Writers are by nature intense creatures. I really believe people who are creatively inclined tend to experience life, well, more intensely than other humans.
Combine that with trying to break into or stay afloat in a tough publishing business, and the writerly pursuit is not without its fears and anxieties.
So what is your greatest fear as a writer? A horrible review? People not liking your book? Obscurity? Paper cuts?
elczenius says
That anything I get published will be reviewed as "just like [insert famous author]'s writing!" I'd hate to be known as a poor mimic of a great author I admire.
wonderer says
It's a toss-up between:
– never being published
and
– being published (in novel length) once and selling so poorly that I'm never published again.
See Elle Oh says
Lots of things about writing scare me. Sometimes I'm afraid I don't read enough or widely enough or the right things. Other times I fear not having the stamina or the stomach to make a serious go of it.
My biggest fear, though, has to be that I'm not good. That somehow I managed to dupe all the people who ever complimented my work, or that the good stuff was a fluke.
All She Writ
Ted Fox says
I'm with you, Michelle–never dropping that "aspiring" moniker.
Julie says
My greatest fear is that I'm kidding myself and maybe, I suck.
Bryan Russell (Ink) says
Hmmm… that's a tricky one. I'd have to say the worsts fears for me would be 1) never becoming as good a writer as I want to be, or 2) never having a chance to write all the stories I want to write.
Jeanne says
That I'll find out that while I'm good at expressing myself with words and relating descriptions of my observations, I suck at storytelling or coming up with innovative fiction.
It wouldn't be a total loss. I could focus on creative non-fiction. But would I still be able to dream of being a novelist?
Shane says
Fears? We don't need no stinking fears! (Said with a cheech and chong accent.)
Nothing. I fear no one or nothing. Well, except that guy who pointed a gun at my head once, I was in a bit of a pickle that day.
As a writer, nothing. Do what you love, love what you do and let the chips fall where they may.
Ok, enough trite, cliche's… TIME! Not enough time in the day to get the story out and on paper, err, disk.
crow productions says
I went as far as writing it, querying about it, sent it in to an agent… I haven't heard anything. What if they hate it?
Anonymous says
Mine is exactly was Sabrina Shields said.
Shayda Bakhshi says
That all my blood/sweat/tears, careful research, and wordsmithing prowess will be no match for the powers of Bad Timing.
"I love this project, but I just recently sold something like it. . ."
"I'm not taking clients anymore. . ."
"I'm not a literary agent anymore. . ." *COUGH* 😉
(In all seriousness, you are awesome and I think it's cool you're doing something new and exciting! But I did have to throw that in.)
But yeah. That's got to be my biggest fear–doing everything right, but submitting at the wrong time/with the wrong project for the agents/market.
Although I'd be willing to bet that if I'm successful, I'll have a whole new slew of fears, which is both exciting and scary.
Cathi says
My greatest fear is that I've put the last 5 years of my life on hold for nothing…
Rane Anderson says
My greatest fear is dedicating all of my time and energy and soul and hopes and…and………
and then not arriving at the goals I've set for myself.
I try not to think about my fears about writing and publishing, though. It will only hold me back.
Jodi Henry says
That Stephen King will read my novel and tell everyone I am a hack.
Oh, wait, he's already done that to someone.
Okay new, fear.
That no one will read the things I want to write about.
Or if they do it will be in the bathroom for lack of anything else to read.
J
G says
My biggest fear is being ignored.
Katherine Hyde says
1) That I will never publish a novel.
2) That I will publish something that I will later be embarrassed by–that I will fail to live up to my own internal standard of excellence.
Susan Lewis says
My greatest fear is that I'm not good at it and don't have the ability to be great.
Leah says
That I'll never finish. Or if I somehow manage to complete a whole book… that it'll be crap.
Lillian Grant says
I used to be terrified I would never get published. Now I am terrified that with one book out I will never get another one published. The time it takes to get a response to submissions in the publishing world doesn't help. It has me on the edge of a breakdown 24/7.
johnvise says
Never getting that first bloody book sold.
johnvise says
Though rationally, once that book is sold, I'm sure another greatest fear will develop.
Wendy and Charles Siefken says
My greatest fear as a writer is that no one will like my stories. I have been working of finding an Agent for almost a year now and still haven't had any luck yet. I have edited and revised but still no takers. Now I find that you are no longer an agent! I will keep trying and keep revising. But I fear I have edited as… much as I, a non professional, can do. I hope someday you are open to receiving queries again. Have a great day,
Henya says
Paper cuts…number one on the list. Seriously…I'm afraid of success. That means going out there and having to talk about my book and, oh boy, about myself. I am not that interesting. I am not that good of a writer (Oh…the voices…the voices. They'll kill me).
Will Foley says
I'm actually torn: I have two.
The first, obviously, is not getting published. That would be terrible.
The second is not expressing an idea where it would fit perfectly, like if I come up with some new scene that's just filled with crazyawesomeYEAH, but won't fit into the book where I am now, but rather at some later point. And then once I'm past said point, I look back and realize that I forgot to use that awesome scene I had envisioned, and that if I went back to rewrite it would make the plot's direction look like a squiggly line.
Mariam Maarouf says
I don't worry much about people liking my book – I can't please everyone and other people have already told me they liked it. But my greatest fear as a writer is people not liking my *writing* per se – technique wise.
I'm a science-lover, and I believe that everything, including writing, should follow some certain rules and guidelines, and if my writing doesn't follow it, it means that I, as a writer, have failed to make my writing worth reading.
Anonymous says
"I really believe people who are creatively inclined tend to experience life, well, more intensely than other humans."
Some might think that's a little self-indulgent.
I remember a great line from an old film that went something like this: Some people drink because they are poets, some drink because they aren't poets.
Kristin Laughtin says
Lately it's been that my writing doesn't live up to my ideas.
If I were to be published, it'd probably be inadvertently writing something that can be interpreted as offensive and getting labeled as racist, sexist, etc. I know some people will not like whatever work I produce anyway, but I would hate to write something so poorly that it could be misinterpreted like that.
Heidi says
Haha, paper cuts. Just kidding. I would have to say either that 1) I never finish anything properly or 2) my writing is actually terrible.
JDuncan says
This is a hard one. I think currently, my greatest writerly fear is finishing my three-book debut contract and having things go so poorly that I never sell again. It's that whole, "dreams achieved and then dashed" thing. It's an irrational fear and I don't think it will happen, but it's there nonetheless.
Anonymous says
My antidepressant keeps me from writing well so I've just stopped taking it. Doing so has done leaps and bounds for my writing inspiration and output. I need to feel certain feelings in order to write what I have got to write. I fear both finding out that my writing is not worth putting my well-being on the line and also that putting it on the line is the only way to write.
Jil says
That my computer skills will not get my manuscripts out formatted in the way I have spent so many hours preparing them. The one time I did send something the rejection came advising me not to send things in pink! Pink?
wheresmypencil says
My biggest fear is putting all this time and effort into doing something I love and am acutally passionate about and discovering it's no good. I'm no good. That my writing, the story, everything is so bad my own family won't even pick it up. And yes, even though I'm on my third revision, no one but me as actually read what I've written.
This kind of failure I've never experienced in anything, and yet I'm more terrified of it than anything else because writing is the one thing that has and always will just be me; my thoughts, my words. And if they fail I'll have no one to blame.
Magdalena Munro says
I am deathly afraid of mediocrity….something that has plagued me since having been besieged by the happy bug for about a year now. (Yup…I'm one of those writers that writes best when wallowing in angst)
StaceyW says
While I was writing the first draft of my first novel, I experienced this fleeting fear each time I sat down to start a new section or a new chapter or even a new sentence that I'd somehow lost my touch.
That I no longer had the ability to craft strong sentences. That I'd lost the drive that kept my fingers flying across the keys. That I'd lost the ability to write, period.
It was irrational – and thankfully unfounded. I can still put a sentence together. I'm still driven. I'm still a writer.
And I completed the manuscript.
Now, my greatest fear is that it won't be published.
Lia says
That I only had one good idea and I already used it up.
(Otherwise, what Sherri said!)
Niki Schoenfeldt says
Working to hone my craft all this years only to find out I suck.
Aimee Dearmon says
That I'm kidding myself. That I'm one of those fools who considers themselves a writer, but can't really write any better than a British mute can speak Chinese.
Also, that my real endeavors are nothing but a huge waste of time.
February Grace says
Writing like a coward–meaning worrying too much what other people will think of the work.
It's been a new experience for me the past year, and only started once I began looking into the idea of finding an agent. I hate that.
I quickly realized I'm not cut out for the 'business' end of writing, and now, I just want my art back.
I'm trying to find my way back to fearless writing, but it's proving more difficult than I'd imagined in my nightmares.
My fear? Staying where I am now. I have to get beyond it.
~bru
Bryan says
Bears.
Becky says
not finishing my novel after I told everybody I was writing one.
Alex Adams says
That the zombie apocalypse will start before my book hits the shelves. I don't think zombies are big readers.
Harbinger of Truth says
My greatest "FEAR" is spending an entire lifetime BEGGING literary agents like yourself to look at my work and being turned down, only to be discovered and become a raging success after I either commit suicide or get hit by a bus, because my death will make me "more marketable."
Benjamin Keay says
Becoming posthumous before my time.
EBM says
There are 180 some odd responses before mine and the likelihood of this being read is low….so I will be completely honest.
My biggest fear is losing my ability to write…..my voice. I know the day is coming when Alzheimer's will silence me and yet I still have so much to tell the world.
Anonymous says
For my writing to have just about as much substance and depth as a Stephanie Meyer novel.
anonymous-writer says
My greatest fear is that I will stop writing. That I will lose time, or lose passion. That I will forget how great it feels to start a book and how great it feels to end one.
My greatest fear is that in a few years, I will look back and think "Why did I waste all of that time?"
Micky says
I'm definitely most afraid that I'm just wasting my time with writing. I'm terrified that I suck, and that no one's going to tell me until I've spent hours writing and editing my novel. I've been told all my life that I'm a good writer, but these people are my friends and family. What if the moment I query an agent I learn that I'm a horrible writer with no chance of a career? Talk about depressing!
M. M. Justus says
Never being read.
Becca says
My greatest fear is not liking what I'm writing myself. (however grammatically incorrect that sentence was.)
Anonymous says
I write erotica so I'm mildly concerned, strike that – terrified, that my conservative neighbors or in-laws will find out. I think of myself as a superhero trying to keep their secret identity from the world.