We like to call people who flaunt fear and defy death daredevils, like those old barnstormers who flew their rickety biplanes upside down to the delight of the crowds below. But how can what writers do be compared to that? For me, it's not too far a stretch to think of writers as daredevils. I would argue that for many writers, even established ones, fear is the emotion most readily associated with our work. To get anything meaningful accomplished, we have to dig deep, don our daredevil armor and vanquish fear, much as the haints that terrorize us on All Hallow's Eve are conquered by the rising of the Saints on November 1st. Talk with any group of writers and you’ll find they fear the same things... that somehow their work won't be good enough or will never cross the finish line. Or if they do manage to get something written, edited and submitted to a publisher, it will never be bought. Or if their work is miraculously bought, once published, no reader will buy it....

Let’s just get that word out of the way now because it and all its ugly friends—worry, doubt, and anxiety to name a few—often play a role in how or why we write (or don’t). We all at some point have fears, and it seems that we creative types have them in constant, overpowering waves. As I moved into my twenties and began to write in earnest, fear was my constant companion. Every year, there is a plethora of stories published. How was I going to compete? How was I different from or better than those who were already published? Those two questions swirled inside my head all the time. Who did I think I was to think that I was good enough for other people to want to read my work? It didn’t help that some editors recommended that I “write blacker.” The fear of writing expanded to me wondering if and how I could pander to the publishing world my blackness for the sake of being published. When you let fear in, it becomes a squatter. It comes not to visit and have some tea, a little ...

Photo by HTO [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons Writers. We’re talking about the folks who create sci fi novels and don’t flinch when confronted with hostile aliens. And horror writers who deal with vampires, zombies, and werewolves (and worse yet, evil humans) without breaking a sweat. And romance writers who create tales of love and sex, the scariest experiences some people face during their lifetimes. If a writer can handle vicious crimes, terrifying cartels, human trafficking, other tragedies of modern life, and even love, why aren’t they fearless in all things writing-related? I can’t speak for others, but I can tell you what turns me into a squishy doubter of my abilities and ideas. 1. The sneaking suspicion I don’t know what I’m doing. In spite of reading hundreds of books and taking many classes and workshops on writing craft, including plot development, point of view, dialogue, and common mistakes, I still screw up. A lot. Like my last manuscript in which...

I have a confession to make. I am a writer. Well, I was before life stepped in. Well, I was before I let life step into my home and make itself comfortable while my writing wilted in the back of a stuffed closet. And, yes, I write here for Blood-Red Pencil, I write in preparation for teaching, I write in my journal, but you all know what I mean, write, er, right? I'm talking about the writing that transports you into a new world that you create, a world full of angsty characters and obstacles and drama and love and hate …and all the other wonderful components that go into making a story. THAT's the writing I HAVEN'T been doing. And when you are a creative at heart, this is painful. When you have characters and ideas taking up space in your mind, but your heart isn't moved to write, this can be extraordinarily painful. Right now, I'm at an impasse. There has been NO progress in my writing life, and there will be no progress until I stand and make a ...

Fear often freezes us, keeps us from breaking free and stepping into new spaces and opportunities. Have a fear of heights? You avoid traveling long distances, and you definitely avoid bridges and planes. Have a fear of public speaking? You avoid sharing your ideas and thoughts, which means you also avoid the possibility of achieving success through bringing your ideas and thoughts to fruition. Have a fear of writing what scares you? You avoid writing in those spaces that might enable you to learn about yourself as a person and as a writer and growing from that new knowledge. What does "write what scares you" even mean? It could mean writing about those things that have brought pain into your life . Perhaps you have experienced a difficult divorce, and the main character in your latest WIP is experiencing the same thing. Having to balance your creativity and writing with your emotions can be problematic. It could mean writing about those things that don’t direct...

I have a confession. Sometimes, more times than I care to admit, my passion for writing wanes. It hurts just writing that, but it's true. And there are many reasons why this occurs: fear, self-doubt, the busyness of life, just to name a few. But when you are a writer (and by this, I mean not just one who writes, but one who is compelled to, who MUST write), you have to overcome everything that keeps you from the page and get to writing. Poste Rose image by Pixomar at FreeDigitalPhotos.Net When we realize that our writing mojo is on empty, it's important to take some measures to remedy the problem. Here are three suggestions that I use to kick-start the writing. Think about Your Love of Writing Why do you love to write? This is not the time to think about your current situation: that is, the situation where you are not writing and you feel your desire is long gone. This is a time to think about your past writing experiences. Why did you start writing? How do yo...

This post has been reprised and updated from one that first appeared Oct. 17, 2011. False Evidence Appearing Real Having suffered from insomnia in the past and now facing a new journey of life alone after the loss of my husband, I know fear can raise its ugly head during the wee hours when you are between awake and doze. You are most vulnerable then and negative things keep running through your mind in a continuous loop. As writers, we all experience this to some degree at various stages of our work. First it might be “I can’t come up with an idea.” Then, after a great start where the story flows effortlessly, there is that sudden stop and “Oh no! Where do I go next? What if I can’t finish the story?” The fear seems real. After you finish the story and polish it to a high sheen, then fear sets in again: “What if I can’t get it published? What if nobody likes it?” Any small word of critique becomes that F.E.A.R. OK, say your book gets published and after the happ...

We writers are suspicious creatures. Here are 10 things which would fill any writer with horror - or maybe it’s just me.  10. Opening a copy of your new book to discover a typo in the second paragraph on page 57. 9. Realizing half way through your manuscript that you're writing a plot you’ve already employed in a different book. 8. Discovering that half your characters have names starting with the same letter. Don’t laugh. This happened to me and I now have sirens going off in my head if I think about using a name starting with that letter. 7. No coffee. 6. No chocolate. 5. No coffee or chocolate. Yes, I know I’ve written the same thing as #7 and #6; but the horror, the horror! 4. That writer that you know who is more productive in an hour than you are in a week. (And who probably lives in a house that could be on the cover of House Beautiful, but that’s another issue). 3. Discovering that your protagonist isn’t who you thought you wrote at all, but a rather in...

Atrophy : decrease in size or wasting away of a body part or tissue ~ Merriam-Webster.com When we hear or read the word atrophy , we tend to think about muscles . . . parts of the body as the definition above suggests. But what about writing ? Can't it suffer from atrophy, too? Surely, for some writers, there are moments (sometimes long stretches of moments) in which no writing gets done. We might call it writer's block. We might call it focusing on work and family and whatever else is on the list that goes before writing, but the fact remains, the word count is at a standstill. There are some of us that can easily jump back into writer mode as if we never left, but there are others who find coming back to the page a daunting task. It's as if they lost the know-how of writing. Lost the joy and wonder of it as well. I call this Literary Atrophy : the decrease in size or wasting away of writing in one's life. The MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia sugg...

My inability to ask my friend for permission to write about him in my memoir, Standoff at Ronnie's Place , (read part one of this post here ) made me realize something: I was willingly participating in yet another standoff. My memoir puts forth two: the ten-hour police action born of my husband’s stubborn determination to die on the farm of his dreams with his family intact, despite my divorce proceedings against him; and the twelve-year standoff born of my own stubbornness to face down his act by adhering to our decision to raise our sons there. My summer home friend had also been ending a long relationship at the time Ron died, and our deepening friendship was both life-affirming and misunderstood by everyone involved—perhaps most importantly, by him and me. The pain Ron’s suicide caused him eventually eroded our friendship in a way that kept him from talking to me for 12 years. A whole new standoff began. I could no longer perpetuate the problem. We'd once had a strong base ...

False Evidence Appearing Real I’ve been suffering from extreme insomnia recently and I know fear can raise its ugly head during the wee hours when you are between awake and doze. You are most vulnerable then and negative things keep running through your mind in a continuous loop. As writers, we all experience this to some degree at various stages of our work. First it might be “I can’t come up with an idea.” Then, after a great start where the story flows effortlessly, there is that sudden stop and “Oh no! Where do I go next? What if I can’t finish the story?” The fear seems real. After you finish the story and polish it to a high sheen, then fear sets in again: “What if I can’t get it published? What if nobody likes it?” Any small word of critique becomes that F.E.A.R. OK, say your book gets published and after the happy dancing and celebrating calms down, then next phase of fear sets in. “What if I’m a one-shot wonder? That was just a fluke. I’ll never be able to do that a...