Talk to any writer, and you’ll hear stories of fear.
“We’re all scared,” writes historical romance author, Brandy Vallance. “Let’s just start there. No matter what stage of writing you find yourself in, fear is the constant adversary that will track your every move and hunt you down….As a writer, this is normal.”
To be a successful writer, you have to be willing to face your fears. But that’s often easier said than done. In honor of Halloween season, below are five of the most common fears that writers face, along with a bit of monster-inspired tips to help you manage them.
1. Fear of the blank page.
Fear starts with the blank page. It stares back at you, intimidating, calling forth all your doubts. Can you fill it with anything worthwhile?
“I hate the blank page,” writes author Alexandra Hughes. “It mocks me, and unless I go in with a map (an outline) and a flashlight (an irrational belief in the magic of it all), I will get thrown against the rocks of the blank page and torn to pieces.”
Every time I come up against the blank page, I have to jump over that inner hurdle to proceed. There’s something about that pristine whiteness, whether it’s on a piece of paper or a computer file, that whispers, You’ll never be able to make it as good as you want it to be. Moving forward requires me to accept that truth, and write anyway.
Monster-Inspired Tip: Be willing to be bad!
No matter how awful the writing is, let it fly from your fingers.
Cast caution to the wind, embrace your inner rebel, fire up your metaphorical Harley, and blow out of town—and into your imaginary world.
2. Fear of rejection.
Humans face rejection in many forms, and it’s never fun, but writers go through it more often than most, simply because we’re regularly putting our work out there for others to judge. Unfortunately, this fear can stop a writer in his tracks, and keep him from ever succeeding.
“Fear of Rejections often dresses up as various species of perfectionism,” writes editor Kate Sullivan. “Your piece needs one more draft, one more edit, one more polish before you’re ready to send it out. And after that, you notice one more thing. Then you have an idea you simply must add. And then it needs another edit….”
Sound familiar? I know I’ve gone through periods like this. When you’re in the middle of it, you may not realize what you’re doing, but when you look back, you see—yep, I was scared.
Monster-Inspired Tip: Terrorize them! Send submission after submission to agents and editors, and keep sending them.
“The key to success in life,” says motivational guru Tony Robbins, “the key to wealth and happiness, is called achieving massive amounts of… rejection. The more rejection you get, the more acceptances and success you’ll receive.”
3. Fear of not being good enough.
This fear is part of why we fear rejection, but it also factors in when we’re publishing.
“But being a Creator is bloody terrifying for sure,” writes freelance writer Bradley Allen. “There’s always that fear of being told you’re not good enough, somebody taking a few seconds out of their day to destroy something that took you hours to craft.”
Where does this fear come from? Is it because we know about all those amazing writers that are already out there, and that we’ll never be able to measure up? Or is it because we’re just stuck in a false belief that our writing is sub-par?
Bestselling author Jennifer Blanchard writes, “Although the fear of not being good enough manifests in hundreds of ways—avoiding writing, never submitting your writing, etc.—deep down, the fear of not being good enough comes from one thing: lack of confidence. When you lack confidence, you always feel like no matter what you do, it will never compare to what other people can do; you always feel like you won’t be successful because you don’t have the ability to be.”
Monster-Inspired Tip: Use what you’ve got. What are your strengths? Where do you excel? Concentrate on that, and use it to your best advantage.
If you’re a zombie, use your teeth (even though you may walk slow). If you’re a vampire, seduce. A werewolf? Hunt. Figure out where your strengths lie and then capitalize on them.
4. Fear of what others will think.
There’s a certain appeal to writing without ever showing our work to another living soul. As long as we keep it to ourselves, we can imagine how awesome it is. Once we open ourselves up, we may have to suffer criticism, and after putting our hearts into our work, that can be devastating.
“I’m scared of criticism,” writes author Joanna Penn in The Successful Author Mindset. “I want praise. I want everyone to like me and my book. That’s why I’m scared of bad reviews and cruel comments. I don’t think I can take them. What if I never write again because of something someone says? What if my book actually is bad? What if the criticism is true? Sometimes I wonder if it would be better if no one ever read my work, because then no one would attack me.”
Gain a thicker skin, they say. It will get easier with time. But even veteran writers say criticism stings.
“You’d think that after eight years of public blogging and writing books, I’d be completely free of fear when it comes to putting my writing out in public,” writes Leo Babauta, creator of Zen Habits. “You would, of course, be wrong. Hitting ‘publish’ still makes me nervous.”
Monster-Inspired Tip: Be selfish. Write for yourself, or for one other person that you see as your ideal writer.
Make yourself happy with the story, and then when you’re ready to share, start with a small audience of supporters—your tribe.
As you gain confidence, start submitting to editors and agents, all while secretly thinking like John Steinbeck when he said, “Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.”
5. Fear of ultimate failure.
No matter how far you get in your writing career, you are likely to fear failure. Initially, you may fear not getting published. Once you’re published, you may fear poor reviews or low sales. After a couple of successes, you may fear your writing is only about trivial subjects and doesn’t mean anything. Once you start earning money, you may fear that it isn’t enough to make a difference in your life, and on it goes.
“I know authors who have had multi-six-figure publishing deals and then have felt a failure when the book didn’t sell well enough to justify that advance,” writes Penn. “Others that had movie deals where the movie was never made, or even worse, was a flop. A new writer on their first book might consider getting any advance or even just a movie option to be fantastic, but our definition of success changes over time and so does the perception of what constitutes failure.”
What does failure mean for you? Your answer will be personal, but that doesn’t make this fear any less difficult. And it can be very damaging to your confidence because it convinces you that once you attain the level of success you think you should, the fear will go away. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.
“But what we do…is convince ourselves that if we can reach certain writing goals then we will feel good enough,” writes writer and writing coach Lauren Sapala. “And those critical sneaky voices in our heads will shut up, the panicky jealous feeling we get when we see another writer’s success will subside, the cold fear in the pit of our stomach at the thought that we might possibly die unpublished and unappreciated — all THAT stuff will magically go away. Yeah, about that stuff. It doesn’t go away. Pretty much…ever. No matter how many books you publish or awards you win. That stuff comes from a deeper place than praise and accolades can reach.”
Monster-Inspired Tip: Grit your teeth, growl a little, and tempt failure. Be willing to take the risk again and again. Live on the edge. Dare others to bring you down.
Decide what success means to you, and go for it full gusto. If you fail, be like all those famous villains and make a giant comeback. You’ll be a better writer for it.
How do you overcome your fears as a writer?
Sources
Allen, B. (2018, August 8). As a Writer I’m Often Too Afraid to Write. Retrieved from https://writingcooperative.com/as-a-writer-im-often-too-afraid-to-write-bbdda946e148
Babauta, L. (2014, October 16). How to Overcome the Fear of Sharing Your Writing in Public. Retrieved from https://lifehacker.com/how-to-overcome-the-fear-of-sharing-your-writing-in-pub-1646791988
Blanchard, J. (2009, May 6). Do You Fear Not Being Good Enough? Retrieved from http://jenniferblanchard.net/do-you-fear-not-being-good-enough/
Lambert, N. (2013, October 10). 403 Forbidden. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/publish-and-prosper/201310/rejection-debilitating-pitfall-writers
Penn, J. (2018, April 18). Writing And The Fear Of Rejection And Criticism. Retrieved from https://www.thecreativepenn.com/rejection-and-criticism/
Penn, J. (2018, April 18). How Writers Deal With The Fear Of Failure. Retrieved from https://www.thecreativepenn.com/writers-fear-of-failure/
Sapala, L. (2018, June 6). Writers and the Fear of Failure: How to Get Over It for Good. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@losapala/writers-and-the-fear-of-failure-how-to-get-over-it-for-good-e86ed0c62339
Sullivan, K. (2018, August 24). 5 Things that Scare Writers (and What To Do About Them). Retrieved from https://www.tckpublishing.com/5-common-fears-that-stop-writers/
Vallance, B. (2019, June 5). Writing Through Fear. Retrieved from https://www.writersdigest.com/guest-columns/writing-through-fear
Webb, H. (2015, November 6). Why We Should Write What Scares Us. Retrieved from https://writerunboxed.com/2015/10/31/why-we-should-write-what-scares-us/