Today is IWSG Day! Author Alex J. Cavanaugh is the founder. Alex realized that the writing community offered an abundance of support and needed it too. This IWSG group acts as a form of therapy, letting writers post about situations where they need encouragement, or to offer words of encouragement to others.
The awesome co-hosts for the May 7 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Janet Alcorn, Rebecca Douglass, Jemima Pett, and Pat Garcia!
May 7 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?
After reading Feather Stone‘s response to the question, I deleted my post. She said it all. If you don’t love your writing, surrender … and then I read Pat Garcia, and I added my post back. Why not be honest and vulnerable. After all, that’s who I am.
My truest, easiest answer to this month’s thought-provoking question is …
My greatest fear is me and I’ve been writing and publishing for fifty years.
Still, my fear is:
Making wrong decisions.
Publishing a horrible story with a big gaping hole in the plot.
Looking stupid to the entire writing and publishing community.
Proving to everyone I have no talent.
Being so successful that I have to promote.
Being so Unsuccessful that I have to promote.
Having to promote when I feel like an imposter.
Having to defend my work when sharks appear.
Being challenged by anyone and everything about anything and everything.
So I do nothing and there in lies the problem.
I do nothing.
Now and then I have a burst of boldness and submit a piece, query or do something out of the ordinary. I force myself…to be brave. Professional. As if I know what I’m doing.
That’s how I became a contributor to Southern Writers Magazine. A whisk of boldness overtook me and I responded to the publisher’s call. I was certain she’d reject me but she didn’t. In spite of my insecurities, I lasted for almost seven years.
And that’s how I became Director of a professional writing department at a regional college—overseeing courses for writers. I had to be asked three times before I accepted. I was certain I couldn’t do it—but I did.
I can cite other opportunities that came my way because of a “few and far between spurts” of boldness. I know I’m my worst enemy when it comes to writing and publishing. Oh, how I admire all of you brave writers out there. I wish I could throw caution to the wind and just do what I want to do, when I want to do it, and how I want to do it.
Manage?
I don’t manage. I wait for that spurt of boldness to penetrate my brain and move me forward.
I act on it before it disappears.
And then…
And then…
I wait to be shot down.
But let me encourage each of you to write, to act, to chase after those dreams. Don’t live in hesitation, questioning yourself as if sitting in a courtroom before a jury. Be bold–always.
And never give up.
