Imposter Syndrome: The Newest Addition to Your Writer's Toolbox

Please allow me to do my favorite thing: tell you a story. I’m sure you can’t imagine that I, as a creative writer, would do anything else. I’m sure you also won’t be surprised when I try to make you feel something by writing it in second-person perspective. My story is not unique, but I’m going to share it with you anyway.

Imagine you’re sitting in your creative writing class, working on the opening paragraph of your novel-in-progress (and by in-progress, you mean the progress started when you began writing that paragraph twenty minutes ago). Your professor has called on you to share your writing with the class, which you’ve never done before. The reason you’ve never shared is that every time your professor asks the class to read their work, your peers bust out these incredible twelve-line paragraphs with vivid descriptions of rolling oceans and heart-breaking scenes of long-lost lovers. And they wrote those paragraphs in a matter of minutes while you sat there trying to think of a fifth sentence. You don’t think you’re anywhere near the level of your classmates. You have even gone so far as to tell your professor that you feel behind.

Your professor does not care what you think. The whole class is going to share, and there you are on the class list. It’s your turn. The entire group of writers you’ll never be as good as turns to look at you. You read your four measly sentences, shaking and sweating, and look down at your feet. When you’re done, your professor says in a genuine tone, “Wow, that was really good.” You look up to a room of your peers nodding in agreement.

I bet you have a similar story. Maybe you were scared to show your short fiction to your friends or have your parents read your latest poem but in the end, they told you it was great. As artists, we’re all but trained to second-guess our abilities. There are new pieces of art being put into the world every day and it’s easy to compare our own creations to them. It’s so easy, in fact, that just like in my story, we can compare ourselves into fearing that we’re not good enough.

This feeling is called imposter syndrome. It involves the fear of being exposed as a fraud, the fundamental belief that you lack the ability to thrive in a given area, and an intentional ignoring of evidence of your success.1 It’s the feeling that you’re not worthy of praise and that people are going to find out you’re a phony, even though you’re not. The psychological explanation attributes imposter syndrome to childhood (of course), but a recent study by Stephen Gadsby proposes an alternative explanation: that there is a motivational benefit to denying your achievements.2 For us creatives, this take is especially interesting.

Imposter syndrome can be especially daunting for artists. It not only makes us feel lesser, but it may also bring into question our chances of creating art as a profession. The unfortunate reality is that artistic occupations are not always lucrative areas of business. Those who make a lot of money off their art are sometimes the best at their craft, sometimes relevant to cultural values, and other times nepo-babies (not you, Joe Hill. Don’t worry). But you don’t have to become famous or be adopted by Angelina and Brad to have a successful career in the arts. And, even if you were, it might not save you from feeling insecure about your work.

Take Coleen Hoover as an example. All writers, whether they read romance or not, have heard of Hoover. Her seemingly never-ending list of novels almost always greets you at the entrance of Barnes and Noble and she has multiple novels on the Times’ top ten best-selling paperbacks list. You might think, based on her success, that Hoover would be secure in her writing abilities. However, in a 2020 interview with Fortune, Hoover said that she thinks other authors are more talented than she is and that her books don’t deserve to be selling as well as they are.3 Your art could change your life and you still may feel like it isn’t any good.

Image courtesy of AJ Willingham and CNN

A key thing to remember about your art is that it will never please everyone. In fact, someone might absolutely hate it. This is not a reason to stop creating. For the same reason the first person disliked your piece, another may love it. I once had two classmates debate whether or not I should keep a single word in my twenty-page chapter (it was a stupid word, too. Like “though,” or something). The point is that art is inherently subjective and it will impact everyone in different ways. This is a blessing in disguise.

Understanding imposter syndrome is the secret to using it as a creative tool. Gadsby argues that feelings of inadequacy lead people to work harder.4 Doubting your abilities in something you’re passionate about is the detour sign that shows you a new route to success. In this way, having imposter syndrome is to your benefit.

If you are nervous to share your art with others, or if you’re praised for your art and do not believe you deserve it, that means you are testing the waters. It means you have attempted something that you did not already know you were good at. Your self-doubt is pushing you to find new ways to create. Feeling like an imposter means you are growing as an artist.

You have to change the way you look at imposter syndrome or else it will hold you back. The name is a paradox: imposter syndrome is the imposter. It’s fake! But it’s still worth mastering. When used correctly, it will force you to try things you never thought you would and improve your art in ways you never thought you could. If, instead, you let the fear consume you, you’ll trap yourself in the comfort zone and never let yourself grow. Imposter syndrome wants you to tell yourself that you can't. Flip the script and prove yourself wrong.

References

1.Gadsby, Stephen. "Imposter syndrome and self-deception." Australasian Journal of

Philosophy 100, no. 2 (2022): 249.

2.Gadsby, 253.

3.Berger, Chloe. “Bestselling Author Colleen Hoover Says She Has ‘the Worst Case of

Impostor Syndrome.’” Fortune, October 11, 2022. https://fortune.com/2022/10/11/author-colleen-hoover-deals-with-imposter-syndrome/.

4.Gadsby, 253.