Write What You Fear

Twitter followers are great. Sometimes they come up with the best ideas and at other times they suggest things like this...

jessbarretttn @BookEndsJessica what's the one thing you're dying to write about but it scares the crap out of you? Write that. 2/11/15, 9:47 AM

At first I thought I should write what scares the crap out of me and I thought, "haven't I caused enough trouble on this blog?"

And then I thought she wanted me to write a post about how authors should write about what scares them.

And then I was back to me.

I'm not sure about you, but what scares the crap out of me most is writing something that brings too much negative attention. And I bet I'm not alone. It's funny, we write and we want to be read. In fact, we ideally want a lot of people to read us, to buy our books and to, essentially, pay us. But so often we restrict ourselves, and our writing, out of fear and it's that fear that holds us back.

I have always said that those books and authors that are the most successful are the ones who push the limits. They are the ones who stop being afraid of what the reviewers, editors, agents and readers might say or think and they write the book they think needs to be written. Even if doing so scares the crap out of them. 

What usually scares us when it comes to our writing isn't what we're writing about, but the response that writing will evoke. I get that. Boy do I get that. But I also think putting aside those fears can sometimes result in some of the best work you've done. Even if no one ever sees it.

--jhf