As some of you may know last week I released the 3rd book in my contemporary romance series. Seeing the book for sale and receiving feedback is wonderful, however it also means that I have now entered my "fear of writing stage". I experienced the exact same thing after book 1 was released and then again after book 2 came out. I had hoped to avoid it this time, but it is here in all its raging glory.
Now this stage is not the same as experiencing writers' block. The general ideas are there and I am writing. Instead, it is a gut wrenching fear that I will not be able to complete the book or if I do that it will terrible.
Like many authors, I write from the seat of my pants for the most part. I have a general idea of what I want to occur in the story and the characters involved, but the rest just comes to me as I write. Maybe if I did more plotting this awful stage would not pop up, but that's just not how I write.
What about everyone else? Do other writers ever experience a similar fear or is it just me? And if you do how do you go about handling it? I would love to know because so far I have not found a secret weapon to overcome it.
Just between you and me, Christina, I've had that same fear with every one of my eight novels so far, and I write from a well-developed plan.
ReplyDeleteI know now that in the first draft I'll spew, and in the second I will link and interconnect the threads of the tale I knew to be there. The third draft enhances the language that the final polish brings to a glow.
Threads can be added or removed, and plot points can change. Holes in the story-line can be filled. None of that, however, happens until someone has the courage to write in the first place. You do, and deserve congratulations for putting your words on display for the world to see.
Without readers, and author's voice is only imagination. Lacking authors, our readers' own imagination is all they would have.
I think we all go through that to a certain extent. It took me awhile to get into my most recent wip, but once I started to get to know the characters, I really started to love the book and now I'm excited about it instead of worrying that it's crap.
ReplyDeleteJust keep writing and you'll get past that point, experience the thrill of finishing and publishing, and then start all over again. *grin*
Congratulations!