Fear is the mind killer . . .

 March 27, 2017

I don’t have much for today. I’ve been cleaning up and making ready a room in my home for rent. The cost of living keeps going up but wages are depressed. I’m not stating this for a political debate, just stating why I don’t have much today.

Looking at blogs, watching vlogs, listening to podcasts, and talking with my fellow writers I know that a lot of the fears I have are not unique to me. That fear of failure, that fear that I’m not good enough, the raw terror that when I do share my work that people are going to flay me.  The sad truth is that each of these things is a true and real possibility. Then again nothing with risk is guaranteed and writing and publishing is one of the riskiest ventures you can go into.

Having typed all that just remember (and I have to remind myself of this) you are not alone. Every writer has these fears. Fear is a good thing. Fear is what has kept us alive for so long. Fear makes us look at the risks and weigh the rewards. Fear is normal, fear is healthy. The one thing you don’t want to do is let fear rule your life. Don’t let fear win. Pay attention to fear, listen to it, but make sure you have other council.

There are communities, online and probably where you live, that you can find writers and get reassurance. We had a small get together for games today and I met a really cool writer. We discussed a lot about the craft and some of the fears we each have. She mentioned a friend she has who has quite a few books out there but that he wasn’t getting many sales. This story isn’t uncommon. This is one of my biggest fears – that I’m going to pour my heart, my soul, and my valuable time into an endeavor that isn’t going pay off. Don’t let this feeling cripple you.

Fear is powerful, fear can be crippling, and fear will always be niggling in the back of your mind. Acknowledge the fear, look for the root cause, and do what you can to mitigate that cause as much as you can. It isn’t easy and it won’t always work. If you fail you fail. Don’t let the fear of failure stop you.

I’ve spent most of my life taking the safest course or the path of least resistance because of fear. My mind is my own worst enemy and if given free reign will take me to dark places. Instead of worrying about what happens when you fail start worrying about what happens when you succeed. Success breeds success. And if all else fails look to the community for support.

Okay, so maybe I have more than I planned in this rambling pep talk. In terms of writing progress I’m still revising and rewriting SS1. I’m up to 24276 words on it with a starting count of 12323 words.  I’m a hair over halfway done and I’m guessing about 30K words when this draft is done.  Once completed I’ll put it up for beta reads.

I’m also thinking about doing the Nano writing thing for April. I have an idea for a filler story for my protagonist so that it’s not just him vs demons in every story. More on that to come.

As always please post comments, ideas, or suggestions at the bottom!