Fear and Writing

Writers have a lot of fears:

No one will read it. Everyone will read it.

It won’t get published. It will get published.

My mother will read it. My mother won’t talk to me.

But maybe the biggest fear is this: hey world, my soul is showing.

The best writers get over this fear. Because if they didn’t they wouldn’t be the best writers.

Writer Abroad has put off her memoir for awhile. Mainly because she wanted to make sure she had perspective on it, but also because she was scared.

It’s scary to reveal parts of yourself to others, but at this point, Writer Abroad figures if you are scared, that means your work is something others will relate to. Because writing is about connecting with people. And something that scares you has probably scared them too.

So after she’s published the essay book (less scary because many of the essays have already appeared in print), she’s ready to take on the memoir again.

Here are a few more thoughts from Copyblogger on Why we need to write, even when we’re scared.