Doubt is an awful thing. It affects many areas of life. The worst part about doubt is that it fuels inactivity. The more you doubt, the less you do. Nobody knows this more than writers. And what exponentially sucks is that the more writing knowledge you accumulate, the more doubt you have. While this may seem counterintuitive, it’s not as illogical as you’d think. When you start out, you assume everything you write is great. This makes writing easy and fun. As you get older, however, and receive more feedback, you realize that a) you’re not as good as you thought you were and b) the craft is much harder than you thought it was. This makes you more critical. You become more aware when you’re writing badly. The realization that you can write badly is what begins the doubt train. In addition to this, you’ve experienced rejection – industry people ignoring you, not calling you back, ghosting you. That takes its toll. You realize your writing has to be amazing to prevent these things from happening. And the more you study screenwriting, the more you know how difficult it is to write something amazing.
It’s also hard to measure your progress in writing. If you’re a tennis player, you can have your serve radared to see how many more miles per hour you’re adding each year. Your rallies are lasting longer. You’re beating more opponents in tournaments. If you’re a bodybuilder, you can literally see the changes in your body in the mirror. Conversely, it’s incredibly difficult to measure progress as a screenwriter. You have contests. But there’s such a level of subjectivity when it comes to them that it’s hard to trust them. This lack of clarity on where you stand ramps up the doubt in your head.
Then, as you get older, a new pressure surfaces. “Time is running out,” you think. You’re not 24 anymore where you could spit out two practice scripts and not worry that they’ll never see the light of day. Each script has to count. This means it needs to be perfect. That perfectionism will only fuel more doubt. Can I do it? Am I able to write something great? It’s harder to sit down and write a scene when you’re doubting whether it can reach the lofty goals you have for it. And then there are the obvious things such as increased responsibilities. A spouse, children, a real job, paying the mortgage. All of that stuff takes up time, which gives you less time to write, which puts even more pressure on you when you do write.
All of these things combine to create an atom bomb of doubt. But unlike a traditional bomb, this one is suspended over you permanently. The bomb is always going off, always preventing you from sitting down and writing. And that’s the goal here. All I want you to do is WRITE. I don’t want you to worry about what will happen when you write. I don’t want you to worry about what will happen after you write. When doubt is a part of your everyday existence, all that matters is the present. Get in there and write. With that in mind, here are six strategies to stave off the doubt and keep you churning out pages.
Make Writing a Habit – The best way to curb doubt is to create a schedule that doesn’t allow it to enter into the equation in the first place. And you do this by scheduling in a time to write every day. It’s sort of like dieting. If you don’t have your meals picked out and ready for the day, there’s more of a chance you’ll crack and go eat something you’re not supposed to. Habit erases that evil part of your mind that wants to sabotage you. If you don’t have a schedule, you give doubt an opportunity to chirp away until it’s won.
Don’t Think, Just Write – Doubt is a voice. That’s all it is. It’s a voice inside of you who’s trying to make a point. And unfortunately, that point is a negative one. The less you’re doing, the more you allow that voice to make its argument. And so the best thing to do is just write. Don’t think about if you should write or what you’re going to write or why you thought this idea was good or not. Just get in there and start writing. I’ve found that once you start writing, you’ll keep writing. So stop thinking and start writing.
Write Whenever You’re Inspired – Make this a rule from now on. Inspiration is the greatest thing in the world. And the longer you do something, the less inspiration comes around. So make a deal with yourself. No matter what you’re doing – even if it’s the middle of a romantic love-making session – if you’re inspired, stop and write. Because you don’t know when that inspiration is going to come again. No pun intended.
Trick Yourself – I don’t love this technique. But we’re not trying to win style points here. As long as you’re writing, you’re winning. So if you’re really having trouble putting pen to paper, try this. First, tell yourself you’re not writing. I’m serious. For this to work, you have to trick your mind into believing that it doesn’t have to write. That way, all the pressure will be released. Then, go into your outline (or your script notes document) and look through it. Again, keep telling yourself you’re not writing today. Usually, however, you’ll come across a note or a scenario that makes you want to jump into your script and tweak something. The next thing you know, you’re in your script writing! And when you’re finished with that scene, why not keep going!? Another technique you can use is to proofread the last 1-3 scenes you wrote. Again, tell yourself you’re not writing. Just proofreading. However, once you’re actually in the document, there’s a much better chance you’ll start writing. It’s a very weird way to solve the problem, but when you think about it, your mind doing everything in its power to keep you from writing is also weird.
Write Any Scene – Don’t think that you have to write linearly. That’s a recipe for stagnation. And stagnation will lead to doubt which will keep you from writing. If you’re stuck in your script but you have a good idea for a later scene? Go write that later scene. Again, if you’re writing, you’re winning. If you’re hovering or thinking, you’re allowing doubt to creep in. I’m not saying to never analyze your choices. But there’s a time and place for that. If you’re struggling to put pen to paper, don’t use the excuse that you need to think through it first. That’s the Doubt Monster manipulating you so you don’t have to write. Only when you’re in a healthy writing place do you want to pull away and think about the script as a whole. When you’re struggling, you need to be writing.
Write Anything – If your doubt is through the roof and you’re really having trouble getting in there and writing your script, go write ANYTHING else. A short script. Dialogue practice. Anything. One thing I used to do is go to a random image generator site, find an image, and use it as inspiration to write a short script. This will get you in the writing mindset and remind you that writing can still be fun. This increases the chances that you’ll get in there and write some scenes in your current script. I’ll finish this off with an inspiring story. There’s a writer I know who was really struggling with the things I talk about in this article. He was going on 6-7 years and not having a lot of success. And I’ll be completely honest. I wasn’t a huge fan of his work. But then he sent me something not long ago and it wasn’t just good. It was really good. I asked what he did. What did he change? And he said that he was just messing around on screenwriting sites and one of them had a few of those scene challenge prompts. I don’t remember what the prompt was. It was something to the effect of, a dialogue scene between two characters in a room with lots of conflict. Anyway, he enjoyed writing the scene so much that he expanded the idea into a feature. And it was bar none his best script. And it all happened because he sat down and started writing. When you’re consumed with doubt, all you should focus on is getting in there and writing. Cause who knows what will happen. It might lead to something great, like it did for this writer.
