Have a Cup of Johanny

Lessons in Self-Doubt: What My First Feedback as a Writer Taught Me


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In this episode of Have a Cup of Johanny, I open up about one of the hardest lessons I learned as a new writer: how self-doubt shaped the way I received my very first feedback.

Like many new writers, I just wanted people to love me and love my project. But instead of pausing and filtering through the feedback, I took it all to heart. I changed everything. And in the process, I lost the story I wanted to tell—and almost lost my voice as a writer altogether.

Here’s what this experience taught me:

✨ Why confidence is key when receiving feedback.

✨ How to pause before reacting so feedback becomes a tool, not a takeover.

✨ Why self-doubt can derail your creative process if you don’t learn how to stand in your truth.

These lessons echo deeply in my debut novel, The Ordinary Bruja, where Marisol must also confront the voices of doubt and learn to trust herself.

📚 Preorder The Ordinary Bruja today: haveacupofjohanny.com

📧 Email me: [email protected]

📱 TikTok: @acupofjo_hanny | @thebookbruja

📸 Instagram: @haveacupofjohanny

🎶 Intermission Music License: SES7ZN8UVCXMTFFL

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If today’s episode hit you in the chest the way it hit me, don’t just walk away—walk toward something that reflects you.

Subscribe to the podcast, hit that YouTube channel for the behind-the-scenes, and if you’re ready to read a story about what it really means to come home to yourself—
👉🏽 Preorder The Ordinary Bruja.

https://haveacupofjohanny.com/product/the-ordinary-bruja-book-one-of-las-cerradoras-series-j-e-ortega/

It’s about a Dominican-American bruja who’s been running from herself her whole life until ancestral magic, generational wounds, and a haunted-ass hill force her to face the truth.

If you’ve ever felt “too much,” “not enough,” or like you don’t fit anywhere, you’re exactly who this story was written for.

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Because becoming who you are is the bravest kind of magic.

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Have a Cup of JohannyBy Johanny Ortega

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