Me: Help me! I think I’m freaking out!
Story: So in other words it’s like every other day in your life? Okay, skippy, calm down and take a deep breath. What’s wrong now?
Me: I’m having trouble finding an entry point into this story. Grr! I’m starting to doubt myself and I can feel the doubt snowballing into a full-blown freak out.
Story: Doubt in this profession, or anything else you do in life, is insidious, I’ll give you that. But when you start to feel doubt about your ability to write, what you need to do is look back on your past and remember the successes you had and the other challenges you met and conquered. Don’t let the “now” dominate all the potential and talent you bring everyday to the writing table.
Me: But I’d rather freak out. I had a wonderful freak out planned.
Story: No, what you would rather do is feel sorry for yourself.
Me: Well. Yeah. But that still doesn’t help me get this story going.
Story: There are many solutions to your problem. Some writers start in the middle of the story and write out of sequence. In other words, they start with a portion of the story they feel more comfortable with and start from there. Perhaps you could try that.
Me: But that doesn’t work for me. Whenever I try and write a story out of sequence I lose the thread of the plot. It feels artificial to me.
Story: No problem. Every writer writes differently. Maybe you are not ready to write the story. Then again perhaps the story itself is not ready to be written. There are many different barriers you have to overcome when you write every story, even the stories that supposedly “write themselves.”
Me: So what do I do?
Story: Take it easy, first of all. Find that center of yourself where your confidence lies. You haven’t gotten this far on luck alone. There is talent and confidence there you have to tap into. So start the story slowly. If you hit a false start then start over. If you hit ten false starts then start over again. Writing is a creative process. There is no ABC protocol everyone follows to find the right path. Most of all don’t let the doubt overwhelm you. Writing is hard and doubt is part of the process in any artistic endeavor.
Me: Okay, I feel a little better now. I guess you’ve talked me off the ledge.
Story: Well, that’s a start.
Me: I am still feeling stuck, though.
Story: Why don’t you start the scene in the middle of an action sequence? That’s often a good way to get started.
Me: Hey…I hadn’t thought of that. Yes, that might work!
Story: See? I told you that you could do it if you just gave yourself a chance.
Me: You mean we could do it together. Thanks, story.
Story: My pleasure. Now get to writing.
Hoover's Corner 
“There is no ABC protocol everyone follows to find the right path.” — Excellent point!
thank you
Good to know others struggle with self-doubt, and you write about it so well! LOL
But hey – I thought I was having a stroke when those snowflakes started interrupting the font in your post! Seriously – I thought my eyes were going haywire!
How do you get that effect, anyway? It’s cool with your photo above.
yep we are not alone
oh I forgot to add, there’s a tab in general setting for wordpress that let’s it “snow” on the page 🙂
It’s amazing how rapidly a seed of doubt can blossom and bloom into a field of withered and dieased flowers…grind it into the dirt and keep writing! I’ve let this paralysis stall too many stories, and it helps knowing that others struggle with it as well. I love your suggestion of trying to recapture the flow of the story by starting in the middle of an action sequence, excellent idea to keep the story moving forward!
self doubt is a serious complication with writing
Great converstion here that reveals how most of us argue with our own ideas and goals when starting a new story. The middle of the action scene–yes, for some reason this is often the part that stands out in relief the most. The middle often hands us the beginning and the ending on a silver platter, I have found.
thanks!