This is K.M. Island and you are listening to the 397th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors Podcast.

I know it's no news when I tell you that writing is hard.

Self-doubt is an emotion all writers are intimately familiar with at one point or another.

Sometimes this doubt isn't actually doubt, but a realization of cold hard facts, aka the story really does, need some work.

In which case that realization is always a good thing, since it gives us a solid direction for moving forward and fixing problems.

But other times the doubt is just that.

Phantom nagging worries that haunt us for no good reason.

For me, those worries are nowhere more worries that haunt us for no good reason.

For me, those worries are nowhere more present than during the actual writing of the first draft.

They've been nying away at me all through the first act of my portal fantasy sequel Dreambreaker. I always, on every single

book I've ever written, go through at least one phase of thinking I've lost it. If I ever

had any talent for crafting narrative fiction, I've totally learned it. If I ever had any talent for crafting narrative fiction, I've totally lost it.

So it's been awesome to do my first quarterly edit of the book and realize that my doubts were

unfounded. Of course it's rough in spots, but the chapters I was most worried about are actually coming

together great.

Sometimes editing can be a very depressing tour, But sometimes it's incredibly encouraging.

The latest post on my blog is How to Write Your Character's Actions with Clarity. What can you do to make sure you're writing effective action?

Here are three ideas to keep in mind when crafting your scenes. To read the post, visit

helping writers become authors.com.

And now I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast

Most Common Writing Mistakes Part 61

five types of clunky dialogue. When you write excellent dialogue, you will

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