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12 Positive Affirmations for Creative Writing
Positive affirmations for writers can be powerful tools for unlocking creativity and developing a strong mindset for success. Believe it or not, your mindset plays a big role in the success of your writing. Your mindset includes your beliefs and thoughts about your creativity and writing skills.
Growing up, you developed your mindset based on what you learned from your family, school, culture, and community. Maybe you had experiences that hurt your confidence, such as a teacher or fellow student being overly critical of your writing. Or maybe you had someone influential in your life discourage you from pursuing a creative career.
Unfortunately, as an adult, your mindset shows up in your everyday life, including your writing. If you struggle with completing projects or writing in general, the source of your problems is your mindset.
What Are Positive Affirmations?
Affirmations are a form of positive self-talk that can help you build confidence and reach your full creative potential. By using positive affirmations, you can get out of your own way and start creating more freely.
You can use affirmations to remind yourself of your unique strengths and qualities. By focusing on the positive rather than the negative, you can find new inspiration and get the creative juices flowing.
Positive affirmations can also be used to conquer self-doubt and insecurities. When you find yourself stuck in a rut or facing writer’s block, you can use affirmations to remind yourself of your strengths and stay focused and motivated. Affirmations can also help you stay in the right mindset to take on new challenges and push yourself to new creative heights.
The Importance of Affirmations to Create Positive Beliefs
Understanding your mindset is the first step in creating a better relationship with yourself and your writing. But you must go further and deliberately create the beliefs and thoughts to support your writing goals.
How the mind works can seem complicated, but it’s pretty simple.
We have thoughts that cause our feelings, which drive our actions and ultimately lead to our results in life.
To stop struggling with your writing, you have to change your thoughts and beliefs, which are the source of the problem.
Creating positive thoughts about your writing makes you feel better about what you can accomplish. When you feel good about your writing, you make better choices, which leads to a positive writing experience over time.
It’s that simple.
The question then becomes – how do we create positive thoughts and beliefs about our writing and writing abilities?
How to Create Positive Beliefs
First is understanding your current beliefs. Second, you set a writing goal. Lastly, you create a path of positive beliefs that take you from where you are to where you want to be.
Imagine you are about to take a road trip from California to New York. Your first step is to find where you are on the map. Then you locate your final stop, which in this case is New York. Once you have your starting and ending point, you can find the best route of freeways to get to your final destination.
It’s the same process to create a mindset shift. You must first figure out your current thoughts and beliefs. This is your starting point.
- What are your current thoughts about your writing skills? Do you think your skills are good enough to write a bestseller?
- What are your thoughts on your current project? Do you think the story will capture the hearts of your readers?
To create a mindset shift, you must start asking yourself questions about your beliefs. This is where journaling comes in.
The Benefits of Keeping a Mindset Journal for Affirmations
A mindset journal is more than just a diary about your writing life. A writing journal is a way to uncover your thoughts and beliefs to start changing how you think about your writing.
As I mentioned in the last section, you must understand your current thoughts to create a mindset shift. To do so, it’s important to write down how you feel about your writing.
By keeping a journal and reviewing your thoughts and feelings daily, you will start to rewire your brain to take positive actions that will lead to positive results.
Another benefit of keeping a mindset journal is stress relief. Research shows that journaling is a great way to lower stress.
Lastly, a benefit of journaling is that you get to see your progress. As you keep notes about your thoughts and feelings, you will be able to see how much your thinking has improved.
Later in this post, I will share the process I use to journal so you can establish your writing routine.
How to Get Started with Journaling
Stock Up on Journals
The first step is to get a journal. I love the feeling of a new blank journal. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A simple journal will do. Below, I share some of my favorite soft and hard-cover journals. I recommend getting a pack of journals so you can immediately start on another as soon as you complete one. The key is to make journaling a habit.
Establish a Writing Routine
The second step is to create a daily writing routine. Ideally, you want to write at the same time and place daily. If you are a morning person, wake up a few minutes earlier to take 10 to 15 minutes to journal before starting your day. If you are a night person, you can calendar 10 to 15 minutes at night. The point is to pick a time, calendar it and stick to your schedule.
Also, make the process enjoyable by creating a comfortable space and environment where you can journal. Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee, light a candle, or play relaxing music while you journal or all of the above. The goal is to create a daily routine you enjoy and look forward to.
Lastly, make sure you turn off all distractions and set a timer. I like setting a timer for about 15 minutes, and I am done for the day once the time is up. I like to use a timer because it allows me to focus and get my thoughts out on paper without distractions. I don’t edit my thoughts. I just write what comes naturally, which is what you want.
What to Write in Your Mindset Journal
Now that you have a routine let’s discuss what to write in your journal. Ultimately, this will be up to you and what works best for you, but I will share my process, and you can adopt or adapt it as you see fit.
Identify Your Thoughts
A Thought Download is a great way to start your journaling session. The concept of a Thought Download is something I learned from Brook Castillo, Master Life Coach at the Life Coach School.
A Thought Download is where you take a topic or a journal prompt and then write down all the thoughts that come up. For example, if you are struggling with finishing projects, ask yourself why you have trouble finishing what you start and then see what thoughts come up.
After completing the Thought Download, review what you wrote and choose one thought to focus on. You will find you had similar thoughts but just stated them differently. You will also find that some things you write are thoughts, while others will be feelings.
Once you pick a thought/feeling to focus on, reframe it into a positive sentence.
Using the “finishing a project” example, you would rewrite “I don’t finish my writing projects because I’m too busy” to “I can learn how to manage my time better so I can finish my novel.”
The goal is to reframe a negative sentence into a positive one.
Choose How You Want to Feel About Your Writing
After doing a Thought Download, write down three feelings you want to experience regarding your writing. This exercise is good for creating intention in your life. You can often let your emotions run wild, but you take control by choosing what you want to feel.
For example, you can write that you choose to feel:
- Grateful for the one hour you can write every day before work.
- Proud of the 500 words you wrote yesterday
- Hopeful that you are taking the right steps to build a successful writing career.
Set Intentions
Finish your journal session by setting an intention for the writing actions you want to implement. For example, you can set an intention to write for one hour every morning before work. Or you can set an intention to take a writing class to improve your world-building skills.
How to Create Positive Affirmations
There is no right or wrong way to create affirmations. The easiest way is to take a negative belief you uncovered in your journaling and turn it into a positive statement.
I like this method because the belief and affirmation are specific to you. You can also look through the list of affirmations below and use the ones that resonate with you the most.
Once you have a list of 3 to 5 affirmations, make it a habit to say them to yourself multiple times per day. For example, you can start your morning with affirmations and repeat them after bed. You can also review your list of affirmations before a writing session.
There is no right or wrong way, just the way that works for you.
12 Positive Affirmations for Writers
- I am a talented and confident writer
- I am passionate about my work, and I trust my creative process
- I create stories that are meaningful and entertaining
- I am proud of the work I create, and I share it with confidence
- My words are valuable
- My writing has the potential to be great
- I am capable of writing great work
- I am determined to finish this project
- I am a creative and talented writer
- My words have the power to move and inspire
- I am capable of achieving my writing goals
- Writing is my passion, and I will make it my priority
Additional Mindset Tips
In addition to keeping a journal and a list of affirmations, I recommend reading books about a positive mindset. I have compiled a list of some of the most helpful books I have read. I’ve shared the list below.
- Creative Visualization for Writers by Nina Amir
- The Successful Author Mindset by Joanna Penn
- Self Coaching 101 – Use Your Mind, Don’t Let it Use You by Brooke Castillo
Conclusion
I hope you have found the information and tips I shared in this article helpful. Your mindset is the most important part of your writing success. With the right mindset, you can achieve any writing goal you set for yourself.