If you're not scared, you're not doing it right?

[mithril]

I just picked up 'The Courage to Write" by Ralph Keyes. There was a line in it somewhere in the beginning which said something along the lines of

If you’re not scared, you’re not writing/doing it right.

Now I'm worried that I'm not scared enough..

Though strictly speaking, I haven't really started writing the story part yet. I'm still detailing out the society, the magic system, the monarchy and what not... And I have felt the despair of trying to put down a single line of 'writing'. But I'm not scared yet..

Will that come with time? When the 'research' keeps piling up and no story gets written? Or when the words do come and they are not good enough?

Did not intend to make this a cry for hand holding , but I wondered what sort of fears while writing (attempting to write) have you folks faced. What were your most memorable panic/scared moments? Is it strictly necessary to be scared before you think of beginning?

 

[The Judge]

Well, I'm obviously not doing it right, because I've never been scared of the writing. Frustrated and annoyed and ready to tear my hair out and/or shoot random strangers, but never frightened. I had a bit of a "Can I do this?" moment when starting my SF sequel and then again at the beginning of my fantasy, but no fear as such.

Fear of failure? Fear of finishing it and it will be unreadable? Fear of rejection? Perhaps, but that's nothing to do with the writing as such and certainly has no bearing on how I'm writing, so I don't know how such fears could impel me to do it right if I am doing it wrong.

 

[ctg]

You'll see what he means when you start seriously putting down words in the screen, young padawan. If you don't then there's definitely something wrong in you or then you're a superhuman. And to answer your last questions, I'm being haunted by so many demons that it's not even funny or fruitful to even try to explain them you or anyone else in this bbs.

 

[Mouse]

This is why I don't read 'how to' books. They're all daft!

 

[AnyaKimlin]

This is why I don't read 'how to' books. They're all daft!

Agreed. I love writing: it is fun, and my characters are a blast to deal with. What is there to be scared of? Having said that, I have never spent any real time building a world. I am not sure that ten minutes drawing a map or doodling an image counts.

 

[Bowler1]

Scared is a strong word and my judging by the title (and very quick Amazon look inside) which may be unfair, this feels like a self-help book to get someone who has been thinking of writing, writing. The book may be very helpful but this is what should really scare you.

Wanting to write and never doing so.

My current condition could be a mid-life crisis or finally having done well enough career wise and now making time for childhood dreams, or both could be correct. Regardless I would be more disappointed in myself if I never tried as per Judge. If you want to do anything well then you'll worry over that task and develop fears and wants to go with that ambition. These fears are as rewarding as they are wearing, and possibly more wearing as it’s a hard slog when writing. I'm one book down and that took a year, only to discover I was badly over writing. That is the learning process, and through that I'm developing skills I can use in my daily life. But mostly I'm venting my imagination that till now I was holding in check, much to my own frustration. So I'm writing again, having stopped for a decade or two and in general I'm happier. There are days when I want to shoot people (avoid London & Hampshire) but there are days when it’s all worthwhile. One time CTG call me an artist and made my week that did.

So write, get on with it and take the rough with the smooth.

Phew, I went on a bit there.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Ooh, possibly a mid life crisis here, too, but I definitely hit last year (the clue's in the 1971 bit.....), and decided it was time to actually try to capture the blinking story properly. I have attempted it a couple of times in the past.
Scared; not really, but I do sometimes look at the first page of a new document for a day or two and go eeek, how many words. But, I have one down, sort of, and the other one well under way, and it is the best thing I've ever done. Note to my 20 year old self, you will write it, one day.... You will....

 

[Bowler1]

1971 Was a good year Springs!

 

[mithril]

Wanting to write and never doing so.

That's almost exactly why I decided to jump in.. And is probably why I'm not scared yet. I realised that I will for sure regret not having tried to write once I'm in my 50s and 60s. So why not try now while I still have a few decades of energy left . Also it's my firm belief that if you don't use the gifts/talents/skills you have been blessed with, they go away. And it would be just sad to realise one day that you can no longer imagine anything wonderous and that's what I'm scared of...

Thanks Springs, Anya, Mouse and Judge I was about to decide I'm too stupid/overconfident

ctg - I had to look up padawan I'm definitely not superhuman but I hope I can enjoy the process despite the threat of demons... Good luck exorcising yours.. I've had a small taste of them and I'd much rather it was the last, so I can definitely sympathise...

 

[Abernovo]

I have the 'everything you've written is a pile of horse dung' days, but it doesn't scare me away from writing. In fact, if I don't write, I get annoyed with myself. I think Bowler had it right - it's more scary to want to write and not make the attempt.

By the way, I don't think you're old enough to have a mid-life crisis, springs. Of course that could simply be because of my own birth year.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

See, Aber, that's why you're brill, that's exactly what to say about a ladies age...

 

[Hex]

Agree with Aber about the mid-life crisis!!!

I get scared when I write -- I get scared I'm not communicating what's in my head or that I've taken the wrong turn in a plot (right now, actually, I'm scared that I've introduced a romance theme too early in what's supposed to be a strange-not-overly-romantic YA fantasy).

I'm scared when I get to the end of the easy writes-itself bit and fall into the having-to-think-carefully bit that that's happening because I've made a mistake.

I love writing (really really love) but I do find it frightening sometimes because the stuff in my head is really intense and I want it to work outside my head too -- I'm scared I won't manage that, that I'll mess it up somehow and get something that's not-quite-there.

(having said that, I'm not scared most of the time)

 

[David Evil Overlord]

I've been dreaming up worlds and characters at least since my teens.

Didn't really sit down and make a serious effort to put them down on paper/in pixels till my late thirties (Does a play that poked fun at Dungeons and Dragons, written in my early twenties and probably lost in the intervening decades count? Do pages and pages of worldbuilding for a world that never ever got used count? Do super hero character sketches that I might just be able to recycle into current WIP count?).

Hoping I've made some progress.

Scared? Scared of looking back over my life forty-odd years from now, and realising I could have written something so much better than sparkly vampires, and I never did!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

There's better than sparkly vampires? horror! I might look back and think I should have got past sexy space pilots... but I'm sure I won't. does one ever?

 

[Venusian Broon]

I don't really understand why being scared is being tied into being necessary for writing.

For me it's all about: enthusiam and drive, having fun and being happy, being fresh and alert. They're key for writing, I think, and they're all positive. It's about setting up a momentum or buzz I suppose, which adrenalin-wise may relate to being 'scared'.

Oh and constant striving for perfection and self-improvement helps a lot.

Of course there are down days, but it's more frustration and dissappointment (with myself).



Springs, 1971 is an important year for me too, existence-wise, so don't worry. I hear that now the forties are the new thirties. Or at least I'll keep saying that till I hit 50 and then that'll be the new forties or something like that. (Or thirties if I'm remarkably well preserved...)

 

[Bowler1]

I'm very comfortable with my ray guns and alien bashing. I may try something different but its not very likely.

As per Venusian, I'm having fun doing this and not worrying too much. If I get printed then great and it is my aim, but I'm all too aware of the odds against me. Do I care, well that depends on the day you ask me!

 

[Warren_Paul]

Afraid of rejection, yes.

Afraid of writing, no, never. I love writing, enjoy it so much. I could never be afraid of it. I would argue the other way around. If you are afraid of writing, then you're doing something wrong.

 

[Cynric]

I think I kind of get the "not doing it right" comment.

It took me a while to stop writing idealized characters that always do the right things and hold the right opinions, and were basically projections of what I would want other people to think I was like. Once I started writing about genuine thoughts and feelings, and giving my characters some of the nastier bits of my personality that I would rather other people didn't know were lurking at the back there, it was rather scary. Like being naked in public.

But it's also quite exhilarating...

 

[allmywires]

It took me a while to stop writing idealized characters that always do the right things and hold the right opinions...

This used to be me, but in regards to 'serious' literature and publishers. I thought I had to write characters a certain way, make them edgy and serious enough, and publishers would like me. Now, I write what I like, and I enjoy it far, far more.

Publishing dream has pretty much gone out the window though

 

[Arkose]

I love story telling, but I am scared about writing. I don't think twice about world building and research. I spent all my childhood daydreaming. Creating a story is fun, and I doubt I could ever be scared of creating a story. I think writing makes stories better because it forces people to organize and fill in plot holes. I am realizing how bad my knowledge of English grammar is. I am looking up the basic sentence structure, feeling pretty low for wasting my youth. So, Yes I am currently afraid I will never have enough grammar knowledge to produce a readable story.

I don't think many people of scared of story telling but maybe many fear grammar.

Back to the grammar books.