Writing Challenges: The Four Brain Weasels of the Apocalypse

It goes without saying that writing and publishing is a tough gig. To make matters worse, the writerly brain is beset by a myriad of doubts, insecurities, and plain old fears that make it even tougher. Speaking from my own experience, there are four primary fears and doubts I battle on a regular basis. I like to call them the Four Brain Weasels of the Apocalypse. So let’s talk about them, and, more importantly, how to fight them.

1) The Brain Weasel of I’m Not Good Enough

Often the first of the four to appear, this brain weasel lurks on blank pages and in the space between outlines and first draft. It says, why even bother to start that story or novel? You’re not good enough to get it published. This brain weasel seeks to keep you from writing at all, and its main weapon is procrastination. It will lure you away with minor household chores and video games and working on other projects that feel safer or aren’t as important.

Battling the Brain Weasel of I’m Not Good Enough: For me, there’s only one way to defeat this brain weasel, and that’s to simply start writing. No matter how awful it feels, no matter how much my brain screams TERRIBLE with each labored sentence, I do it anyway. After the first couple hundred words, things get easier, the words start flowing, and the the Brain Weasel of I’m Not Good Enough slinks away in defeat. In almost every case, when I come back and look at my “terrible” writing the next day, it’s nothing of the sort, which just proves that brain weasels are full of shit. 🙂

2) The Brain Weasel of Why Not Me

This brain weasel often rears its misshapen head when its siblings are having a good chew on your confidence. When another author posts some wonderful news about a story acceptance or landing an agent or getting a book deal, this brain weasel likes to scream IT’S NOT FAIR. You’re as good as that other author. Why aren’t YOU getting that book deal or acceptance?

Battling the Brain Weasel of Why Not Me: We all compare our work to the work of others, and that’s a normal and healthy thing to do, especially when you’re looking for ways to improve. BUT the second you start thinking you deserve something more than someone else, you have to shut that brain weasel down before it leads you down a path of bitterness and misery. The absolute best way to defeat the Brain Weasel of Why Not Me is to charge in and congratulate authors who posts good news. Be the first person to say CONGRATS! Be the first person to tell that author how much they deserve that accolade after all the hard work they’ve put in (because they do and they have). Revel in the success of others, learn from it, and most of all, take inspiration from it. Do that, and I guarantee you’ll shut down the Brain Weasel of Why Not Me long before it can sink its teeth in.

3) The Brain Weasel of I Used to be Better

This brain weasel often accompanies I’m Not Good Enough and tends to plague authors with some publishing experience. It insists that your older work is much better, and you’re not the same writer you used to be. In fact, you might have actually gotten worse and MAYBE you’ve lost the ability to write publishable fiction entirely.

Battling the Brain Weasel of I Used to be Better: Like all brain weasels, this one’s a liar. Its primary goal is to keep you from writing, to keep you from even starting that next project, story, or novel. It can be defeated by simply barreling through and writing, but I also find it can be sent packing with a little positive reinforcement. I like to go back and look at acceptance letters, especially recent ones, and even read the odd positive review. You still have to buckle down and write, but reviewing the hard evidence that you haven’t “lost it” can help you put that first word on the page, which leads to the first sentence, which leads to the first paragraph, and soon enough the Brain Weasel of I Used to be Better turns tail.

4) The Brain Weasel of Phantom Feedback

Perhaps the sneakiest of all brain weasels, this one slips into your mind every time you get a rejection letter. With a form rejection, it tells you there’s some hidden meaning behind that boilerplate not for us or not the right fit. That hidden meaning is, of course, that you’re writing is terrible. Worse, it whispers lies into your brain when you get a good review or a nice personal rejection or when anyone says something positive about your work. This brain weasel insists they’re “just being nice,” and that, in truth, they don’t like your work because, of course, your work is terrible.

Battling the Brain Weasel of Seeing Things That Aren’t There: This is a tough one to fight because it’s so insidious. How do you prove someone doesn’t mean what they haven’t said? The best thing to do is simply take folks at their word, because, for the most part, editors and agents and readers are going to be honest. If that form letter says it’s not a good fit, than that’s what it is, and you should send out that story or query letter to someone else. If someone says they like your work, it’s because they do, and it’s okay to take them at their word, too. The Brain Weasel of Phantom Feedback wants you to chase figments of your imagination, so tell it to go fuck itself and focus on the things you have actual evidence for.

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There are of course many other species of brain weasel that plague the writerly brain, but these are the four that inhabit my gray matter. Whatever brain weasel you deal with on the regular, just remember that brain weasels, by their very nature, are liars and should never be believed. I know that’s easier said than done, but it’s possible; I promise. 🙂

Which brain weasels do you wrestle with? How do you deal with them? I’d love to heat about it in the comments.