My Greatest Writing Fear. What's Yours?

Discuss writing, including writing tips & tricks, writing philosophy, writer's block, etc. If you have grammar questions, marketing questions, or if you want feedback on a poem or short story you wrote, please use the corresponding forum below.
Featured Topic: How to Get Your Book Published
Forum rules
If you have spelling or grammar questions, please post them in the International Grammar section.

If you want feedback for poetry or short stories you have written, please post the poem or short story in either the Creative Original Works: Short Stories section or the Creative Original Works: Poetry section.

If you have a book that you want reviewed, click here to submit your book for review.
Post Reply
User avatar
meteku4
Posts: 244
Joined: 22 Jun 2017, 16:16
Bookshelf Size: 65
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-meteku4.html
Latest Review: "Followed my Star" by AR Annahita

Re: My Greatest Writing Fear. What's Yours?

Post by meteku4 »

I fear criticism sometimes. I know it will be a bad feeling when people don't like what I write. Maybe I need to learn to overcome that.
Latest Review: "Followed my Star" by AR Annahita
User avatar
Brandi Noelle
Posts: 253
Joined: 07 Apr 2017, 00:46
Currently Reading: The Invention of Murder
Bookshelf Size: 71
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-brandi-noelle.html
Latest Review: Marrying a Playboy Billionaire by H M Irwing

Post by Brandi Noelle »

That I will allow insecurities to keep me from getting my story down.
User avatar
Carmel Bachelor
Posts: 26
Joined: 29 Jan 2018, 20:09
Currently Reading: Their Eyes were watching God
Bookshelf Size: 26
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-carmel-bachelor.html
Latest Review: The 11.05 Murders by Brian O'Hare
Reading Device: B00IKPYKWG

Post by Carmel Bachelor »

That I'm not actually a good writer. Its always intimidated me when I would read or hear great writers, like George R.R. Martin or Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett etc etc, say something along the lines of 'You can't help but write' or 'To be writer you have to be this....' and every time I read or heard something like that, I would get terrified that I don't fit with that. I would constantly compare myself to writers who made it seem so easy! I would come away questioning myself, 'if its so easy for them, why isn't for me? Does this mean that I can't be a writer?'

Eventually, as my reading broadened, I realised that every writer is different, some obsess over it every second, some compare it to pulling teeth, and some, like the great ones above, have a huge fire behind them propelling them forward through every word they put down.

I now have a quote that I love and can relate to, that has helped me quench the fear of not being good enough, of not being meant to write.

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." Ernest Hemingway
StarsAtNight
Posts: 26
Joined: 13 Jan 2018, 18:06
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 13

Post by StarsAtNight »

The most severe critic I know has/and will always be myself; I'm always trying to judge how others will find my work by empathizing and trying to figure out what they're thinking.
Getting back to the topic, my greatest writing fear is one day I'll realize that I've wasted my time doing 'nothing'...
User avatar
pauljames_03
Posts: 22
Joined: 30 Jan 2018, 18:29
Currently Reading: The Prisoner and the Chaplain
Bookshelf Size: 3
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-pauljames-03.html
Latest Review: The Right to Nominate by Thomas E Peterson

Post by pauljames_03 »

My greatest fear in writing is being unable to think of the right words to express what I think and feel.
User avatar
Arrigo_Lupori
Posts: 203
Joined: 19 Jan 2018, 07:14
Favorite Author: Haruki Murakami
Currently Reading: A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bookshelf Size: 15
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-arrigo-lupori.html
Latest Review: Island Games by Caleb J. Boyer
Reading Device: B00I15SB16
fav_author_id: 2566

Post by Arrigo_Lupori »

Well, I don't have that many fears on writing. I don't care if nobody reads my poems or my books, I don't care if someone doesn't like the stuff that I write. Sure, I feel insecure about it sometimes, but that's exactly what I am trying to battle in writing, since it gives me the opportunity to share in ways that make me feel relieved and satisfied.

The only real gripe I may have with it is if it would take too long for me to write something.

Like, from several months up to years. I wouldn't enjoy writing a single piece of content for that long.
"The abstract sensation of living a lifestyle that hasn't been fully understood."
- The epitome of taste in living disgrace.
User avatar
Boltonmatt
Posts: 3
Joined: 21 Feb 2018, 16:31
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 10

Post by Boltonmatt »

Just finishing my first novel. I have no idea if it's any good. But, hey-ho, I thought, I'll send it off and someone will tell me. But it seems like it's not that easy. The whole publishing and marketing seems daunting, and will severely eat in to the restricted writing time that I have. With a 50,000 word children's novel on my hard drive, getting the next stage right without any idea of what I'm doing is slightly taxing. And as a children's novel, the e publishing route isn't really an option.....
User avatar
Polgesteirg
Posts: 53
Joined: 30 Jan 2018, 08:54
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 28
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-polgesteirg.html
Latest Review: Final Notice by Van Fleisher

Post by Polgesteirg »

I would say that my greatest fear when it comes to writing is making something I'm proud of public but not having people find out about it. To be honest that has happened to me before in smaller scale when it comes to blogging or attempts at journalistic writing. However, most of the failure comes from me being awful at marketing and promoting things.

It sounds like you had a fear for technology in general though Robert, not to writing. Right now from what you describe we're sort of in the opposite spectrum. I hate marketing because I'm not good at it, and you spend too much time on it an neglect actual writing. Maybe if we swapped parts of our brains we would both be content? :P
glitterrain
Posts: 28
Joined: 11 Dec 2017, 04:12
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 2
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-glitterrain.html
Latest Review: Demon Freaks by J.R.R.R. (Jim) Hardison

Post by glitterrain »

My greatest fear is that I'll die before writing something worth publishing. At my glacially slow pace, it's a concern.
User avatar
Khrysalis
Posts: 26
Joined: 06 Dec 2018, 23:10
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 2
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-khrysalis.html
Latest Review: The Watchmaker’s Doctor by G. M. T. Schuilling

Post by Khrysalis »

I fear the writer/refiners loop that I've found myself getting trapped in all of my life. I'll write up a section, decide that I can do better, and then rewrite it. And rewrite it again...and again... Until the original meaning has been lost or pared down and I haven't accomplished much even though I've been writing for days.

There are days when I wish my muse would be watching me from over my shoulder and smack me in the head with a rolled-up newspaper if I start to rewrite a piece of text more than twice.
“Truth wasn't something you went out and found. It was wide and vast and deep and unending, and all you could hope to see was a tiny part of it. And to see that part and to mistake it for the whole was to make of Truth a lie.”
― Margaret Weis
User avatar
Inkroverts
Posts: 298
Joined: 15 Jul 2019, 00:38
Currently Reading: The Book Thief
Bookshelf Size: 67
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-inkroverts.html
Latest Review: Killing Abel by Michael Tieman

Post by Inkroverts »

My fear is readers not understanding the message of my story.
I understand not everybody will like/ dislike/ agree/ disagree with what I write, but if no one understands it, then it kind of defeats the meaning of writing my book in the first place.
User avatar
Thea Frederick
Posts: 324
Joined: 29 Feb 2020, 13:44
Currently Reading: Little Dorrit
Bookshelf Size: 69
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-thea-frederick.html
Latest Review: How to Cope: Parenting a Child with Special Needs by Christine E. Staple Ebanks

Post by Thea Frederick »

Probably my greatest writing fears are that my audience will be bored or find me to preachy or clichéd. Or that no one will benefit or be moved by my writing. Or misinterpret my meaning and take it for something it don’t mean.
-Thea M. Frederick
User avatar
Drakka Reader
Posts: 182
Joined: 02 Jan 2020, 16:27
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 14
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-drakka-reader.html
Latest Review: Eternal Bones by Jon State

Post by Drakka Reader »

I am mostly afraid that I will almost get my book published, and then that somebody will want me to change something important in my story, it is both my greatest irritation and fear.
User avatar
Bookgirl91
Posts: 11
Joined: 13 Apr 2020, 06:28
Favorite Author: Gregory Maguire
Currently Reading: Kill Creek
Bookshelf Size: 30
Reading Device: B00JG8GOWU
fav_author_id: 3091

Post by Bookgirl91 »

My greatest writing fear is that my work will be seen as a joke or disregarded in its entirety. That my writing will be awful, and my ideas mocked.
User avatar
purvasha__
Posts: 18
Joined: 19 May 2020, 14:42
Currently Reading: The forgotten daughter
Bookshelf Size: 21
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-purvasha.html
Latest Review: Melissa & Kasho by Camilla Chance

Post by purvasha__ »

It has to be writer's block but also, writing something and then people not interested in reading it or worse, people hating it.
Post Reply

Return to “Writing Discussion”