Just like the rest of us, she is frightened.
Writing is scary stuff. Let's list a few of the things that can scare someone.
- Rejection by publishers.
- Rejection by agents.
- Rejection by friends and family.
- The possibility that you really DO suck.
- The possibility that you might learn something about yourself that you didn't want to know. (I was pretty surprised that I wrote vampire stories. I wanted to write screw-ball comedies).
- Bad reviews.
- Good reviews.
- Not getting published which leads to...
- Feeling like you've wasted your time.
- Not making money.
These fears are real. They stop people in their tracks every day. They even stop me from time to time.
I have no easy answers about how to not be afraid. In fact, these fears are important. You have to look at them and say, "Well. What if I do suck? What if my work does gets rejected from now until the end of time?"
The payoff might not be worth the pain. If so, then congratulate yourself, and realize that there are many other dreams waiting for you! Maybe you will find fulfillment in improv comedy or Linux open-source work.
Make your fears work for you.
Sorry sweethearts. None of the above fears have anything to do with WRITING. They only have to do with publishing your writing to the public.
ReplyDeleteWriting is a private and often sacred tool to connect with story. Everyone and everything is part of story, which is the concrete version of energy.
So WRITE people, WRITE! No matter what you do for "hire".
**Writing is a private and often sacred tool to connect with story. Everyone and everything is part of story, which is the concrete version of energy.**
ReplyDeleteDo you have any idea how hard I have trying to get that through my friend's brain???
so I am a follower not often but of your blog I am and Glen too when I can rope him in...you are linked to my blog so in a sense a part of my homework. I have to read approximately 20 other peoples too each week.
ReplyDeleteI see a comment from a Terripatrick good name I must say.
I do not sell my artwork unless it is prepaid. I feel tainted, dirty, distracted the adj's go on forever when I am motivated by the receiver, My work is a exercise of process a study of emotion and experience and the ability to convey that which is inside to the outside. Now when there is cash on the table I do whatever the customer wants I am but a vehicle to transport the energy they are not able alone to share. my unsolicited thoughts on being an artist. love ya T
Ah, message to Linda's friend... who yearns to write...
ReplyDeleteYou are already living a life where there is no writing so be happy doing what you do. Feel content that you are not required to be more than who you are. You are wonderful though you've never written a word.
Others will write them for you. Maybe they will get the words right.