Conquer Your Fears and Write Your Book
Are you letting your fears hold you back from writing the book that’s waiting inside you? It’s not just you - fear is a common obstacle writers need to confront to take their books from their heads and onto the page. Ralph Keys says it well in his book The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear:
“Any writing exposes writers to judgment about the quality of their work and their thought. The closer they get to painful personal truths, the more fear mounts—not just about what they might reveal but about what they might discover should they venture too deeply inside.”
(By the way, every week, we host a weekly Q&A in our community to talk about all things writing. The fears in this post were directly inspired by our conversation.)
Common Fears Writers Face
What scares you the most about writing a book? Maybe it’s one of these:
Imperfection
Imposter syndrome
Family embarrassment
Not getting your book published
Not sure where to start
Getting ideas stolen
These are natural fears - but they keep you from making forward progress.
How to Beat Your Fears
Writing is an introspective process. There are things you’ll need to confront about yourself, your past, and your way of thinking. Here are some ways to keep it from stopping you:
Realize fear is normal. It’s okay to be scared: if you’re not, something could be wrong! Some measure of fear or hesitation is expected when you’re baring your soul.
Name them out. Sometimes you’ll realize it’s silly, and sometimes you’ll need to work on it more - but writing it down helps you deal with it.
Write your messy draft. Doing this can help you let go of imperfection and work through your feelings - even if you don’t end up putting it in your final manuscript.
Write it for yourself. Worried about family embarrassment? Don’t let it keep you from writing. As we said, you don’t have to put everything from your first draft into your last.
Know that vulnerability is a superpower. Vulnerability increases trust between your target audience and you. (That doesn’t mean you need to write a tell-all book, though!)
Trust your ideas. Are you afraid an idea will get stolen? Use it anyway. It’s your idea and you’ve been mulling it over for some time - a thief could never execute it like you.
Find your people. The more you talk about your book, the more supporters you’ll find. Trust that they’ll back you up all the more if someone takes your idea.
Realize there’s room for you. Think there are too many other books out there for yours to be of value? Not true: there is room for your perspective, insight, and writing style.
Focus on improvement. A bad review can be an opportunity for growth. Evaluate the review and see if you can do better next time.
Remember - most people haven’t written a book. Take any criticism with a grain of salt.
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