How 3 Poets Overcome Anxiety & Self-Doubt When Publishing
As writers, submitting and publishing your work can be very exciting, yet intimidating at the same time. From encountering self-doubt in trying to polish your words to anxiety over putting yourself out there and submitting, the process can be extremely nerve-wracking. See how three poets deal with the anxiety and self-doubt below:
Melissa Sussens
The most daunting part of the submitting process for me is first choosing where to submit and then which poems to submit. I often find myself doubting my writing; that it will be good enough or that others will "get" what I'm writing about. What helps me with this feeling is anticipating or making peace with rejection (before it has happened). I find having a rejection count is one of the most helpful motivators in pushing past the anxiety about still submitting. Keeping count and aiming for 100 or more rejections makes it feel like a game or something less emotionally connected to me and my self-worth. The scariest part of publishing comes with vulnerable poems that bare shames, personal truths, or something that I fear people will judge me for. I worry about what people who know me will think if they know this new thing about me that the poem reveals. Ultimately, I have to make peace with this feeling before the poem is out in the world, whether by sharing it with the people whose reactions matter before submitting/publishing or by internally owning my truth. Aside from rejection counts and having supportive friends/family around me, the thing that probably helps me the most is having a supportive community of writers to turn to - by sharing the successes and, more importantly, the rejections with others on this journey, I am encouraged to keep going. Having community helps me keep it all in perspective - I am not alone, all writers go through rejection and self-doubt and so feeling these things is okay.
Bianca Grace
I overcome anxiety/self-doubt when submitting by having a group of poetry friends where we have started having submission parties together. We pick out some places to send to and we all send our poems there. It forces us to overcome that anxiety and get it done. The feeling when you get an acceptance is amazing. We screenshot our acceptances and rejections and put them in our Discord chat. We see both rejections and acceptances as something to celebrate as it means we are writing and trying our best to get our work out there. So, I believe that community is important in the writing world as we feel less alone. I also understand putting ourselves out there can be scary. I have one of my most vulnerable poems in the inboxes of publishers at the moment and sometimes I think I am not ready to share it with the world but then I realise someone else might need to read this poem more than I need to hide it.
Vanessa Escobar
The best way for me to overcome my anxieties and self-doubt is to talk to someone who knows me and my writing well. Having a sort of writer “partner,” someone I can trust that’s not afraid of telling me to revise or to push me towards submitting is helpful. After I talk to Alisha, she always gets me to see the light. She also will submit along with me so that we can get excited about submitting a piece instead of the dread. We are always in it together. Celebrate loss or acceptance. Having her in my corner has made a lot of the difference.
Someone else will always be able to see in your work, what you can’t see yourself. This is vital for me. Other things to soothe me are to become familiar with the magazine and being realistic. Not every submission will be a win and that’s perfectly okay. Also there have been times where I have had something published and I didn’t want anyone to see it because I got overwhelmed with what it might mean to this person or that person. So then I held it inside. But I let Alisha see the piece so that at least someone knew about it until I’m ready to share it with everyone else. I’m okay with the strangers who had read some pieces and enjoyed it. But I have to remember I write these things for myself.
Also, a lot of deep breaths work too.
