What’s the one thing stopping writers from bringing their story to the finish line?
Fear.
Maybe you fear visibility and the expectations and judgements you’ll open yourself up to.
Then there’s the fear of rejection. Even if you’re nowhere near ready to submit your story, it weighs on your mind and prevents you from finishing.
And the idea that after doing all that work, you might face rejection, is stifling. How do you get past that?
Maybe you’re afraid of putting your book out there. You just keep wanting to do one read-through after another. It’s never good enough.
Maybe your greatest fear is that you’ll let yourself down.
In today’s episode, we’re breaking down 4 common fears that keep writers stuck. Then we’ll replace those fears with mindset shifts to get you unstuck. So you can shift your writing from dream to reality.
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Episode at a glance:
[01:30] Fear come in many forms. From fear of rejection and failure to fear of disappointing ourselves, when we internalize these primal and compulsive fears, it inhibits our writing.
[03:39] Fear number one, and the most corrosive, is fear of rejection. We’re hardwired to feel accepted and validated by our fellow humans. It’s a primal urge. So putting our work out there can open us up to criticism and ridicule.
[05:30] Fear number 2, is fear of the struggle. Writing is hard. And when we encounter obstacles, as we most definitely will, we think we just don’t have what it takes. But it’s absurd to believe you should know everything you need to know to write this story the first time you attempt it. common legal issues plaguing writers.
[07:39] Common fear number 3 is fear of wasting time. Because what if after all that work you pour into this story, nobody likes it? Or it faces rejection from agents and publishers? Learn why writing is never a waste of time, even if your book never sees the light of day.
[08:51] Fear number 4 is fear of responsibility. It’s far too easy to blame our circumstances for not writing, or giving it up. But we have have more personal power than we’d like to admit. Even if our circumstances are not within our control, we do have total command over how we respond to our challenges.
[09.40] The first mindset shift to dispel your fears is to stop buying into this belief that your current circumstances or writing capabilities are fixed or permanent. Your capacity to grow as a writer, and write the story you’re burning to tell is limitless.
[11.56] Learn why confidence doesn’t come from having written and published, but from trusting yourself to figure out how to write the story in a way that connects with readers. That takes time, energy, and trial and error. We don’t learn from success. We learn from making mistakes.
[12.59] Self doubt is a given. You’ll never completely eliminate it. Notice it. Acknowledge it. But don’t indulge in it. Your self doubt is just a signal to learn what you need to learn to write a better story.
[15.46] What about perfectionism? Learn what it really means to perfect something, and why white knuckling your story and never believing it’s good enough is not serving you.
Also Listen To:
Episode 108: 3 Things Published Authors Do Differently
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