5 Common Writing Fears

“I’m afraid my writing won’t be good.”

This fear stands right in the way of success. It makes us reluctant to seek feedback, because we worry that someone will tell us the whole story is hopeless. It keeps some writers from writing, period.

New writers will sometimes think, I’ll just get this whole novel as perfect as I can make it, and then I’ll get feedback...while making the same mistakes again and again for hundreds of pages…or while not realizing the story’s whole premise has a fatal flaw that needs to be addressed.

The most efficient way to become better is to get feedback sooner (which is why at the book editing business, LuckyAuthor.com, we offer the Better Writing Now service for only $150.) But to get early feedback, you have to overcome the fear of bad writing.

Too many of us have been conditioned to believe that if we’re talented, the first draft will be good…or that the first novel, in its final form, will be a masterpiece.

That’s just not how writing works. At all. Stories improve through multiple revisions, and writers improve through practice, study, and feedback.

Instead of this fear, we can try thinking:

“Because I’m continuously writing, studying the craft, and getting knowledgeable feedback, I’m becoming a better and better writer.”

“I’m scared no one will like my story.”

This is a little different from the fear above. What if we think it’s a good story—the best we can write, in fact—and no one else agrees?

If our work is published, or we share it with others in different ways, some people probably won’t like it. All my favorite books have some one-star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads declaring that they’re boring, they’re unrealistic, or they’re just plain trash. 

We may worry that our story is too weird, too old-fashioned, too frivolous, too dark, or too whatever, but here’s the thing. All of us are unique, but we’re not that unique. If we truly love a story, chances are good that at least some other people are going to love it, too.

We can try replacing this fear with a line of thinking like:

“I love this story! I know it’s not for everyone, because no story is, but I bet some other people out there will love it, too.”

“I’m worried that my writing isn’t original enough.”

This could just be me, but I’ve heard this one the most from male fantasy writers. The funniest thing about this is that they tend to be huge George R.R. Martin fans.

Game of Thrones is extremely entertaining, but even at its time of publication, it wasn’t strikingly original. The unexpected character deaths and solid plot twists were all built around a classic power struggle, in a familiar epic fantasy setting inspired in large part by late medieval England’s history and legends.

There’s nothing wrong with any of this. I’ve always loved that kind of fantasy, and I always will. 

Real originality in writing is basically impossible. People are telling hundreds of thousands of new stories every year. It doesn’t matter, because originality isn’t that high on most readers’ wish lists. Depending on the genre, readers may be more interested in things like being entertained, being kept guessing, falling in love with the characters, escaping into another time and place, or enjoying the quality of the prose itself.

In my book Blank Page to Final Draft, I recommend reading 50 product descriptions of recently published books in your genre. If you do this, you can probably avoid tropes that are being used over and over again…if you want to. Just remember that the people who love these tropes aren’t even close to being sick of them!

We can try replacing this fear with a different mindset:

“I love this story, and I am the only one who can tell it my way.”

“I’m afraid someone will steal my story.”

This is another fear that can, unfortunately, keep people from seeking feedback. But as I was saying above, someone else probably wrote a very similar story to yours already, and it’s the way you tell it that makes it special.

In any case, most writers I know have dozens of story ideas filed away, waiting to be written, and they’re probably going to like their ideas more than they like yours.

Instead of this fear, we can try thinking this:

“Nobody is likely to steal my plot, and nobody can steal my style.”

“I’m scared that all my hard work won’t lead to success.”

To me, this is the big one. I think this fear is behind a lot of procrastination and lack of focus. 

Since we writers are so good at using our imagination, maybe we can use it to support our writing instead of sabotaging it. Maybe we can imagine: I am one of the most famous authors in my country. My publisher is waiting on this manuscript. They’re positive it’s going to be another blockbuster bestseller, just like the last one. How would that change our approach to our writing practice? It’s worth experimenting with, anyway!

In any case, writing is an amazing use of our time and our brain, even if we’re the only one who enjoys it. And even if we’re pursuing writing professionally as a career (and I am), we may still write some things just because we feel like it. 

Let’s be honest: most of us are not writing instead of doing some other wildly lucrative or humanitarian activity. Most of us are writing instead of watching TV, shopping, playing games, or scrolling social media apps. Writing is at least as cool as doing those things.

We can try focusing on this:

“I love writing and I feel happiest when I’m doing it regularly.”