When You’re Finding It Hard To Call Yourself a Writer

by Tracie Miles

Did you know negative thoughts can stand in the way of your writing success and your ability to actually consider yourself a writer?

A couple of years ago, I released a book called Unsinkable Faith: God-Filled Strategies for Transforming the Way You Think, Feel, and Live, and although this wasn’t the first book I had written, it was definitely by far the hardest. Why? Because my negative thoughts were standing in the way of my writing.

You see, I was going through a very difficult time in my personal life, and as a result, I simply didn’t think I had it in me anymore. Because of difficult circumstances in my personal life, my emotions and toxic negative thoughts were running rampant. Yet it was in the midst of this difficult season that I was tasked with writing this whole new manuscript.

Instead of being excited about this new project, I was paralyzed with negative thinking. My mind was filled with thoughts like this is impossible, I’ll never be able to think straight enough to write this chapter, I don’t have any words to write, I’ll never finish this in time, and I don’t think I can do this. You see, I no longer felt like I could call myself a writer.

Nonetheless, I had a publisher deadline looming, so I kept forcing myself to push through. Instead of giving up, I decided to God-up and asked Him to help me be acutely aware of each negative and self-condemning thought that came to mind — because every one of them was a discouragement tactic the enemy was using to keep me from following God’s call on my life to write this book. The more I persevered and focused on letting God change my thinking habits, the more I could see my manuscript slowly taking shape. 

When I was done writing the book, a surge of relief came over me, but even more exciting was the surge of joy in my heart as I recognized how God had helped me overcome negativity instead of letting it stand in the way of getting on paper what He had laid on my heart to write. I didn’t need to worry about whether I thought I was qualified or worthy of being called a “writer”; I simply needed to trust in the call to write God had placed in my heart. Don’t ever be afraid to call yourself a writer because God already gave you that title.

Do you ever struggle to call yourself a writer? Do negative thoughts, self-doubt or personal circumstances often stand in the way of you getting powerful words on paper? 

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, COMPEL has something fun coming up just for you!

Ruth Schwenk — published author, founder of thebettermom.com and COMPEL Senior Social Media Coordinator — and I are hosting a LIVE WEBINAR to talk through all these doubts and help you feel encouraged and motivated to stop letting your thoughts and self-doubts keep you from running toward the writing aspirations God has placed in your heart!

Click HERE to join us LIVE on March 29 at 11 a.m. ET on ZOOM! 

We can’t wait to see you there!

Tracie Miles, Director of COMPEL Training

Tracie Miles

Tracie Miles has been the Director of COMPEL Training at Proverbs 31 Ministries since January 2017, and has been volunteering on the speaker and writer teams for Proverbs 31 since 2007. Tracie is an author coach who works one on one with writers of all levels to help them pursue their writing dreams, and can be found at www.traciemiles.com. She is the author of seven bestselling books, including Living Unbroken, Love Life Again, Unsinkable Faith, Stress Less Living and Your Life Still Counts, and has a new book releasing July 2024 called God's Got You: Embracing New Beginnings With Courage and Confidence. She is also the founder of the national Living Unbroken Divorce Recovery Program, a 7 week study series to help women heal and recover together. Tracie has three grown children, two of whom are married, and lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can connect with Tracie on her website at www.traciemiles.com as well as on Facebook and Instagram.

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