3 Circles of Writer Doubt

Fear runs circles around every writer. I think there are three basic categories of doubt that attacks writers: fears about yourself, fears about your idea, and fears about others.

• Fear can lead to doubt. You might doubt yourself as a writer. You might doubt the worth of your idea. You might doubt how others will receive you or your work. Breaking out of any of these circles of fear requires courage. You need to accept and deal with your fear or...
• Doubt can lead to excuses. You could find yourself making excuses to remain as you are. You could find yourself making excuses for idea's “flaws”. You could find yourself making excuses not to show others your work. Breaking out of any of these circles of fear requires work. You need to put in the work to overcome or compensate for any perceived shortcomings. When you don't...
• Excuses can lead to avoidance. You find yourself avoiding the part of you that is a writer. You avoid the idea that once got you so excited. You avoid talking about it to other people. Breaking out of avoidance takes some serious will-power.

Avoiding writing can lead to frustration, guilt, and a whole host of other negative emotions and negative beliefs. Decide which circle your fear runs in: self, idea, others. Then break the cycle. Get help from others if necessary.

Writing Fears: Chances to Be Better Writer

 (Photo credit: MA Wright WP Dad)

        Fear of failure can become a powerful tool if used correctly. Motivation, character insights, and growth as a writer... all can come from examining and facing your fears. Wait, what?

         Fears of failure, fears you aren't good enough, and fears you will fall behind your friends. All these have implicit goals in them. And the best way to fight these fears is to write. Keep going until you succeed. Get better. Write faster. You can use your fears to give you that little extra boost of energy and motivation to reach your personal goals.

         All characters need a flaw and fears of failure can be crippling until overcome. A great character arc, eh? Further, a fear of failing to reach the story goal is a natural phase that the character goes through – it makes the story more intense. But this fear needs to be believable – not just through external obstacles but through the character's feelings. Your fears and those of others can help you develop believable characters.

         The precise nature of your fears (just what you are afraid of) may highlight your weak points as a writer. Some fears are meant to be accepted and harvested as fodder for your books. But fears that reveal personal or writing weaknesses can be accepted, harvested, and overcome. Fears of failure are often overcome by changes in perception of failure.

         First, allow for failure as a part of success. You are an inventor – not every idea will be genius. You are an artist – you need experience to create a masterpiece. You are a writer – you aren't stuck with what you first produce, you can revise.

         Second, learn to forgive yourself. It is easy to fear failure when you believe failure reflects on you as a person. If you fail and you tried your best (or almost best), the flaw was not in you but in your materials, your skills, or your approach. These may or may not reflect on you as a writer and can be enhanced, changed, or exchanged. Examine your “failed” project. Once you know why it has failed, congratulate yourself instead of beating yourself up. Make a goal of changing. Now you can move forward out of self-blame.

         Writing is an intensely personal, intense, and involving act. But even when it is an integral part of you, it is still only a part. You may have failed, but You-The-Person are not a failure just because a character, subplot, or entire project does not work. Everyone fails sometimes, which it is why to base your personal identity on any one thing. It is a good idea to have several important areas of your life that you can retreat to for success or affirmation when your writing goes bad.

        So bring it on.

The Dark Side: Fight Your Negative Emotions (Atala)

Lust (Photo credit: Leonard John Matthews)

The Atala is located in the hips. It controls fear and lust.

• Fear and Lust: want to gain or avoid something. Instinctive. Fear is distress caused by a threat (or perceived threat). Lust – and I'm emphasizing the nonsexual sense because we are talking about your writing potential – is a craving for something. Both are powerful desires for something that can cause you to neglect important activities.
• Be Reactive: Choose how you react! Starting with fear, are you paralyzed or can you still function? Is the fear reasonable? Since we are talking about fear in regards to writing, maybe it is reasonable but it is still holding you back. Recognizing you are afraid is the first step. The second step is putting words to what you are afraid of. I think that only then can you mount an efficient offense. For lust, is this lust or jealousy? Lust is for a person, object, or abstract without the negative emotions. Is lust for a prize preventing you from moving forward or is does it motivate you? If there are no negative effects on your life, there may be no problem. But if you are neglecting (especially for a long time) other areas of your writing or your life, there needs to be a change.
• Be Proactive: Change how you act! Target the area of neglect. Set aside time for that activity – as much time as you can so you have time to overcome inner distraction. If you feel you can't write, write down “I can't write because...” Talk about what is distracting you. True, this is not your WIP but it is still writing. You are still practicing writing skills. If the fear or lust is really strong, look for ways to incorporate an aspect of this preoccupation into a main character – or even better, different facets into different characters (desire for social recognition, fear of failure). Then you have the start of a theme and deeper characters. Imbed examples of fear or lust throughout your WIP. If you can, have it affect the important decisions made by your characters. Before you know it, you'll be writing again and processing the emotion.

Related articles

• Learn to Feel Your Feelings (realrest.wordpress.com)
• Why I write... (whatismineisyoursblog.wordpress.com)
• Write On: Get back on the horse (ballardnewstribune.com)
• The Light Side and Dark Side of Writing (An Introduction) (dragonplume.wordpress.com)

Writing Through Fear

Okay, so I’m scared to write. I’m certain that whatever I write will be worthless. But it needs to be done and I can’t edit a blank page. Editing is my salvation. I can add or change things for the better once I have written those first words. And I like cutting words, scenes, and chapters. I get rid of the chaff for a better over-all book.What is left when you remove chaff? Bare seeds I think… Wheat, rye, whatever. Seeds that can be eaten, thrown, or grown. For the reader, books and their ideas can be used in all three ways. But please apologize to the book later if you throw it…

5 Ways to Raise Your Word Count Rates

Scrabble, Word Games (Photo credit: windygig)

The point of these techniques is to get the words flowing faster and freer and temporarily shut down the inner critic that can slow your flow of words.

1. Prompts. You can start with ones written by someone else but I recommend eventually making your own. When you write your own prompts, the topic is more likely to be in line with your writing subject, situation, and style.
2. Outlines. Sorry pansters, but plotters get points here. An outline can be made as general or as specific as necessary. And if you know where you are going, it is a lot easier to get going. And once going, get gone.
3. Time limits. Some people perform better under pressure but some people perform worse. Either way, a time limit can force you to temporarily circumvent your inner critic long enough to get something down to edit later – so long as you don’t let fear stop you.
4. Word goals. This, of course, forces you to put a certain number of words on the page, no matter what. Words, even bad words, have to come from somewhere and a large word goal will force you to delve deep into that well (or whatever) of your creativity.
5. Practice. It is a habit and a skill to be learned. As you continue to put words on the page, the words will start to come faster. Even your slow days will be faster than your “old” slow days.

In Sickness and In Health

is "when swine flu" really the past tense of "when pigs fly" (Photo credit: Graela)

So sorry for not posting yesterday. I had a nasty bug and barely made my word count.
It bothers me a bit when I’m sick and people say, “I hope you get better,” as though not getting better is a real option. It seems a morbid reassurance. How much better to wish someone “I hope you get better SOON”!
More importantly, even when I’m puking up my guts, I’ve still got to write. I take writing as seriously — or maybe more seriously — as any other profession. And this book is an impatient one, punishing me if I take time off.

April Fool's - 10 Things "To Do" with Your Story

Some WONDERFUL ideas for your book. (some exceptions apply)

1. Don’t know what to write? Just cut and paste from your favorite book.
2. Bored with your main character? Change his name half-way through the book.
3. Hate your bad guy’s guts? Kill him off in the second scene.
4. Word count too short? Add random scenes to flesh it out.
5. Word count too long? No one cares how the book ends. Cut it out.
6. Don’t feel like meeting that deadline? Then don’t write!
7. Not enough sizzle in a genre romance? Make it a harem.
8. Too little suspense in that thriller? Give the detective a Tahiti vacation.
9. Bored with fantasy worlds? Make it an all-human cast with identical sociopolitical values and views.
10. Need more back story? Just do an “As you know, Bob…” info dump.

Add your favorite ideas here…