SPA Girls Podcast – EP286 – Writers’ Fears

Resistance. Fear. Procrastination. Avoidance. Most of us writers struggle with these challenges at some point in their career (or day!). This episode we cover everything from the struggle to finish a manuscript through to fear of publishing, and everything in between.

This blogpost inspired today’s episode : http://positivewriter.com/scared-writer/ Blog post by Harrison Demchick

excerpt: Two Kinds of Scared Writers
During my weekly writing group, I’ve been working on a screenplay that begins, oddly enough, with a weekly writing group. My main characters are a pair of best friends named Mindy and Lane, and what I’ve realized during the development of this story is that Mindy and Lane represent two particular kinds of scared writers. They’re the kinds we all see in our writing groups and workshops.

There’s a very good chance we’re one of them.

1) Mindy is the writer who doesn’t finish.

She has ideas, but she never really pursues them, because she sees every obstacle as a sign that she isn’t good enough. And if she did push on and did finish a draft of something, it would be bad, and then she’d know she could never be good enough. So she comes up with ideas, abandons them, and struggles with the next one.

2) Lane is the writer who doesn’t fight.

He has a finished manuscript, but he doesn’t want to do anything with it. It’s the creative accomplishment that matters. But really, he fears what comes next—agents and publishers and rejection. Or he fears the marketing battle any author, traditionally published or self-published, must face. Maybe, at heart, he too doesn’t think he’s good enough, so he hides behind the pretense of contentment and never works for his real dreams.”

++ SPA Girls’ additions

Along with Mindy and Lane, we’ve added:

Mandy – Mindy’s sister, Shane – Lane’s twin brother, and Xanthe

Listen up for their fears and how we can so relate (let’s not even get into Shar’s weighted hula hoop disaster) and tools for overcoming fears we’ve found that work.

Recommend reading and resources:

Steven Pressfield’s book War on Art and his blog

SPA Girls Podcast with Amira Alvarez on Imposter Syndrome

Brene Brown https://brenebrown.com/

Developing A Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck
Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck