How to sidestep imposter syndrome and get writing

Banksy’s Girl with the Pierced Eardrum and Face Mask. Pic @sjtanton

On Tuesday 21st April Henneke Duistermaat and I engineered a writing experiment. At 4.00 pm GMT, 255 people joined our Writing Huddle, and everyone wrote together, creating a real time sensory snapshot of life under lockdown.

It was a simple writing exercise, and a demonstration of the power of sensory words to pull readers closer.

People from all over the world put pen to paper for five minutes, recording what they could see, hear, taste, touch and smell around them, and they shared fragments of that writing with us all.

Map of Writing Huddle participants

What emerged was a wonderful kind of lock down poetry.

Air washed by rain, gravel crunching, scent of hawthorn, keyboard tapping, rain is falling, seagulls fighting over an abandoned snack, basil in pasta sauce, the blip of a rising lava lamp, 6th floor view of a communist block, mountain air, the song of a blackbird, hot engine oil, staccato bursts of a sewing machine, the taste of disappointment, the sun in my face, beige walls, howling wind, the sound of the ocean, the smell of new IKEA furniture, vanilla, iced tea, the cold of a turtle’s shell, humming bees, flatbreads starting to brown and bubble, smiling eyes in masked faces…..

It was amazing, exhilarating and humbling to see the words pouring out, and I want to thank everyone who took part.

Imposter syndrome

What also emerged in the chat, both during the Writing Huddle and in conversations since, was a sense of how difficult people are finding writing at the moment.

Imposter Syndrome is everywhere, and it’s got some new guises. There’s the ‘anything I say right now feels irrelevant compared to what’s going on in the world’ version. There’s a debilitating ‘I’ve lost all my confidence’ strain.

If you’re thinking ‘there are real heroes emerging all around us, I’m not expert/brave/important enough to add anything worthwhile’ I’m not surprised that you’re finding it hard to write anything at all.

And that’s a shame because what emerged strongest of all from the writing huddle was the desire we have to connect with each other. We want to share what’s going on in our world, we want to get in touch with friends, clients and customers, we want to rebuild businesses that have been rocked by this pandemic, we want to take steps towards imagining a new future, we just want to ask ‘are you feeling this too?’ and be heard.

The answer to all that is to write.

And to help you do that, here are some ideas for facing down Imposter Syndrome and getting your words out there.

How to sidestep Imposter Syndrome

Write for one person

Always my number one piece of writing advice, and I’ll say it again here. Have one person in mind, and write something that will help them. Do that, and it will be easier to keep focused. Try and think of too many people and you’ll freeze. You’ll find yourself wondering if it’s the right thing to say, or what tone of voice to use, or whether it’s appropriate to mention such-and-such at a time like this. So make your focus tighter, tell one person something that will help them.

Write to help

Sharing your knowledge is something good that you can do, right now. What do you know that will help your clients? What can you share that will help people take a step forwards? And it doesn’t have to be big stuff. Revisiting the basics is really useful. (For many of us, the basics are all we can handle right now. Our concentration is shot to pieces, so you’ll be doing the world a favour if you share things that are simple, actionable and easy to grasp.)

Forget about needing to be an expert

You don’t need to know everything to have something useful to contribute. I love what Mark Schaefer says about writing and personal brand. Sharing the journey with your readers is a good reason to write. Be a wonderful travelling companion, not a bossy tour guide. Besides, you’ll never have all the answers. There’ll always be more to learn, so start sharing what you know and what you’re experiencing now.

Write for the future

People are buying, and it’s okay to sell, but it’s not the time (if it ever was) for the cold, slick, unsolicited sales approach. Instead, focus on helping the clients you have, and on demonstrating your approach. Create useful content for the people you know, and it will have a wider use for future clients somewhere along the line.

Write to build trust

Some people are seeing a few green shoots of business recovery, others are still in a no man’s land of wondering whether their business will survive. Whichever camp you’re in, strengthening your network and building trust are the most valuable things you can do right now. Sharing your ideas in writing and using them to connect with people will help you to do that.

Write to unscramble your thoughts

If Imposter Syndrome really has got you in a stranglehold, and the idea of publishing anything at all is out of the question, then write anyway. Write for yourself. Chronicle these strange times. Name your fears and stare at them in black and white. Write down everything you’re grateful for. Write it all down, then close the book and walk away for a couple of weeks. You’ll almost certainly have the kernel of a blog or an email or two amongst that tangle of words and you might be able to sneak it past the Imposter Syndrome while its back is turned.

Try the writing exercise

If you’d like to try the writing exercise for yourself, you can sign up and watch the recording here. Henneke shares a brilliantly clear explanation of how and why sensory words work, and why they’re so useful for making your words connect with readers. You’ll learn how to use them in your own writing, whether it’s for business or to reconnect with friends.

And if you do find yourself staring at blank screen, wrestling with your inner critic, the exercise will kickstart your writing so that other ideas can emerge. Give it a try.

Thank you

Thanks again to everyone who joined us. It was a real privilege to see all those ideas and images unfurl. I’m not going to forget it.

(P.S. The image that accompanies this blog is what I could see out of my window while everyone was writing on Tuesday.)