That Thing Called Fear

InsecureWritersSupportGroup

It’s that time of the month again, first Wednesday, which means, it’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group:

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

 

sylviaplathquote

Last month I registered for the LDStorymakers conference (it will be my third time going) and, in something that can only be described as a moment of temporary insanity, I also signed up for the First Chapter Contest. With not one chapter, but three. Three. Three whole chapters that need to be under 3,000 words and are due on February 9th.

A big What-Was-I-Thinking-? ensued soon after as the fear took over. Like Sylvia Plath said, self-doubt is an enemy and fear is self-doubt. Fear of not being able to go through with it, fear of rejection, fear of finding readers/judges who don’t like my story/characters/writing. Just plain old fear. Because once you start down that path—the path of not believing in yourself—everything snowballs into a perfect list of excuses.

Confession: I’m not as brave as I thought.

Well, I traded chapters for critique with other writers and I’m slowly getting out of my pit of fear. One chapter is almost ready for submission and I’ll be starting edits on the other two, so I might be able to get them all in time.

The results will be posted on May 15th during the first day of conference. I’m sure I’ll come up with new fears by then. 😉

Insecure Writer #136

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