The Confidence Shortcut: Acting Like the Writer You Want to Be

Confident writers aren’t fearless—they just write anyway. Stop waiting to feel ready and start building real confidence while you write, pitch, and publish. Here’s how.

If you’re anything like me, you probably spend too much time telling yourself you’ll feel more confident once you’ve written more, published more, succeeded more.

But that day never seems to come.

That’s because confidence isn’t something you earn; it’s something you practice. You aren’t magically bestowed with confidence points after a certain number of published pieces or glowing reviews. No one is coming along to generously gift some of their confidence to you.

Every writer—yes, even the ones you admire—has questioned whether they belong. The difference between those who keep going and those who fade into the background isn’t talent or luck.

It’s action.

It doesn’t have to be some grand gesture of action, either. Confidence is built in all those quiet moments when you choose to sit down and write despite the nagging self-criticism and fear of not measuring up. It’s in the moments when you silence the urge to delete everything and write one more line instead. When you resist the pull of perfectionism and call a draft done. When you submit a piece, not because you’re certain it’s flawless, but because you refuse to let doubt be the one making decisions.

The ones who make it don’t wait for confidence to show up. They write before they feel ready. They pitch before they feel qualified. They submit, publish, and put themselves out there, even when doubt is screaming in their ear.

🔒 Full subscribers: Keep reading for practical strategies to quiet self-doubt, take action despite fear, and build the kind of confidence that lasts.