As a writer, have you ever felt like an imposter? I know I have. Imposter syndrome can be no laughing matter. There are days when I ask myself, “Matt, who exactly are you kidding with this?” Those are the days when I feel like a fraud. The days when the fake writer police must surely be hunting for me.

On the whole, I tend to feel that I can write a pretty good story. Then there are the days when I am certain it is just the Dunning-Kruger effect and the truth is I have no idea what I am doing.

That lier imposter syndrome lurks (perhaps for all of us) around every corner. Yet there are times when it hits me harder than others. One of those times is when I have written and the editing process must start. That’s when the impossibility of the task glares down at me like an impossibly tall cliff. You can’t do this, it says, you don’t even know where to start.

This is the point where I would love to tell you that I have an answer. I don’t. I try to muddle along feeling like a fraud and hoping for the best. Sometimes this leads to over-editing and I ruin the story by thinking too much. Or, when the feeling is strongest, it stops me from editing at all.

I don’t have an answer to imposter syndrome. The reason for this post is just to let you know that you are not alone in feeling like that. It gets us all some days. I struggle with it. I know others who do too. All I know how to do is just not give up. It’s not much but it’s all I have.

How does imposter syndrome hit you?

Our last writers’ night this year (2024) will be Thursday the 5th of December. We will begin meeting again in the new year (the exact day to be decided).

Charity members and attendees of the writers’ night who wish to attend the Thanet Creative Christmas meal should contact Matt or Janet as soon as possible as it requires a deposit.

Thank you to all who make our writers’ night the special thing that it is. If we don’t see you again this year, I hope we can catch up again in January 2025.

When I updated the look for the Thanet Creative blog, I accidentally left the Words Counted tool out of the update. Words Counted lets you stick in some writing and it counts how many times you have used each word.

It is now back in full working order. Like before, Words Counted does not save the text you give it. The word length chart is still there. All the features are fully working in our new theme.

Give Words Counted a try.

Thanet Creative run a writers’ night (almost) every Thursday at 7:30pm in The Wheatsheaf Margate. The writers’ night is open to anyone. We discuss all aspects of writing and editing with a core part of the evening being a time to review and give feedback to each other on written work.

If you would like some of your writing critiqued, please bring about five copies – in a good-sized font (12pt+). We suggest no more than five sides of A4 so that we can read the work of everyone who may have brought some.

When you arrive, if you cannot immediately spot us please ask the lovely staff who will be happy to point us out to you.

Whether it was a rejection submission, a story no one liked, or a competition you did not win, the only failure in writing is giving up.

Just finishing a story makes you amazing. You have done what few others have done. You had an idea and you wrote it.

It was not you that was rejected, it was just that version of your story. You can edit it some more and try again or you can open a blank page and write the next one. So long as you don’t give up, you cannot fail as a writer.

Keep going. Each story you tell equips you with the experience needed to tell the next story.

You’ve got this.