Nothing kills creativity faster than self-doubt. It can even stop you from attempting to write. But if you’ve ever succumbed to the horrible thought, ‘What’s the point? It’s all been done before’, think again.
It’s easy to convince yourself that in order to succeed as a writer, you need to be completely original. But do you? I put off trying to write a novel for years because I was waiting for a ‘light bulb moment’: an amazing, original idea that was going to power the book. It was only when a fellow writer – novelist and tutor Martin Davies – gently pointed out that I could be waiting for that moment for ever, that I saw the light.