Do writers have more self-doubt than professionals in other fields?
According to Sylvia Plath, “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” Even great writers, such as Virginia Woolf or Anne Frank, have been known to express recurring doubts about the quality of their work. I believe that this self-consciousness is one of the core causes of “writer’s block”. The fact that the problem has a name is a good indicator of just how common it is. Is the inability to work effectively due to self-doubt more common among writers and artists than people in trades or professional positions like health care or auto repair? After all, you don’t often hear an auto mechanic say, “I just can’t work on this car. I’ve got mechanic’s block”. Are writers and people in artistic disciplines more prone to second-guessing their abilities than people in more strictly practical fields? If so, then why?
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8 Answers
I can’t give this opinion for myself because I’m not a writer, but I am creative and do other things like draw, paint, model, photograph, design, and people are naturally our own worst critics. I too have heard that writers can feel very pressured on their work. I think on almost all fields there is a lot of self doubt and pressure to do good, for example the self doubt that musicians or models feel…
It’s also strange how creative people are naturally depressed…... I can’t explain it, but it seems to be true. I don’t know.
It could be also that I feel creative people are more emotional as well, and intuitive.
I think so—probably because what constitutes good writing is extremely subjective, vague and hard for most people to explain. The quality of all arts is subjective, yes, but with writing, it’s harder to put your finger on what’s good.
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I’d say so, yeah, any artist does, for artistry is a very personal occupation. A true artist writes from their soul, and bearing one’s soul for others to peruse is as painful as sending a child to their first day of school and out of your control. Any criticism, you take personally, and any insecurity you have regarding yourself glares at you from your art, and makes it more difficult to release. I realize the question is about writers, but I’m going to cite Martin Scorsese, for I know more of film, and his release of New York, New York. Scorsese is a very personal artist, every film is derived from himself, and so when New York, New York failed critically and at the box office, it devastated him, eventually leading to him overdosing and almost dying. Writers do the same thing, and so do singers and actors. Johnny Depp hasn’t seen more than a few films he was in, and Roger Waters, well, his music is written from such deep, dark places inside of him. Art is personal in nature, and so self-doubt is incredibly detrimental, but I think it’ especially more so with writers, because of the prestige to success in their occupation, and also that there’s so much effort from one person all to produce a congregation of words to convey images and feelings. At least film has an entire crew and actors to comfort the director, but the writer has only himself.
No. I don’t think so. There is a phenomenon called imposter syndrome that occurs in a fair number of people, frequently occurring among academics and among women in the sciences. I think many successful people experience self-doubt. That writers or other artists are somehow more tortured and subject to self-doubt than other professionals, I think is more a myth than reality. Some are, most aren’t.
I would flip it around and say “Do people with self-doubts become writers/artists?”
Really. Why would somebody who is content, feel the need to express him/herself artistically?
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