Editor’s Picks — Top 10: The Worst Enemy to Creativity Is Self-Doubt

Read these top 10 writers and help them fight their self-doubt

When you start writing, a stream of thoughts begins that tells you that your writing style is not good enough.

As time passes, you don’t even hear the chatter; self-doubt runs in the background — like a state of mind — forever assuring you that you do not have what it takes to be a writer.

You can’t get rid of it. You hope self-doubt would lessen with time, but it doesn’t unless you write and go into a state of flow. I have read a lot about it, and I think this is the way our minds work.

For example, Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist, says in one of his books, “The self-denigrating voice in the minds of people weaves a devastating tale. Life is a game. Worthlessness is the default condition. What but willful blindness could shelter people from such withering criticism?” Perhaps this self-doubt — that leads us to criticize ourselves — has a purpose. But overcoming it is necessary, and it needs guts:

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” ~Sylvia Plath

Even writers like Stephen King have to face their doubts. In On Writing, he says, “Writing fiction, especially a long work of fiction can be a difficult, lonely job; it’s like crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a bathtub. There’s plenty of opportunity for self-doubt.”

In a 2014 interview, King said he had a nightmarish fear of failure. Despite his success as a writer, King says, “I’m afraid of failing at whatever story I’m writing — that it won’t come up for me, or that I won’t be able to finish it.”

If you have not been able to reach a state of flow for a long time, it means that you have been doubting and criticizing yourself for that long. The best way to get rid of doubt is to forgive yourself for your yesterday’s mistakes and the mistakes that you’ll make today.

You’ll write silly articles, waste time watching Netflix, misquote at times, mess up grammar, not be able to comprehend the meaning and implications of some research. But that’s ok. As long as you are writing, you’ll reach your next level by working on new ideas and by making a lot of mistakes.

One way of overcoming self-doubt — that Molly Ho suggests — is to surround yourself with the right people. Read these top 10 writers of Illumination-Curated and support them. Become a friend of these excellent writers — it will help you to overcome your self-doubt and boost your creativity:

10. A New Revolutionary Self-Love Social Media Photo Challenge

Crystal Jackson is a former therapist. She is a great writer — someone you should follow. She is going to teach you to love yourself — if you allow her. Don’t miss this one.

While we can all lament about the downsides of social media — trolls, cyberbullies, our constant preoccupation with it, a veritable onslaught of bad news — there’s much to be said for how social media can provide us with a more extensive network of support. Take the photo challenges for instance. Nearly every day, I see some photo challenge — celebrating motherhood, relationships, and even just days when we feel good about ourselves.

9. Lessons Learned from a Government Agency that Posts Surreal Memes on Social Media

Simon Spichak is a brilliant neuroscience and science communicator. He has a perfect case study to share with you.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission in the USA is an important government agency responsible for keeping the public safe. Often, these messages are boring and unengaging. After all, how do you make advice like wearing helmets or replacing batteries in carbon monoxide detectors fun? I stumbled on the strange, wonderful, and surreal Twitter account for this agency. Pivoting to memes, their Twitter account has almost 90 000 followers. It provides the perfect case study for learning how to craft your message and grow an audience.

8. The Ignorance Phase Faced by Every Budding Social Media Influencer

Swati Suman writes to share her opinions and evolve in the process. In this great story, she wants to share her ideas on ways to increase the number of views and get noticed. Don’t miss it.

Many who believe that Confidence is ignorance, it might be to the ones who ignore it. But what about the situation in context to the ones being ignored? For instance — A Creator, An Influencer, A Blogger, or A Marketer.

The question one asks when getting ignored —

Why am I not getting enough engagement,

What is the reason behind not getting views,

When should I post to get enough traction, or

How may I help resolve the issue?

7. Tricks In The Medium Editor You Didn’t Know About

Puck is a curious microbiologist. But in this article, he wants to tell you about Medium Editor’s built-in features. You’ll enjoy reading it.

Sometimes my fingers have their own minds and press different keys than I intend to. So, one time when typing away, in the Medium Editor, this box on the bottom of the page popped up.

Chock full with keyboard shortcuts — a cheat sheet. Who would have known? Well, I am going to spill the beans and tell the world about it.

6. Flee to the Desert

Richard J. Goodrich is an author and a history professor. He is a wonderful writer. Don’t you want to know why sane and sensible people starting living on the rim of the Sahara desert? How could it benefit them? Intrigued? Go ahead and read the story.

In the mid-fourth century, the Roman world witnessed one of the strangest phenomena of its 1,100-year history. Men and women — Christians, who were to all outward appearances sane, sensible, and sober — began to abandon their towns and villages, families and friends, vocations and careers to make their way to the harsh deserts of Egypt. Some settled in newly-established colonies along the Nile river; others chose to live alone, away from the river, in isolated stone cells concealed in the arid wasteland along the eastern rim of the Sahara. Here, living beneath the scorching sun, these men and women devoted themselves to a single-minded search for God.

5. Embracing Tsundoku — How a Library of Unread Books Can Expand Your Mind

Zachary Minott is an avid reader, athlete, and a philosopher. He is here to teach you an impossible lesson: ‘Why the books you don’t consume provide more value to your life than the books you do consume’. Don’t you want to know more?

An abundance of knowledge and books leads to expected behaviors that you, my curious friend, might identify with:

* Buying more books than you have time to read especially when you have a collection of unread books in your personal library still waiting to be read

* Saving yet another article to read later on Medium to go along with your collection of the other 100 articles that intrigued in the past

* Adding another lecture or video essay to your watch-later playlist on Youtube.

In Japan, the term best used to describe this is Tsundoku.

4. Why Science Should Take the Soul Seriously

Paul Thomas Zenki’s style is deep and thorough. It’s your soul he is trying to find with his words, knowledge, and ideas. But when you’ll read this story, you’ll see how superbly he explains the concept of the human soul — using simple events of human life.

In the spring of 2005, the Woodside Hospice in Pinnelas Park, Florida, became ground-zero of a national debate over life, death, human rights, and the soul. The storm was sparked by a clash between the husband and the parents of Terri Schiavo (pronounced shave-oh), a woman residing at the hospice, and grew to encompass the state governor, the American Congress, a US President, national and international media, and the Vatican.

3. LinkedIn Isn’t Facebook or Twitter, and Surely Not Tinder

The Maverick Files is a thinker and financial professional. He is a wonderful writer and an editor of Illumination and Illumination-Curated. He is disciplined and a doer. If you haven’t read this story, here is your chance to read his work.

Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Quora. Most of you reading this probably have accounts on at least 5 of these 7 platforms, don’t you?

Well, I gave up on these a long time ago. I have some of the most basic accounts, which I also barely use. I’ve got a Facebook, that I barely spend anytime on, and a Linkedin where I update any promotions/job changes but have a very incomplete profile on.

2. New Politics Are not Left nor Right. They’re Human

Desiree Driesenaar wants to align the economy, ecology, and human spirit. You would love this masterpiece. She is telling us about a new type of politics — that is more human. Read this smart piece to know more. Don’t miss this one.

The world is changing fast now. Thundering waves are eroding our rocks. And most of us only see the negative excesses. Destruction, inequality, and oppression. Politicians are trying to force limited routes out of the mess. They have different worldviews. And we currently categorize them in left and right.

The Left wants a big government. Curtailing free markets. Controlling businesses so they do as little harm as possible.

The Right wants the free market to be left alone. They say the market will solve all problems in the end.

Let me tell you, both of them are wrong. The eroding wave that will save us all is made out of collaborating, compassionate human drops. Not left, nor right, just human. And regenerative.

1. What Kind of Man Turns Down a Willing Woman?

Edward Robson, Ph.D.’s story went viral and it has been viewed more than 80000 times. Edward Robson is a retired psychologist, wordsmith, and a teacher.

You should definitely follow him and really all his work — to learn how he writes.

A comment on one of my recent articles caught my attention. A young man expressed appreciation for my advice about letting friendship grow before deciding whether to explore a sexual connection.

The problem was, he said, sometimes women he went out with were ready for sex before he was.

Now, I can’t say I’ve wrestled with that problem. When I was that man’s age (half a lifetime back), I would have laughed at such a statement, maybe even asked him, “Are you bragging or complaining?”

Final Thoughts

If your story was selected as one of the Top 10, please share another one of your stories in the comments with a brief introduction and a short review that can convince a reader to read your piece. (Please write the review in the third person and start it with your name.)

I must have missed something today. I cannot read every story on Illumination and Illumination-Curated. Dr Mehmet Yildiz, the Chief Editor and Founder of Illumination and Illumination-Curated, read, highlighted, and applauded every good story when he started his publications. He still reads almost all of the good ones. I try — and fail daily — to read all of the masterpieces.

Dr Mehmet Yildiz has kindly allowed our top 10 series a full shelf on the front page of Illumination-Curated and Illumination:

So, help me. Help me to find and rank the best work of the writers of Illumination and Illumination-Curated.

Happy reading.

To improve your odds of success as a writer, read these curation guidelines.

You can read my curated stories here.