Fear

Sometimes fear can be stifling in writing.

You may fear what others will think, so why bother writing.

You may fear that others will not accept what you enjoy writing, so why bother writing.

Maybe journal writing isn't good enough for a parent. Maybe your dreams of publishing short stories isn't good enough for a spouse.

You may fear the inevitible rejection that comes with send out manuscripts and queries.

Who knows?

But fear can be crippling.

A quote from the novel Dune by Frank Herbert. In the novel, there is a group of witches called the Bene Gesserit, and they have a "litany against fear." It goes:
"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."

I am often of the mind that there are three things that prevent people from succeeding in the world of writing and none have a thing to do with talent.

One is discipline or lack there of. It takes discipline to write 500, 1,000 or 2,000 words a day, every day, including Christmas, your birthday and new years. It takes discipline to write a 80,000 word novel with no clue if it will ever sell. Without it, you cannot succeed.

Second is a true desire to do this. For some people, I think their desire is lacking. They think they want to do this until they find out it really is hard work. Or maybe their desire is motivated by something else. They want to be a writer because someone they love wants them to be a writer, or they think it is a road to riches, or whatever. But often, I think aspiring writers fail because their motivations to write are false.

Finally, I think a lot fail because of fear. I often feel fear in my writing career. Is it good enough? Will this story publish it? Am I just wasting my time?

But fear is meant to be overcome and little victories help.

I remember years ago I taught a kid judo. He practiced dilligently and was a pretty good kid. However, he competed often and competed badly. For the first year, his opponents just mopped the mat up with him. In a word, it was ugly. One day he fought a match against the national champion in his age and weight division. The kid lost, but he fought to the time limit and even scored a couple of points, throwing the champ once for a small score. To him, it was a victory. After that, he fought with more confidence and started to win. And win. And win. By the time I moved on, he was consistently a top-5 finisher at nationals.

Stephen King makes a good comment about this in his book "On Writing." I'm not sure exactly what he said, but he mentioned the importance of reading a lot and what it does for you to read something that has actually been published and think "I'm doing better than this!"

It breeds confidence as does the little things -- a handwritten rejection instead of the damned form letters. A small publication saying yes. Being a finalist in a contest.

Have the courage to be a writer. Have the courage to be the kind of writer you want to be.

In closing, maybe these quotes will inspire:

"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway."
John Wayne

"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads."
Erica Jong

"Courage is fear that has said its prayers."
Dorothy Bernard

"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
Harold Wilson

And finally...

"Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air."
John Quincy Adams