Life Lessons|Inspiration|Writing Dreams
How To Stop Wearing the Writing Mask of Fear
Learn from your mistakes and keep writing anyway
The desire to expand your writing horizons is there, but you’re afraid like others who want to write but have either started or stopped or not tried at all.
Fear appears in many guises. I’m better about not letting this stop me than I used to be. Everyone needs to let it be OK to have a weak first draft. That will help you spot places in your story where you could add improvements.
Learning the various aspects of writing can take time. Relax and give yourself permission to learn and make mistakes. Just learn from your mistakes and keep writing.
“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” F Scott Fitzgerald
If you send in a query letter to a publisher and get back a rejection slip, it isn’t a personal rejection.
A common reason for rejection is a story similar to yours, and they don’t need another one. Another instance is that some beginning writers want to submit their work before they’ve learned the basics of writing. No one comes to scold you because of your short story/article/novel rejection.
If fear is stopping you from writing, get out a pair of imaginary hiking boots with thick soles and stomp that fear into submission. You have the power. If you have said you always wanted to write novels, children’s books, whatever it is you want to write you fill in the blank______ then it is time to start.
Time is precious. Write, illustrate, do both. Write for the joy of putting your words and point of view onto paper (or the computer screen.) Let nothing hold you back. I’ve been writing for many years, without a support system in place. Not one person was in my cheering section. I found that lack of support was another excuse to avoid writing and another disguise of fear.
Want to write? It is time to start. If you’re going to improve, then study and keep putting your fanny in the chair and your hands on the keyboard and continue. Some of it will be a stinkin’ pile of poo. Find the jewels, wash them off, and get back to writing.
The desire to expand your writing horizons is there, but you’re still afraid. The same goes for someone who wants to write but hasn’t started. Or have you started and stopped?
Somehow I’ve managed to learn how to write stories that have touched readers and made them happy. I continue to study and learn and probably always will.
Fear ruled me for so many years I refuse to give in and give it any more of my time. IF YOU WANT TO WRITE, DO IT. If you submit and get rejected, either submit your work someplace else or find what is wrong and fix it. Or self-publish.
Don’t let the fear of rejection, the fear that someone in your family won’t like what you write, or any of the million and one excuses wearing the mask of fear stop you from the joy of writing.
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