This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the 366th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors Podcast.

It's funny to me how the ups and downs of the writing mindset work.

Honestly, now that I've been on this journey for more than half my life,

I think I can time the vagaries of my own opinions about my writing

down to specific dates. For example, after I've finished a story and sent it to the first

round of beta readers, I usually spend that intervening six months or so, feeling super confident and happy about my

latest creation and my abilities as a writer in general. Then in the split second

after I hear back from those betas, dark magic happens and I suddenly feel like I was totally deluded about the story and that I must of course be in general a total fraud in thinking I'm a good writer

And the funny part is that this is the exact pattern that happens whether or not my betas come back with huge criticisms.

My historical superhero work in progress, Wayfair, came back from the first round betas at

the end of last month.

And they were both extremely encouraging about it,

one of them even saying they thought it was my best yet.

Did that stop the crash afterwards?

No. Which leads me to the reasonably encouraging realization of something

I've always known, which is how you feel about a story at any given moment, has nothing to do with its true worth. Just keep

plugging along, trusting the process, putting one word in front of another, and

before you know it, you'll turn the corner and

think you're awesome again but just don't let it go to your head.

The latest post on my blog is how to tell if your antagonist is taking over your story.

Next to your protagonist, your antagonist is taking over your

antagonist is taking over your story.

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