As a writer, have you ever felt like an imposter? I know I have. Imposter syndrome can be no laughing matter. There are days when I ask myself, “Matt, who exactly are you kidding with this?” Those are the days when I feel like a fraud. The days when the fake writer police must surely be hunting for me.
On the whole, I tend to feel that I can write a pretty good story. Then there are the days when I am certain it is just the Dunning-Kruger effect and the truth is I have no idea what I am doing.
That lier imposter syndrome lurks (perhaps for all of us) around every corner. Yet there are times when it hits me harder than others. One of those times is when I have written and the editing process must start. That’s when the impossibility of the task glares down at me like an impossibly tall cliff. You can’t do this, it says, you don’t even know where to start.
This is the point where I would love to tell you that I have an answer. I don’t. I try to muddle along feeling like a fraud and hoping for the best. Sometimes this leads to over-editing and I ruin the story by thinking too much. Or, when the feeling is strongest, it stops me from editing at all.
I don’t have an answer to imposter syndrome. The reason for this post is just to let you know that you are not alone in feeling like that. It gets us all some days. I struggle with it. I know others who do too. All I know how to do is just not give up. It’s not much but it’s all I have.
How does imposter syndrome hit you?