Recently I asked some writers about their deepest fear when it comes to writing. One of them flatly said “rejection.” Another said, “Will publishers take me seriously if I don’t have a platform?”
I hear versions of this all the time not only from writers but from the chattering inside my own head as a writer and creative myself.
We are scared of failure. Terrified. We’re afraid no one will take us seriously and the whole thing will be a bust. In fact, I would wager no other force on earth annihilates more creative dreams than fear of failure.
The purpose of this post is to help writers and other creatives eliminate this fear so they can get their work into the world.
1. Don’t Wait for Permission
Listen: You don’t need anybody’s permission to write your book and get it into the world. And if you feel called to do this, if you feel passionate about a message and know in your bones you’re meant to get it out there, the world needs you to follow through.
Permission is a smokescreen. It’s how the forces that oppose our best work try to keep us from doing it.
Imagine a writer standing in front of the wall of permission. Imagine that writer is you. You look up at it, scared, but this time you decide not to give in.
You turn away from the wall, walk several paces, and then turn back to face it. You screw up your courage to bust through, and you run. You run for all your worth. A half-second before you make contact you’re convinced this is going to hurt like hell, and then . . . nothing.
Now you’re on the other side of it. You look back, and you realize that barrier called permission was just a vapor.
2. Reframe Success
Too often, I think, writers define success as getting a publishing contract. In their minds the path to success looks like this:
Idea –> Proposal –> Agent –> Publishing Deal
I want to question this formula. What if success looked like this:
Book concept –> Proposal –> Write the Book –> Build Platform –> Publish and Promote
In this scenario you may or may not get a contract, but that’s not the point. The point is publishing and promoting. To my mind that is a much better measure of success. It places the focus on the book and readers of the book.
Notice too this second (better) path to success doesn’t get you off the hook in terms of building a platform and promoting your book. Those things are important regardless of whether you traditionally publish or self-publish.
I’m all for pursuing an agent and getting a contract, but don’t let these possibilities define success for you. Success is crafting your book to be the best it can be, finishing it, and chasing it out into the world to reach as many people as possible.
Stick to Your Process
The one thing you can control is your process. Decide on your writing process and stick to it. So let me ask you: What’s your process?
- When are you going to write?
- How many words per day?
- Music or no music?
- What are your writing tools?
- How will you celebrate your wins?
This is worth some intention. I created a three-page worksheet to help you design your process and build it into your life. It’s a writeable PDF, so you can type your responses in the fields provided and either save or print it off for future reference. Pretty nifty.
To download the “My Writing Process” worksheet, click here.
Question: What’s the book that you’d like to get into the world? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
I’m still working on writing “Out of a Secret Darkness.” I’ve hit the permission wall recently. The book is for my daughter, it’s a long story and in the book. Anyway, she found my blog and commented on a post. I sent her a copy of the unfinished book to read and called her. No response back. I don’t blame her. The past few days it feels like I’ve hit that wall. Should I continue to write this story. I conclude that yes, I should since it will help others too. I don’t have a good writing process in place. I write when I can or have free time. Recently, I unsubscribed to several newsletters and stopped wasting time with other things. I’ll download the My Writing Process worksheet to design a clear process for writing. It’s difficult to write a book that you never intended on writing in the first place. I thank the Lord for your guidance. I keep telling myself, I will finish this book. Thank You
Linda, it sounds like you’re in a tough spot. Hang in there!
Thank you! I’m sure it will pass. I think it’s also possible that the permission wall was hit for another reason too. I’m working on another book that is controversial in nature. It’s a world view based on my experiences of abuse and spiritual enlightenment. I was discouraged by a friend not to continue writing it. I keep going back to writing this story. Perhaps this is what should be written. I’ll keep working on them both and see what the Lord desires. Thanks again for your work.
The story of our marriage and the lessons and tools we learned that helped us stay married despite one hurdle after the other.
Yes! Go for it, Elise!!