How to overcome fear when writing?

DanieRo · Post by **DanieRo** » 04 Nov 2011, 21:17

I think I am petrified. I dissect every part worried of it's reception. Will people like it? Will they be offended? What is the point? Am I kidding myself? Why am I writing this? Who cares? I am inadequate. What the hell gives me the right to think I can produce something worth reading?

It's torture.

Peace and Love,
D

Dream Catcher · Post by **Dream Catcher** » 24 Jan 2014, 05:25

Just write. Don't stop. Keep writing, no matter how bad it is.

heartsonfire43 · Post by **heartsonfire43** » 15 Jan 2015, 22:20

I get so scared although a lot of my friends and colleague say i have ability to write. Really, what prevents me to write is that i have limited knowledge of English language and not very good at sentence construction. Another thing, I find it hard to paraphrase sentences especially when I research about the topic I'd like to write. But I do like to write. Only it is limited to personal journals, personal essays, and the like.

Oh, by the way, how ironic that aside from being a librarian, i also teach EFFECTIVE WRITING in college...

Braktooth · Post by **Braktooth** » 09 Feb 2015, 15:49

I'm not sure that I ever have.

When I'm writing non-fiction, I'm paranoid about making errors. I worry about flow. I'm scared that I haven't made what I'm writing about clear enough.

When I'm writing non-fiction, I worry about how sensible the basic plot idea is. I'm frightened that people won't see the main characters the way I do. I'm terrified that everybody else will see just how bad and stilted what I'm writing is. Then there are the days when I see something wrong in what I write, and think I suck. That starts a cycle of suck, that I have to stop in it's tracks right away, or I won't be able to write two words. And it's never, ever good enough.

For me, it's always a question of throwing off the fear long enough to get what I'm trying to do done. If I don't focus on the thing itself, even the blank screen can intimidate me.

-- 09 Feb 2015, 15:50 --

Dream Catcher wrote:Just write. Don't stop. Keep writing, no matter how bad it is.

That's good advice. I try to follow it.

donaldwolford · Post by **donaldwolford** » 18 Feb 2015, 20:15

What I fear is rejection and I've received a great deal of it. Writing takes courage and a belief in yourself.

CataclysmicKnight · Post by **CataclysmicKnight** » 18 Feb 2015, 20:24

Unfortunately this happens with all forms of art... My favorite self-made quote, although the wording could be a lot better, was always "don't avoid doing something for fear of doing it wrong". Also, keep in mind that it's easier to go back and edit than to put off ever starting in the first place, aaaaaand creating ANYTHING is better than creating nothing. Even if you hate what you've written or made, I guarantee someone out there will LOVE it and be amazed a "regular person" can do it!

Braktooth · Post by **Braktooth** » 22 Feb 2015, 11:42

DanieRo wrote:I think I am petrified. I dissect every part worried of it's reception. Will people like it? Will they be offended? What is the point? Am I kidding myself? Why am I writing this? Who cares? I am inadequate. What the hell gives me the right to think I can produce something worth reading?

It's torture.

Peace and Love,
D

I can relate to all of that. There are times when it's absolutely torture to even consider writing anything, where the doubt is so loud it's all you hear. You just have to learn to ignore it, find the fun that made you want to do it in the first place, and try to do SOMETHING that makes you feel good, even if it's only a little good.

Melanie_Page · Post by **Melanie_Page** » 23 Feb 2015, 05:03

It took me 7 years to complete my first novel (still working on #2) because I was pretty sure it was garbage... I mean, who was I to think I could write a book. but I read a few that weren't so great and I told myself I just had to avoid those mistakes. Its all practice. Next time I will be better (hopefully).

Braktooth · Post by **Braktooth** » 05 Mar 2015, 12:09

Melanie_Page wrote:It took me 7 years to complete my first novel (still working on #2) because I was pretty sure it was garbage... I mean, who was I to think I could write a book. but I read a few that weren't so great and I told myself I just had to avoid those mistakes. Its all practice. Next time I will be better (hopefully).

It is. Most writers I know are never really satisfied with something they've done, but the ones who are, generally find writing easier, and less painful. It's likely never as good as you hope, but never as bad as you fear.

mnamratand · Post by **mnamratand** » 06 Mar 2015, 06:34

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
― Madeleine L'Engle

ariesdollface · Post by **ariesdollface** » 08 Mar 2015, 08:01

i tend to share some of the same fears others have expressed. at the moment my fear is compounded because I am working on a non-fiction piece. i think "what if i get it wrong?" i have all the facts i need to weave the story together but i still think this awful thought. i'm not so sure that i have "overcome" the fear but i write anyway. i sit down, me and my fear, and write until i don't feel its pull quite as strongly; then the story comes.

TreeRhino · Post by **TreeRhino** » 08 Mar 2015, 15:31

Personally, I find booze helps.

Kidding aside. The most common obstacle is becoming critical of your own work. Advice that I keep running into is just to write anything, everything, and no matter what gets written, just write. For me, I have to push through what I'm working on and keep myself from disparaging the material that I already have out. When I'm struggling with things, I find that writing with a bit of a buzz creates the useful effect of preventing me from looking too closely, or regarding everything I've put down as horrid. Because, I have found, that when you start thinking about everything you've been writing, especially while you're writing, it will make you stop, slow down, or even give up.

So yeah, I like a few beers to raise my opinion of myself and keep the words flowing no matter what comes out. Typically, I'll come up with things that I like pretty well that way.

OneFourthCheesecake · Post by **OneFourthCheesecake** » 08 Mar 2015, 17:43

When I feel fear for a book I am working on I try to think it over: "why are you even afraid, is there a need?" Once I have, shall I say, slapped some sense into myself, I feel better and return to writing.

zeldas_lullaby · Post by **zeldas_lullaby** » 23 Mar 2015, 22:04

I feel no fear. I have experienced things that have given me discernment. I used to think that I couldn't do anything. I ran into a high school classmate years ago, and she asked me what I'd been up to. I was speechless because I hadn't been up to anything. It wasn't a lack of self-worth, exactly. More of an inbred sense of futility and helplessness. Growing up, I was never encouraged to get involved with anything at all. I was put in ballet (failed) and softball (failed), but I was never told, "Don't you want to join a group or a club?" Or, "Don't you want to bring home some friends?" Then I went to college with no particular goals except to occupy myself for four (well, five) years. Then I graduated and stared into this huge chasm of nothingness. It doesn't surprise me now that I was ill-prepared. I think the sense I always had from my mom was, "Don't bother getting involved in [whatever]. It won't lead anywhere. It doesn't matter." I've had to fight that mentality (that she probably won't cop to). And then I just felt like everyone around me was more worthy and valid than I was, that I could not accomplish anything.

Then I woke up one day and realized that I'm just as good as everyone else and have just as much to offer. I think it was because I reached an age where everyone else quit seeming "more" than me: more mature, more accomplished, more experienced, etc.

I clung to a youth group that I met and joined at 15, and they all hate me now. For a long time, that hurt me and made me bleed inside. Then I realized that they don't matter one bit. They think I'm the enemy because they fear their own hideous reflections in the mirror. When I found my voice and started calling everyone on everything, no one wanted to hear it, but I couldn't stop talking. I used to let people walk all over me. Now they see me coming. I have a BS-meter that is uncannily accurate.

Now I write. The heartache of being shunned by a group that never should have mattered to begin with, and a million other heartaches, need a voice. i don't fear writing--I fear NOT writing. I fear complacency. I fear that our pop culture is rife with insults in sitcoms and dramas about "bad" people who think it's OK to mistreat everyone because they're a victim. We're being taught to overlook bad behavior in light of someone's suffering. It's all over today's pop culture, like in that CBS show Elementary, for example. Holmes is a jerk, but he's entitiled to be a jerk because of his alcohol problem. What happened to Murder, She Wrote, and Diagnosis Murder, which had nice people? Nice is out. Bad is in. That upsets me. I don't accept it.

So here I am watching the Golden Girls. Anyway, the point is that fear should not rule us.

Cee-Jay Aurinko · Post by **Cee-Jay Aurinko** » 24 Mar 2015, 01:00

Ah, the novel. First of all, I'm going to be really honest; maybe this will help you, maybe not.

Okay, I've never written a novel before, but I'm currently busy with what will hopefully be my first. I wake up at 3 a.m. every morning and don't go to sleep until I've written my 500 words. I just write--no details, no research, no character sketches, no fancy vocabulary, no nothing.

And here's why I do this the way I do:

1. At 3 a.m. in the morning, 90 or so percent of the world is fast asleep, playing bingo with their mates in Dreamland. There are NO distractions. You're mind is fresh out of dreamland, and beautiful sentences are forming more easily than they would've if you were writing in the day. Plus, you might have dreamt something useful, which you still remember clearly, which you can incorporate into your novel.

2. 500 words a day, no matter how bad they look on the page, will eventually give you a 100 000 word first draft in six months time. Forget the research and all the technical stuff; use only what you know and PUT down 500 words. If you can do 1,000 words a day, more power to ya. Stephen King does 2,000,but that ain't me.

The research comes later. The detailing comes later. Don't be afraid; the first draft of your novel is meant for your eyes only. So, why would you fear yourself? Just write, that's the best advice any writer will ever give you.