Glad it was helpful, and thanks for reading!

Affirmations affect belief. Big Time!

I can't afford to doubt myself. Due to chronic illness, I have a hard enough time getting it to work for me - I don't want to spend time second-guessing myself even more times.

I have a wonderful beta reader - she's my target audience cubed. I only send her what I believe is finished work - she tells me the emotional impact (and catches the occasional typos or confusing bit): when she sends back an email calling me an evil woman, we're done with that chapter. When you're disabled, everything takes more time and more work, but it does help me slow down and read what's on the page - and not stop futzing until it's what I want.

The thing you don't find out for a while when you start writing is that headlines do not work well with doubts in them, so each article/post/book author has to sound very positive about their advice - when it's their current opinion, nothing more.

And that there are MANY ways of getting to the end of a story - and many ways of getting that end written.

I always mention that my advice works for me. I may sometimes mention my advice is not the same as some others' advice.

I like to point out that the biggest thing writers can do for themselves is to find out if they are pantsers or plotters or a combination, because pantser methods don't work well for plotters, and vice versa. That distinction cost me years when I, a natural extreme plotter, tried to follow advice from a pantser. IMNVHO

There's lots of You Tube videos about Clifton Strengths for writers.

My #1 is Input which means I need to gather new information to be creative so when I denied myself reading for pleasure or watching movies because I hadn't been writing, I was denying myself the things that spark my creativity.

Absolutely! I love that reminder, Annabelle. Thank you!

I haven't heard of that one, I'll have to check it out!

I'm so glad it resonated! Yes, stay optimistic, trust yourself, and know you're not alone in feeling this way!

Thank you for sharing that reflection, Jennifer! I can definitely relate to imposter syndrome with different projects. Vulnerability is tough but what a gift to your readers that you're sharing openly like that!