My Writerly Fears

Even though I was practically born with my nose in a book, and even though creating a story from thin air is one of the most rewarding experiences ever, there are plenty of aspects to this whole writing biz that give me serious anxiety.

My biggest fears right now are these:

- That I won't get a single request on the manuscript I recently started querying.

- That the characters in WiP #3 will continue to give me the silent treatment, and I'll be uninspired for all eternity.

- That I WILL keep writing, and eventually realize all my characters sound the same and all my plots are cliche, predictable, and boring.

I've been thinking about that third one quite a bit. I think the reason my mc in WiP #3 seems to be cold-shouldering me is because she's so different from the last girls I wrote. I'm used to writing feel-good novels about girls who are spunky, a little self-centered, and a lot outspoken.

Not this time. The story is much darker, and the mc is quiet, shy, and introspective. Which, in all honesty, sounds a lot like me. So you'd think it would be a piece of cake, right? Not so much.

But then I'm worried that once I DO get a handle on her voice, the writing won't be different enough from my previous novels. Because, let's face it: to some degree, no matter how different we plan for the voice or the scenario to be, or who we base our characters on, they're all a product of the one brain in our heads. And we only have so many words in our vocabularies, so many catch phrases we're familiar with, and certain ways of thinking.

I don't want my stories to be different names and faces and settings, but interchangable dialogue, emotions, and reactions. I'm trying to figure out how to write not just a different story, but a different book. And it's kind of terrifying.

Is it more terrifying than writing a novel you're proud of and having every agent you approach tell you it's not for them? Well, honestly, I don't know. But I suppose I'll find out.

So tell me peeps. What are your biggest writerly fears?

Just Let Your Suck Flow

Wow, that title is supposed to be a play on "just let your love flow," but it sounds way dirtier than I mean it to.

Oh well. Anyhow, what I'm getting at is this: writer's block.

Whether you're a panster or a plotter, it happens to the best of us. Sometimes it comes in the form of staring blankly at the computer screen as your characters give you the silent treatment. 

Other times, you've written quite a bit - you just think everything you've written couldn't possibly suck any harder.

In the first instance, I find it helps to seek out inspiration. Listen to songs that remind me of my characters and the situations I've thrown them into, look at pictures from the locales of my novel. Or even just going out and getting some fresh air - i.e. getting away from my computer, because I'm at my most creative when I'm in no position to act on it.

In the other instance, I've found that it's not a bad idea to - you guessed it - let the suck flow. Nine times out of ten, when I've written something I think is god-awful, I'll go back to it later and have one of two reactions:
a) Wow, this really IS crap. But I think I can salvage at least some of it and make it better
b) Hey, this isn't so bad. Just a few tweaks and I should be golden.

In my case, writing something, anything, is usually more productive than writing nothing at all, even if I'm not 100% satisfied with what I've written. Chances are, I can either use it as a base for what I REALLY want to say when my brain is not mush, or it's actually nowhere near as horrendous as I thought it was.

How about you, peeps? How do you deal with writer's block? Do you benefit from letting your suck flow?