Writer’s Block vs Imposor’s Syndrome

Imposter’s Syndrome:

Impostor syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon, impostorism, fraud syndrome or the impostor experience) is a psychological pattern in which one doubts one’s accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. Wikipedia

Writer’s Block:

“Writer’s block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown.” Wikipedia

There is a difference between Impostor’s Syndrome and Writer’s Block. Impostor’s Syndrome is real and Writer’s Block is as fake as the Earth is flat. The reason for this, is primarily that I suffer from Impostor’s Syndrome and I don’t for Writer’s Block.

With Writer’s Block, I don’t see it as real. The basis of it is that there is this mystical muse that allows a person to be creative. If you don’t nurture your muse, then you will not be able to gt anything done.

For me, the Muse is my personal servant. (I would use harsher terms, but not on this platform.) Writing prolifically is a learned skill. It is something a creative can train themselves to do. It is discipline that propels me forward every day. I have talked about this before and won’t go into a lot of detail here.

Writer’s Block is where your subconscious has a problem with what has been written. Either something in the plot was incorrect or the character doing something wrong. Long story short, in the process of writing, something went sideways and must be corrected. Writer’s Block is not seeing the error. To correct it — go back and delete the words.

Impostor’s Syndrome is that innate fear of being a failure and having people recognizing that fact. This is something I fear. It is something I have to fight with every day. Though some people also claim this isn’t real, it feels realer as there is no concrete solution for me. No way for me to convince myself otherwise.

Correcting Impostor’s Syndrome is hard as it involves rewriting reactions and mental state. I hear it is possible to do, but it is hard. I don’t have a path to walk.

Have you ever dealt with Impostor’s Syndrome?

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free in Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

COVID 19 and Loneliness

With most people being locked in their houses, going on months for some, a sense of loneliness has spread across people. People are going crazy as no one can interact with anyone. It’s like a bar that needs to be filled up, Sims style.

Being a bit of an introvert, it didn’t take much for me to be content. For me, when I was working at a real job, I had a certain amount of social interaction with my co-workers. After I was laid off and I went back to school, I had some from my class-mates. I was able to use them to fill that bar.

With COVID, I haven’t talked to anyone I met in university. My need for social interaction is not coming from anyone I met there. Which is fine as the level of social interaction was face to face and not online. Most of them I talked to on campus.

In the course of both stages of my life, I spent some of it online. My online writing contacts were there. Is it enough to make me feel fulfilled?

Not really. Writing to someone in a chat is different than in person. There is video chat, but it still is not the same.

The reason I talk about this is not to complain about what I am going through. There are some that are going through worse time. This is to talk about how I didn’t see the social interaction I was getting. I thought I didn’t need social interaction.

This is not true. I need social interaction, like everyone else. I also doubt anyone who says they don’t need social interaction. Those scenes in I am Legend with the Will Smith character so lonely that he is talking to mannequins as if they are real. For the longest time, I never truly understood the scene. I never understood how a person could get so lonely that he has gone nutters.

Being locked up in my house, I can see that happening. Of course, my life is nowhere as secluded as the fictional character. Humans are social creatures, and we can’t get away from it.

In conclusion, I wonder how you have been reacting to being secluded in your home? Which secluded movie character do you identify with?

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free on Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

Change and being Creative

In the last two weeks, the world has changed. It has changed, and I fear it won’t go back to the way it was. No one wanted this specific change. No one wanted to be locked in their homes for months, yet here we are. Once this is all done and a memory. People’s mentalities will have changed as the disease has affected either loved ones or their friends.

I’m not going into detail about Covid-19. There are a dozen different people to read and watch who are smarter than I am.

For me, my focus is my writing and my creative pursuits. Before, I spent my time writing, and I do the same thing now. I write things and hope one day I get projects completed.

As a creative, it is crucial to keep working and keep being creative. I have seen other creatives bend under the weight of this change. They aren’t writing, drawing, etc. They spend their time binge-watching whatever Netflix has going on. Maybe they need to do that.

But is it the best thing to do as a creative? Life is full of change. It comes and goes. Many times it is unwanted, yet it will happen anyway.

Change is the only constant thing in life. There is no point going against it. There is only letting it flow around. To move with the water, not against it.

For this COVID bullshit, it is looking at the silver lining. I’m not starving, and I am not being evicted. I have the time to be able to do what I need to get done. I have time to write. I will make use of this time and do just that. There is no point in letting change ruin my life.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free on Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

 

Fighting Procrastination and Finding “Motivation”

“You’ve got to be the hardest worker in the room.”- Dwayne Johnson

I find it hard to do all of the things I need to do. I have the awards in the prestigious field of procrastination. I’m an expert on getting things done at the last minute. Usually to my detriment.

This is a problem. A big problem.

By putting things off for later, tasks are compounded into more giant monsters of tasks that will pummel those in its path. Procrastination is the food; the very essence of the task-monster’s life.

To those he works for themselves, procrastination is the enemy. As someone who primarily works for himself, I set my own goals and deadline. I decide what I want to get done each day, and when a project is to get done. There is no one out there dictating when I get something done.

This means I must first understand myself in how do I get things done. This is essential for everyone and forgotten when people give advise. I work every day; I don’t take a day each week, I don’t take days off on my birthday, and Christmas is a workday for me. For me, this is essential because I’m a procrastinator.

I put things off until tomorrow what should be done today. During the month, I sometimes work less than I should cause “I’m tired,” or that “I’ve been working hard.” I am very good at talking myself into an excuse to be lazy and to put things off. Which is why at the end of the month, I get into a panic cause “I’m not going to make my month.”

This month is an example of this. I’m behind on my words, and I will need to write 1900 words today, the 29th, and tomorrow, the 30th. Why am I in this situation? Cause this month I have twelve days where I have written under 1500 words and many of them in the 500-word range. My one great day of 4300 did not make up for the other lacking days. In short, cause I procrastinated.

I find it easy to talk myself into working less or none at all. I find it easy to do less cause I can. This is not beneficial to me in the long run. It only hurts me.

At the start of this post, I quoted Dwayne Johnson. I found this post from a motivational speech he gave to a group of athletes, encouraging them to do better. It is only thirteen minutes long, and I encourage you to go watch it.

“You’ve got to be the hardest worker in the room.”- Dwayne Johnson

For me, this is what I have been doing all year. I’ve been working hard, getting things done cause in my circles of friends, I’m one of the most prolific writers in the group. In the groups at school, I don’t know anyone else that pushes themselves to do as much as I do. I tell them my yearly word count (382k as of today) and either they don’t believe me or think that I’m lying. Which is fine, I honestly don’t care they think of me.

But for the question of procrastination. I’ve managed to get to that goal acknowledging my problem, then combating it with hard work and no excuses. But in many ways, there is more room for improvement. There are many days where I said, “Fuck it.” There are many days where I let procrastination gain the upper hand and win.

I know that I can do better. I know that I will do better.

Knowing the problem is step one. Planing a set of goals is step two. Getting off the couch is step three.

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