you written that you're proud of—even if it’s just a single line of dialogue or a descriptive sentence that slaps?
What positive feedback have you received from your writing—even if it was just an “obligatory” compliment from your mom or best friend?
Focusing on your successes can help to boost your confidence and remind you that you are a talented writer.
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Get feedback about your writing from others.
One of the best ways to deal with imposter syndrome is to get feedback from others.
This could be from friends, family, alpha readers, beta readers, a writer group on social media, or even a writing coach.
Feedback can help you see your writing in a new light and identify areas where you can improve.
It can also help to boost your confidence and remind you that your writing is valuable.
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Never stop studying your craft and reading.
You don’t necessarily have to go to college or even take a class, but it helps to be self-educated at the very least, studying the craft independently by reading books about writing—and just reading, period.
People generally feel a lot more confident in their abilities when they know what they’re doing, right?
The same holds true for writing.
Studying and understanding the craft is a way to not only make you a better writer, but a much more confident one, and that can help to keep imposter syndrome at bay.
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Keep writing despite imposter syndrome.
The most important thing you can do if you're struggling with imposter syndrome is to keep writing.
The more you write, the better you'll become. And the better you become, the more confident you'll feel about your words and ability.
There’s a saying that it takes 10,000 hours to develop mastery over something (and Macklemore wrote a good rap about that).
So don't give up on your writing and keep doing it, even when it's hard.
Dealing with imposter syndrome can be challenging, but you're not alone. Many writers struggle with it—myself included.
There isn’t a “cure” for it and I often wonder if any of us ever truly gets over the sensation that we don’t belong in the writing world, no matter how accomplished we are.
But we all have stories to tell—and that’s reason enough to stay with it.