The gap of doubt, how do YOU get out?!

[hummingbird]

Quote:After getting my three custom critiques back with 5's and 6's and a few comments back from the forum I was pretty bummed. Looked down to the keyboard to type and my vision was restricted. Upon further investigation, found out it was my lower lip If it makes you feel any better, Paul, I've been there. I started there. I lived there. I had a cat there, and I think the cat rated me at 2 across the board.how can we help?

[Casey H]

I don't think we should ever eliminate self-doubt as long as we are not beating up ourselves mercilessly... When we stop doubting ourselves, we are too complacent and over-confident and lose that thing that makes us keep striving to be better. (Just ask the New England Patriots) Casey

[linziellen]

What wonderful replies! I've been messing about a little too close to that gap again lately. I've thrown myself into writing but from time to time I get tapped on the shoulder by the ugliest monster I've ever seen ( no one I know) who asks me what the hell I'm doing and even laughs at me! I'm pretty good at bottling my fears and doubts which I know I shouldn't. It's all about sharing these feelings before they drag you down, even if it's only with the stick insect you think may have actually died some weeks ago....thankfully however I have my TAXI buddies who I'm very fond of Thank you.

[Mark Kaufman]

Hey Lindsey, I don't know if anyone else already mentioned this or not...but you do realize that's a killer hook, don't you?"The Gap of Doubt"You've got dibs!

[linziellen]

I wondered about that myself Mark lol thanks, maybe I could come up with something. Also "Fighting the Perfectionist" might make for another notch on the old list lol, not that there's much of a list but still!

[stevev]

You can get out?My involvement in my music has had many starts and stops because of self doubt. In fact I've given up many times. But last year I made the New Year's resolution to get more involved in my music and put more effort into it. And as I put more effort into it, more and more good things started to happen.I still have self doubt from time to time. But it's an internal creation. While I'm still an unknown (and most likely will remain that way), it's amazing and gratifying how many people come up to me after I've played somewhere and say 'Wow, did you write that?' (in a good way!), or 'Hey, that song really meant a lot to me.' It's those things that keep me going.Steve V

[Casey H]

One thing I know that feeds my doubts is when I ask a lot of people's opinion's on a song. One hand, it's easy to be a junkie for hearing what everyone thinks (I am one), but too many opinions can drive one batty. It's easy to be on the a "she loves me, she loves me not" roller-coaster ride. Don't get me wrong-- opinions from other songwriters and musicians are extremely valuable. You need to find out how someone who never has heard your song before perceives it. And if many people point out the same thing such as the hook not being strong, the bridge not working, etc. it usually is something you need to work on.Sometimes I have to step back and say, OK... what do I think? Casey