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"Never, EVER give up. Not ever. Not EVER. Ever EVER!" - MaryJanice Davidson
Yes, writing is scary. Well, the writing part isn't scary, is it? It’s the thought of someone reading your writing that causes chills. So, as we head into a new year, I thought I’d throw out a few ways of dealing with fear in your writing.
1) Pretend nobody is going to read the story but you. Yeah, you’re playing mind games with yourself. But why not? You’ll forgive yourself—you have to. Believe me, if I thought my first grade teacher would someday read one of the sex scenes in Claimed, NO WAY would I have written those. So, I always pretend I’ll be the only one to read what I write. Then, well, I’m not…but it’s too late by that time, and I’ve moved on.
“To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.”
~Anne Rice
~Anne Rice
2) Look at the dark side. Yeah, the dark side. What is the absolutely worst thing that could happen if your book stinks? The absolute worse? The world probably won’t blow up, the people who love you won’t suddenly hate you, and you will live to write another day. So get over the fear and go for it.
“An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.” ~Charles Kettering
3) Have a plan for when the hurt does happen. No matter how fantastic your book is, somebody out there isn’t going to love it. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say they’ll hate it. And with the internet everywhere, they’re going to let everyone on Amazon and Goodreads know how much they hated it and why. So, be prepared. I didn’t have a plan in mind, but I have one now. I take the horrible review, print it out, and go to lunch with my sisters. While there, I read it out loud to them. And being my sisters…they laugh their freakin heads off. (We’re not a really mushy family.) But, after a few moments, I usually laugh with them. And the review stops hurting. This can be applied to rejections as well.
“History has demonstrated that they most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.”~B.C. Forbes
4) Use the fear. Take that gut wrenching, nausea causing, head pounding terror and throw it into a scene. Make your heroine afraid…and have her face that fear and triumph. You write that scene, and you’ll learn quickly how you can conquer your fear, too.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”~Nelson Mandela
5) Go back to writing for fun. For a brief moment, forget about fear, forget about failure. Goof off with your writing and remember the fun you had with it before it became a possible career. Write a silly scene—either with your current characters, your ex-boyfriend, or the guy at the mall. (Or with anyone else). Make yourself laugh or cry…just enjoy the process. That fear goes away if you forget to look for it.
“It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write.” ~Sinclair Lewis
If all else fails, keep in mind the immortal words of Helen Keller: “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”
I wish you all the best in 2012! Finally, above all else, remember that you’re a writer. Writers write. And you can quote me on that. J
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Emma Paulsen is a geneticist driven by science. But she’s also a psychic, so when a dark, good-hearted vampire frees her from the clutches of the evil Kurjans, she realizes he must be the man who’s been haunting her dreams. But with a virus threatening vampire mates, Emma may discover a whole new meaning of “lovesick”…
A DEADLY DECISION
As King of the Realm, Dage Kayrs has learned to practice diplomacy. Still, it’s taken three hundred years to find his mate, so he’ll stop at nothing to protect her–even if it means turning his back on his own kind…
§ PurchaseEmma Paulsen is a geneticist driven by science. But she’s also a psychic, so when a dark, good-hearted vampire frees her from the clutches of the evil Kurjans, she realizes he must be the man who’s been haunting her dreams. But with a virus threatening vampire mates, Emma may discover a whole new meaning of “lovesick”…
A DEADLY DECISION
As King of the Realm, Dage Kayrs has learned to practice diplomacy. Still, it’s taken three hundred years to find his mate, so he’ll stop at nothing to protect her–even if it means turning his back on his own kind…
§ Read an excerpt
§ Book Reviews
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