May 6, 2008
Fear me…
To piggy back on Amie’s post yesterday. . . I thought of another great way not to write . . . FEAR. Fear of the next book. Fear of your last book. Fear of never writing or selling again. I have been in the tangled mits of this for some time now. It’s almost a manic, panic, crippling emotion.
You start to second guess every word you put down, every plot you work out, every story you create. And if you let it, it can stifle the writing right out of your life.
If you get out of the habit of reading, researching, writing, you may lose whatever rhythm you once had, whatever impetus to conjur up other worlds and frankly lose your freaking mojo. . . and to a writer, to me, that is a fate worse than a bad review.
But everntually those characters, hell even your muse, will bitch-slap you and make you sit up and remember that you are a WRITER. In order to be that, you need to WRITE. So if need be you pick up a pen and paper and jot down some notes. Or have a brain-smash session with someone to iron out details of one of your free-floating ideas. Plot out that book you thought about writing, but maybe wanted to hold off for a while. . . as long as you WRITE!(and it doesn’t hurt to have a couple of good friends who kick you in the ass even when they are on a deadline!)
>>and to a writer, to me, that is a fate worse than a bad review.
Agreed…..and sometimes we get so involved in the writing community (online or otherwise) that it happens anyway. Not sure if one has to do with the other or if it’s just an unhappy coincidence but I definitely believe there’s some correlation.
Personally, I fear failure much more than I fear pretty much anything else. For some, that means not trying at all, which is a bigger form of failure than actually TRYING and failing. Even if I do fail, at least I tried.
I suppose fear is a defense mechanism, protection against getting hurt either emotionally or physically.
And yeah, it’s easier to do nothing than take a risk. But then there’s no hope at all.
Hoping you’re feeling better with it, Den.
I think my thing is/was afraid I won’t be *able* to finish so in some perverse way deliberatly not finishing insured that… don’t know if that makes sense.
Melissa, that is so true… and even if I have a permanate hand mark on my face–I need the reminder now and again!
Denise..it’s negative reinforcement. Like positive reinforcement but….not positive
Try to find some sort of positive reinforcement you can use–DAILY
Ironically what I feared was success (okay, let me just say what all y’all are thinking: “Oh, that’s one thing you’ll never have to fear, Vanessa! yukyukyuk). Seriously, though, there was a conern about stepping onto the court. Was a I really ready to up my game? Although, in my case it was wasn’t just some phantom fear, due to some real life situations, I was having problems with writing consistently, and at a time when authors were realeases more and more books per year, that was valid concern. I knew I had to get the writing speed back up before I started submitting again, or I was just courting failure.
But there are folks out there who do let negative ‘what if’ scenarios cripple them. It really is about being positive.
LOL thanks Ames!
Vanessa, I understand that too. I am very much an all or none type person (drives my family nuts!) so if I can’t go all in I have a hard time doing it incriments… so if I can’t put out the production I *think* I should then I just sit back… but I am getting better!
It’s hard to get to that position where you give yourself *permision* to do it–before I was published it didn’t really matter. Now I have to remember it’s (or can be) a job!
Vanessa….while writing more htan one book a year is the rule and not the exception, I think there are some writers out there only doing one book a year. And I think most readers would rather have one great book a year than 3 or 4 half-assed sucky, phoned in books. Yaknow…….