SPA Girls Podcast – EP286 – Writers’ Fears
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Resistance. Fear. Procrastination. Avoidance. Most of us writers struggle with these challenges at some point in their career (or day!). This episode we cover everything from the struggle to finish a manuscript through to fear of publishing, and everything in between.
This blogpost inspired today’s episode : http://positivewriter.com/scared-writer/ Blog post by Harrison Demchick
excerpt: Two Kinds of Scared Writers
During my weekly writing group, I’ve been working on a screenplay that begins, oddly enough, with a weekly writing group. My main characters are a pair of best friends named Mindy and Lane, and what I’ve realized during the development of this story is that Mindy and Lane represent two particular kinds of scared writers. They’re the kinds we all see in our writing groups and workshops.
There’s a very good chance we’re one of them.
1) Mindy is the writer who doesn’t finish.
She has ideas, but she never really pursues them, because she sees every obstacle as a sign that she isn’t good enough. And if she did push on and did finish a draft of something, it would be bad, and then she’d know she could never be good enough. So she comes up with ideas, abandons them, and struggles with the next one.
2) Lane is the writer who doesn’t fight.
He has a finished manuscript, but he doesn’t want to do anything with it. It’s the creative accomplishment that matters. But really, he fears what comes next—agents and publishers and rejection. Or he fears the marketing battle any author, traditionally published or self-published, must face. Maybe, at heart, he too doesn’t think he’s good enough, so he hides behind the pretense of contentment and never works for his real dreams.”
++ SPA Girls’ additions
Along with Mindy and Lane, we’ve added:
Mandy – Mindy’s sister, Shane – Lane’s twin brother, and Xanthe
Listen up for their fears and how we can so relate (let’s not even get into Shar’s weighted hula hoop disaster) and tools for overcoming fears we’ve found that work.
Recommend reading and resources:
Steven Pressfield’s book War on Art and his blog
SPA Girls Podcast with Amira Alvarez on Imposter Syndrome
Brene Brown https://brenebrown.com/
Developing A Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck
Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck
April 8, 2021
As usual you gals lifted my sprits. I love your intro it puts me in a good mood all day. Yes self-publishing is a tremendous amount of work. I published my second book. woo woo.
The least fun and most frustration is publishing a book on Amazon, you don’t know the corrections you’ve made work until 72 hours or more later. I’ve been trying to get them to change my page count of my 1st book from 450+ (large print) to 250 + (trade paperback) so I gave up.Amazon does what they wish.
The best fun I have when writing a mystery is the “mwa ha ha” me twirling my imaginary mustache when the “games afoot”. I had a plot twist about DNA that was marvelously devious, but very true. When I got to the middle of my new book I couldn’t decide who bumped off the playboy husband, so I kept writing until my character who did it entered my dream one night and explained how and why she did it. That is the glorious fun part of writing.
As far as fears go – I’m the woman who left her husband when 5 months pregnant and packed my other 5 kids up , then drove 1700 miles to escape him so nothing in my life will ever terrify me as much as that journey. It took me 24 years to graduate from college.
As a writer I take criticism with gratitude and sometimes they’re right, sometimes I disagree with my favorite writing tools Pro-write and Grammarly. Most of the time I appreciate my editors unbiased suggestions. I am probably the most ruthless when it comes to editing my books, because I get dinged for passive voice (50 years of writing for academia, newspapers, college textbooks, technical writing) There’s no exciting way to tell someone how to fit a screw into a hole.
However, I am a voracious reader. Dear Marie Kondo I pared my books down to 30 on my nightstand, and 4500 on my kindle, and 3000 in my library.
I used to beat myself up for not writing, but I started using a bullet journal and have been 20 times more productive. Let’s face it if you are a woman you are responsible for the house. I don’t care what others say the reality is you are repsonsible period, in real life. So I fit my chore time (dog, dishes, laundry, calls, sorting, breakfast, supper, lunch is everyone for themselves,) from 9-12, before 8 is my time to relax listen to the spa girls, and joanna penn. I bought one of those signs for businesses and put my hours on my office door (12-6 writing), from 6-7 is supper and catch up on daily chores. From 7 to 10 I give myself my ‘filling up the well’, as Jo Penn says. I relax, do my email, watch news, weather, mysteries, or read. I’ve stopped feeling guilty about the time I write and the time I ‘fill the well”. I always liked Agatha Christies quote, “The best time to think of a plot twist is while doing dishes.” It’s so true because chores are are a mindless boring thankless task that must be done unless you want to live in filth and chaos-no thanks. Of course I draw the line at dusting, I don’t think I’ve dusted in years. I let the person whom it bothers the most do it.
Thanks for all the laughter, cheerfulness, and good advice, you all keep me going.
April 27, 2021
We so appreciate your positivity Martha!
April 20, 2021
It was such a thrill to see my work used in this way! That’s what you hope for with a guest post–that it makes a difference to people. This was a great podcast. Thank you so much for doing it.
April 27, 2021
Thank YOU Harrison! You inspired us 🙂