How to Be a Better Writer When You Think You Suck at Writing

Negative self-talk and mindset will ruin your writing career. Here’s how you can be a better writer when you think you suck at writing.

Before you read through this article, I want to share a quick story with you.

All I wanted for a career when I was in college was to be a writer. I wanted to make a living sharing my thoughts with the world on a daily basis.

It seemed to be going that way. In 2012, I published my first book, had decent traction on my blog at the time and was doing a local book tour circuit in the San Francisco Bay Area. You would think that I would be feeling good about the progress I was making in achieving my dream.

Well, I didn’t. The day the book was released, I hated what I wrote and regretted crafting a war memoir. The blog I had created became a pit of constant criticism that led to me shutting it down and cursing myself for even writing one. During book signings and talks, I thought I was wasting my time because I didn’t think I was good enough.

If you are reading this, you probably have experienced a level of self-criticism and negativity around your writing. I know how it feels to look at every word and sentence you write and think that no one will want to read what you wrote. Over the last couple of months, I came to some realizations about writing and criticism that have helped immensely change the way I wrote and made me a better writer because of it.

One of the realizations is that the art of writing is not for the faint of heart. It is not for people who read stories about bloggers making thousands of dollars a month and think they can replicate that success quickly. Writing is a practice, an art form, a pursuit of the enjoyment of putting words on paper. It should be integrated into one’s life if they choose to do so.

Here are some other takeaways that will help you become a better writer when you think you suck at writing.

If You Think You Suck, You Will Continue to Suck

I am a big proponent of mindset, especially when it comes to writing. You have to believe that you will become better with practice at your craft. When I first started as a writer, I was incredibly harsh on every single sentence I wrote. The moment I would finish the sentence, I would analyze the crap out of it and end up most of the time deleting and starting over again. This led to many blog posts sitting in draft mode waiting to be published. And of course, as a writer, when you start seeing how many unpublished pieces of work you have, you can’t help but think that nothing you ever write will be good.

I suffered from this vicious cycle for years. It wasn’t until I got an email from

Quality of Reading is Essential, Not Quantity

The consensus from gurus and writing experts is read as much as possible, everything and anything you can get your hands on. It can seem with the articles to our inboxes, the binge-listening of podcasts, and listening to Audible on 2x speed just to hit our book number for the year that we are trying to consume as much as possible without pausing to think why we are consuming.

Instead of trying to hit 30 books a year, I started to trim my list down to 10 books that I thought I was going to benefit the most from and wrote down why.

By doing this, I can select the right books for where I am in life and emulate the type of content and style I want with my writing. More importantly, it helps me continually gain confidence in writing, especially during those periods when doubt and thoughts of sucking at writing come into play.

When you do this, you may experience some thoughts of being seen as laziness or not productive because you didn’t crush 30 books this year. I can assure you that no one cares if you read 30 books this year.

Just read books or articles that are interesting to you, find authors that you like their style of storytelling and annotate what they are doing so you can become a better writer.

It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Overnight successes are not overnight. Plain and simple. If you think they are, then writing may not be for you. Plenty of writers, whether in the entertainment or book industry, spend years and years crafting shows or novels of significance before they achieve success. There are also plenty of writers that spend decades working on things that never see the light of day.

As a writer, you are your own worst enemy. You always will be. And that’s ok. That’s comes with the territory. But you don’t have to tell yourself you suck and still will suck at writing. Stay focused. Read what you want to write about. Make writing part of your life.

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