I’m someone who does not believe in writer’s block. However, I have to admit that everyone, sooner or later, is touched by Imposter Syndrome.

For those unfamiliar, it’s when you believe you cannot write up to the standard to be taken seriously, you feel you cannot fulfill a task, or you feel like a fraud.

One tends to feel this when:

1) They are starting out and pitching to editors/publishers/agents.
2) They are attempting a bigger or more complex project than they have attacked before.
3) They have done a lot of writing and get sideswiped by the feeling that regardless what they’ve accomplished, the luck is gone.

Notice something in those three examples? The truth is that imposter syndrome can flare up at any time in your writing career.

I have written hundreds of articles, appeared in many Writer’s Digest events, spoken at dozens of conferences, done hundreds of book signings, and written 19 novels. Every once in a great while, as I am seated at the computer about to launch into whatever project stands before me, I wonder if my material is marketable or if I’ve been lucky. . . and the luck is about to run out.

My solution is to dive into the writing. Admittedly, I do not get this feeling as much as before, but it still sneaks up and bites me periodically. I wonder who thinks my work is not that great.

But I then dash it aside and just write. The worst thing you can do is NOT write when you get this feeling. The solution is to write through it. I promise you. Been there…done that.