Welcome to IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to
share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of
appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer
assistance and guidance. It’s a haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG
is the brainchild of our ninja leader Alex Cavanaugh. Thank
you to May co-hosts: Feather Stone, Janet Alcorn, Rebecca Douglass, Jemima Pett, and Pat
Garcia! For a list and links
to all contributors, click here.
This month’s optional 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?
My fears? Easy peasy. All of the above. How do I manage them? Well, that question provides some muddy grounds for introspection…
Remember how Dorie from Finding Nemo use to say “Just
keep swimming. Just keep swimming?”
That’s me, I guess. A long time ago an acquaintance, a published
author of fiction and non-fiction, said to me, “As long as you never give up,
you’ll get there.”
I keep that advice front and forward, but sometimes a little
voice inside me suggests it’s time to call the game on account of darkness. It’s time to hang up my typing fingers as it were. But then I think of the
hours I’ve put in, and more importantly, of how much joy the writing has
brought. It would be awful to let it all come to nothing. Besides, if I let
myself drift away from my writing, I have zero doubt that eventually it will call me back. It’s a
kind of addiction. The craving to write always lurks.
At the current time I’m probably in a writing lull, but it’s
OK. Fulfilling a promise to myself, upon retirement I started working on the
lessons from Walking in this World, by Julia Cameron. That means as soon
as I wake up, I’m writing “Morning Pages,” three pages longhand. It’s a brain
dump. Letting whatever is on my mind out. It’s not writing that will ever be
published, but it’s writing. So if on a given day, I miss sitting down to work
on something that’s theoretically publishable, at least I’ve written something.
I’ve kept the neurons firing.
Sometimes I post things on IWSG to hold myself accountable. So here’s a confession. I have (very) slowly begun a list to where I want to query my current novel. It’s slow because Julia Cameron requires that I walk. I’m also having fun working in the garden and getting things done at my own pace. It's beyond marvelous not to have to cram all the “to do’s” into one weekend. Quite frankly, I plan to luxuriate in it for a bit.
But in spite of how much I’m enjoying myself, let’s be truthful
here. You would be correct to call these lovely distractions procrastination. File
them under “Fear of failure.”
What are your writing fears and how do you address them?
