Member-only story
Writers, I have a question. What are you afraid of?
Besides the obvious like spiders, and heights, what as writers are we afraid of? Failing, that our work is not good enough. It’s a universal fear among us writers, but when you think about it, it has nothing to do with the writing in itself, but it has everything to do with us as the writer and the fear we project on our writing. True, objective things could be wrong with your work but they’re fixable, nothing to be feared.
One of my favorite informational books is Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. In it they say:
“Fear about artmaking falls into two families: Fears about yourself, and fears about your reception by others.”
Love their insight because you love your work. It’s a little baby, but criticism comes when external factors corrupt that love, like ‘oh, what if people don’t like it?’ ‘What if it’s not good enough?’ Which translates into ‘what if I’m not good enough’ because you’re the one writing, you’re the one creating. There’s nothing wrong with your writing, there is room to improve but nothing wrong with it.
Basically, your art, which is your writing, is not the problem, you are. I’m not afraid to say it. You’re the problem, you’re getting in your own way. The author goes on to say that:
