The Scariest Moments in a Writer’s Life
Vampires? Witches? Ghouls? Yes, they’re Halloween scary (maybe), but they’ve got nothing on the spookiest moments from a writer’s life.
All writers can list at least three things that can send us screeching and cowering under our bed covers.
I’ll tell you mine (including my fright-busting fixes), if you tell us yours.
1. Eeeek! The Blank Screen, aka, Writers Block
You wake up with this idea that’s so clever that you skip breakfast and grab a quick coffee on your way to your writing desk. Then you type furiously while visions of that Pulitzer dance in your head. You stop. You re-read. You want to puke. You delete it all and now you’re plain stumped for what–if anything–to write.
Or you’re under a big, hairy deadline, but then, 12 hours before submission time, your brain circuits all fizzle and blow. Now you can’t speak, let alone write. Oh. Hell.
Fixes: Get outside and take a walk or a run. Don’t worry. The writer’s pity party will still be in full swing when you return. When you get back, pick up your hand-writing journal to tease out what’s stalling you in this project. Or, if you’re not under deadline, take a break from this freakish project to work on a different one—preferably in a different genre.
2. Bwaaa! Haa! Haaa! The Rejection Letter
You drafted, re-drafted, edited, polished (and polished). Then, you submitted that short story or essay to that well researched and apparently perfect market. You followed their submission guidelines. Your piece is within the required word count. And now, here in your email in-box is one of those, “This-didn’t-work-for-us” notes. Or worse, there’s a confusing or snarky missive that reveals that your work never got read in the first place.
Fixes: First, exorcise (as in, “cast out thy demons”) all self-blame or -flagellation. If you truly worked hard on your submitted piece, then remember that all writing and reading is subjective. I mean, how many New York Times bestsellers have you read that you honestly, truly loved (in my case, not many)? This rejection may have little or nothing to do with the quality of this piece. It certainly is not an indictment of you as a writer. If the editor was kind enough to offer suggestions, use them. The best cure for writer’s rejection? Review your piece, fix any boo-boos and, within 24 hours, submit it to a new market.
3. Help! “I’m About To Turn (insert milestone birthday), And Now It’s Too Late!”
Today’s workplaces demand more and more of us, and our 24/7, hyper-connected lifestyle doesn’t help. In or beyond the workplace, it seems like there’s always someone who needs you. You’re facing down a milestone birthday and here’s that inner voice telling you that life has whizzed by, and so has your dream of being a writer.
Fixes: Switch your own way of thinking. Taking time out to write does not mean that you are reneging on your work or family responsibilities. Writing means taking care of your own wellness to make you a better employee, a better parent, a better caregiver. Look at your entire week. Find some spots in there for quick, incidental writing opportunities. Insert those days and times into your appointment calendar. Early mornings? Lunch hours? Café on the way home from work? Turn off the T.V. at night. If it really matters to you, make a plan and start tomorrow.
What are the scariest parts of writing for you? Write them in the comments below.
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Áine Greaney wants to live in a world where kids break their family’s curfew to stay out late reading at their local public library. An Irish native, she has published four books and her essays have appeared in Salon.com, Creative Nonfiction, Books by Women, The Feminist Wire, The Boston Globe Magazine, NPR Boston and Writers Digest Magazine–and others.
As well as writing, she teaches and presents at conferences, schools and wellness programs.
Her personal essays have been cited as a notable in Best American Essays, and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Her latest book-in-progress, “What Brought You Here,”a non-fiction narrative about leaving Ireland at age 24, is seeking publication.
Category: Being a Writer, On Writing
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Scariest moment so far…..
Being invited down to Oxford University to meet the Dr Alex Middleton (he pinches quotes from my novels) and a number of his students. I have no fears in writing yet my written voice is more educated than the spoken version. I throw my novels out from behind the shrouded wall of obscurity. A place where I find comfort. Maybe one day ☺
The scariest: that after a lot of blood, sweat and tears to complete the novel, no publishers will accept it.
Sandra,
Yep, I hear you. That is scary. But with time, I hope that the perfect home is just waiting for my our novel.
The scariest moments for me . . .
1. Writing a novel and it dying halfway through. The beginning is brilliant, the drive is there, the prose flows and I feel fantastic. So fantastic that I know I’m on a roll and foolishly send the first three chapters off to an agent, who likes it and asks for the rest. But I can’t write the second half. It’s died. Nothing will come out.
2. Doing a PhD in Creative writing and ATTENDING THE VIVA! Sitting outside a professor’s room, looking at my novel and critical commentary, and thinking that this is it, this will be the moment when they find out that I can’t write, that I am in fact a fake, and I just wasted six years and a shedload of money on doing this. Sitting in the room and having one of the examiners ask the one question I didn’t want them to ask . . . .
3. Getting my novel published. Yes, it may seem weird, but Inshallah (www.honno.co.uk) was published this year by a feminist press, fulfilling my lifelong ambition to be a novelist AND fulfilling my publisher preference. I opened the email at work, and leapt out of my chair and shouted! I couldn’t believe it. Suddenly it was real. Suddenly I had to shift my perspective, from wannabe novelist to the REAL THING. And then, people liked the book – and I’m writing another one, and all I can think is, oh no, this is nothing like the first, what if it’s not as good? What if I only have one book in me???
Pretty scary stuff!
Having said that, I love writing so much I just can’t stop.
I am a lecturer, academic writer, vegan and midwife, and of course, a novelist.