How daily journaling helped me finish writing the novel of my dreams

When I finally started taking my writing seriously in 2020, I was both excited & terrified. 

Excited to finally accomplish my biggest childhood dream. 

Terrified that I’d create something that no one would want to read, and it would end up being a waste of time. 

If I’d just tried to push past that terrified feeling and keep writing every day, I would’ve run out of steam after a couple months. My fear and self-doubt were too big to avoid. 

I know this would have happened because when I’d tried to write novels in the past, I’d never made it further than 20k words in, and the few times I actually got to The End, I would inevitably get stuck in edits and not be able to continue forward.

This was due to all the thoughts in my head that had me questioning and doubting my writing and what I was trying to do.

Instead, this time around I decided to do things differently.

I was motivated to actually finish and be proud of what I created, and I knew I couldn’t follow the same steps that I had before. I had to try something new. 

So, I began a practice of morning pages—daily journaling about whatever was on my mind. 

More often than not, I wrote about my hopes and dreams and fears when it came to this novel. 

Through these morning pages, I identified the feelings that were coming up and keeping me stuck in my novel. 

The belief that the story wouldn’t be good enough, it would be a waste of time, no one would want to read what I had to say. 

Once the beliefs were written down, I had to face them, and I started to see how they weren’t totally true, even if I believed them. 

I couldn’t know if no one would like the story or it wouldn’t be good enough until I was finished, so why was I telling myself that now? And I was going to spend my days doing something, so why not spend my free time working on something I loved?

Once I reframed these thoughts, I was able to keep going with my novel. Every time a new doubt or fear popped up, I’d pause and open up my journal, letting it all out on the page.

The act of pulling those thoughts out of my head and writing them down where I could read them helped me add in some objectivity about the situation, and I started to see how those thoughts weren’t serving me. Sometimes, they were purely wrong, too.

I encourage my coaching clients to try journaling because the beliefs in our head aren’t always real or true once we put them on the page. Even if you’re certain that no one will like your story or it’s a waste of time—why not try to believe something else? 

In 1:1 coaching, you’ll learn the strategies perfect for you to create a writing routine you can sustain so you can finish the novel of your dreams. Book a consultation call to get started.