Welcome
to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's
time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop.
If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog
hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy,
ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek
behind the curtain of a writing life.
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the May 7 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Janet Alcorn, Rebecca Douglass, Jemima Pett, and Pat Garcia!
This month's question:
May 7 question - Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?
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This is an interesting question because I don't have a ready answer.
Rejection? I'm not especially afraid of rejection--I find that the more I submit my work, the less an individual rejection hurts, and plenty of rejections have helped me by making me re-examine the work and improve it. (I have a goal this year of submitting my work 100 times in 2025 and I've already done 47, and collected 22 rejections and 2 sales so far).
Failure? Success? Failure and success are only partly up to me, and I've accepted that some of that is out of my control. I have hopes, but not really fears about this. I work to make my writing as strong and meaningful as it can be, and seek opportunities to get it in front of readers, but I don't drive myself crazy wondering if I'll ever make a million bucks or anything like that.
Lack of talent or ability? I believe in my own talent and ability, more often than I don't. (I read somewhere that a writer needs a mixture of humility and chutzpah to make it, and I always try to cultivate that balance).
So what does scare me as a writer?
Maybe, running out of time? I have SO MANY ideas for stories, projects, series, poems, essays, books, etc. Some of them are started; others I've seen to fruition; and lots and lots of them are waiting for their moment in the sun when they become the "main project" and get my full focus.
I just had a birthday--number 54, if you're wondering--and if I follow the pattern of women in my family, that gives me about 35 more years on this side of the soil. I can only take care of myself and hope that I get all 35 years and that I get them in sound mind and body that lets me continue to create. (so there's a second sub-fear: losing my cognitive or physical abilities and being unable to write).
That makes me a little driven. Unwilling to "waste" time. Sometimes it makes me resentful of other responsibilities (like the day job) because those are hours that could be spent developing all these ideas.
So far as fears go, it's not debilitating. Just sort of …motivating. How about you? Do fears hold you back in your creative life? I'd love to hear about in the comments.
You have such a great perspective on rejection, failure, and success. Congrats on submitting 47 times already.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I have a bad habit of just "sitting on" stories and not getting them out there on submission.
DeleteCongrats on the sales -- and rejections for 2025! You have a good point about wasting time not writing...
ReplyDeleteRonel visiting for IWSG day A Refresher on Book Marketing
Thanks. Each rejection is at least a sign that that I put my work out there!
Delete47 submissions is so impressive! Congrats on the sales!
ReplyDeleteFears can definitely hold me back. Eventually I do navigate my way around them (so far, anyway...), but they do make an already long and difficult process even more so.
I spend so much time arguing with my own brain.
DeleteFears have held me back. But like most of us, I'm a work in progress. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnna from elements of emaginette
Absolutely. Me too!
DeleteCongrats on all those submissions! I love that your fear motivates you. When I'm on form, mine does too. I also love the combo of humility and chutzpah. I think that's exactly right.
ReplyDeleteI definitely have days when it stops me, too. But I hope to have more days when it doesn't.
DeleteI read somewhere that cognitive decline happens to people who don't read/talk. That more wordy people tend to keep the decline at bay. So, I would presume a writer (who would have more time after retirement--that is, if any of us get to retire) would probably have a better time of continuing to be sharp well into old age. It's something to hope for, anyway.
ReplyDeleteThat's a reassuring thought! Thank you!
DeleteI really liked what you said about balancing humility with confidence. I agree. We need to have the confidence to take the step to press send, but also the humility to admit that we still have a lot to learn.
ReplyDeleteJust this. It's a balance. Too much humility and you'll never put yourself forward; too much confidence and you can't see your own flaws.
DeleteYou sound far more ambitious than I am. I wish I could say I've done half of what you've accomplished this year. But I'm older so I'll use that excuse.
ReplyDeleteLee
I'm not the MOST ambitious writer in my life, but I do have ambitions for sure.
DeleteYou do not look fifty four! At all.
ReplyDeleteThanks. It's because I'm immature, I think. I never actually grew up.
DeleteGreat job with the submissions! I'd like to get up to 100 in a year, but struggle with the balance of short fiction and novels.
ReplyDeleteI hear you about looking at how long you have left. I'm also looking at about 35 years, if I make it as long as my mother, in as good mental and physical health as she has enjoyed. And I'm picking up my National Parks geezer pass in a couple more weeks!
OOOOOH. I *want* one of those (and the leisure to enjoy it).
DeleteTime is the ultimate enemy. Way to go on so many submissions! I think it's incredible. The truth is, we have to hit far and wide to see what sticks, eh?
ReplyDeleteExactly. And nothing sitting around in my hard drive will go out and get itself published.
Delete