Doubts as a Writer

My New Year's Writing Resolution is in its first week, and so far I've kept with it.  Each night for two hours (typically 6-8pm) I've been sitting my butt behind my desk and working on a new novel.

The first night went splendid.  I wrote a whopping 1,256 words of glorious stuff.  Afterwards I was merrily leaping around my living room in joy and so full of energy that I did not get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Second day, I was dragging.  I was tired from a lack of sleep the night before.  I didn't know what I wanted to write next.  I tried to eek out some words and got 400 words of crap.  So then I decided I needed to do some research for my novel.  But research and reading about tons of stuff I don't know much about... threw me over the edge.

Some doubts from my second day:
-My novel is going to be too weird.  No one will like it.
-This novel isn't going to fit in a genre.  People will hate that it's not quite ______ genre and also not any other genre.
-I'm a lazy writer for making up my own world instead of researching a real place that I'll never be able to afford to visit.
-I don't know anything!  There's so much I have to research!  How can I possibly do it?!?
-If this novel isn't going to work, then why should I invest so much time in it?
-Gosh!  Am I bipolar?  Yesterday was great.  What's wrong with me?  Why do I feel this way?

Then this morning, one of my professors from grad school posted this link on Facebook:
25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing
Beware--There's lots of profanity...if that bothers you.

Within that article was everything I needed to hear.
From #1 Stop Running Away to #4 Stop Worrying to #14 Stop Playing it Safe
These were all things I needed to hear, and it helped me move forward on Day Three.

Who cares if I don't fit perfectly in a genre mold?
I have a story to tell.  I have to be confident that if I love it, others will too.
And who cares if it's weird and different?  There's plenty of weird stuff out there (sparkly vampires would have sounded pretty darn strange ten years ago).

So my doubts have been stuffed back in their box.  Day Three was spent doing a character sketch and drawing a floorplan of a house.

Hopefully Day Four will be another day of writing progress--and doubt free.