Or: A glimpse into Saturday’s psyche
If there’s one thing we as writers do very well, it’s worry. Well, and procrastinate. (Facebook games, anyone?) But worrying is right up there, too.
I sometimes joke that I have a “list” of worries. While this isn’t quite true, there are a lot of things that I worry about in the back of my head. I worry that I won’t ever get an agent (even though I’m not even querying yet). I worry that if I do get an agent, I won’t get published.
I worry that if I get published, people won’t like or understand my characters, that they won’t buy the book, that (if it’s le WIP1 that gets out into the world) a certain character will be bashed, that my old high school/library will ask me to speak or something. (No, seriously, this terrifies me. I hated the high school I went to and I work at the library.)
I worry that people won’t like me.
Since I semi-like le WIP1 and I have friends who have told me they like it, I worry that WIP2 won’t be as good. I worry horribly that it’s not any good (even though I tell myself revising is a very good thing). I worry that my voice won't sound any different from project to project, that I'll just be writing the same voice over and over again.
I worry about all these things and many, many (many) more, but I don't believe I'll ever let myself stop writing, or stop trying to get my work out there in one way or another. I pretty much constantly have someone "talking" in my head, and I don't know how not to write.
So I don't let these worries get to me too much. (Some amount is good, I think, because it keeps you from getting a big head.) And I keep writing.
What are some of your biggest worries? What do you do to handle them?
Peace and cookies,
Laina
Um...Laina, are you a mind reader as well, cus this is totally how I feel.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same! One of my major fears is that someone already has the same idea and I don't know about it. I don't want people to think I was copying anyone. My ideas are purely my own creations, so it scares me to think someone would have the same idea.
ReplyDeleteI'm also scared that a group of my friends (i.e. school, church, groups, etc.) will think differently of me or that they'll want me to read it to them. I kinda don't like reading my story out loud...lol
I have a lot of the same worries you do, actually... I also worry that I'll never be able to make myself revise something enough to publish it. I worry that twenty years from now, I'll be a mom, or just a single woman working to put bread on the table with a million rough drafts shut away in her closet, never to be shared with the world until I die and my grandchildren find my old manuscripts and get them published for me. XD
ReplyDeleteBasically, I know what I want to do. But I'm worried that I won't be able to make myself work hard enough to do those things...
As for how I deal with it... I guess I just keep writing. And get really excited about whatever I'm working on to get me the momentum I need to finish it.
Carol: Yes, it's part of my nocturnal witchy powers :P
ReplyDeleteSavannah: Ohhh, those are good ones. I have both of those two... certain family members of mine aren't allowed to read my stories :P
The Writer: You have to keep writing, no matter what. And revising... revising SUCKS, but in the end, it is a great thing.