Creating Affirmations for the Modern Writer

Starting Wednesday, June 4th, I will start my Writerly Fears and Affirmations series. Every Wednesday I will bare my vulnerable, egotistic writer-self to the internet and map out each writer fear I have accumulated over the years.



I’ve narrowed them down the ten.

It won’t be for nothing. I will confront these fears and turn them into affirmations. What are affirmations, Danielle? They’re these magic words that people recite all the time as they go through life. For example,

“I love and respect myself as I am.”
“I love myself as I am.”
“I am strong and healthy.”
“I am free to make my own choices.”

So I thought, why not makes these - but for writers? Before I can do that, I had to research what I found out about affirmations. This is what I have so far, and I’m posting it so that anyone else who reads this can make their own affirmations - for anything.

Step One: Decide specifically on what you want.

There are four different areas of our lives we can work towards changing. All four can be translated for writers: habit changing (writing at a specifically time of day), attitude-changing (self-esteem-boosting), or motivational (energy, desire, purpose), situational (writing by a specific date, etc).

Step Two: Visualize your ideal situation.

Paint a picture of the better you in which you want to become, or change in your life that you want to create. For a writer, I suspect this will have more impact than for others. You have to think about how it would feel to finish that scene, chapter, book. How one step closer to having an edited book means submitting it to be published, or whatever longterm plans you have for your work.

Step Three: Decide on your goal.

And write it down. For example, if I have a fear of hating what I write down, I might have the opposite, “not hating what I write”, as a goal. Not very complex, maybe, but it cuts to the chase.

Step Four: Start to write the affirmation.

Choose the pronoun you want to use, to customize the goal for your needs. This raises the commitment you make after saying the affirmation, and at the same time start to belief what you say. Handy, right? For example:

“I am…”
“My…”
“(Name)...”

Step Five: Add verbs.

Always in the present tense: “can, will, am, choose”, and never reactive: “hope, try, wish”. Example:

feel, look, move, talk, hear, see, have, do, now, always, never, like

“I hate my writing” turns into “I accept my writing”
“I am not good enough to do this” into “I am capable”
“I shouldn’t even bother” into “My time is valuable and my effort valid”

Step Six: Make it emotional.

Use descriptive adjectives like satisfying, blissful, excited, delighted, relaxed, intrigued, ecstatic, wonderful, lucky, etc.

Step Seven: Set a deadline (optional).

Sometimes, like with NaNoWriMo, deadlines can be your best friend. If you visualize one, you’ll commit to seeing real change in a matter of time that you can decide on.

So now you all know as much as I do about writing affirmations. I may be totally off - I’m in no way trained to know about anyone’s mental state - but I know myself. I know it can’t hurt. Go here to check out my first post in the series!

What affirmations would you write?