Question for the authors of PSL.
I've been doing a bit of reading about writing, if that makes sense. I've been having moments where I get too nervous to write, where I get convinced that my writing isn't good enough, that people will pick holes in everything I produce.
But evidently, I'm not alone in that. In fact, from what I've seen in a lot of articles I've read on the subject, fear may actually be part of the writing process.
I'm willing to believe that the majority of writers - if not all writers - are abnormal. Writing is at some level a personal endeavour - you are passing on a small part of yourself in the story, and that means exposure to everyone who might read your work. That's understandably terrifying.
And it's not reduced to amateur writers either. Take this quote:
"It's just a run of the mill book. And the awful thing is that it is absolutely the best I can do. ...I've always had these travails...I never get used to them."
Sounds like any generic Mike R. Writealot. Except this quote is credited to John Steinbeck, while he was writing The Grapes of Wrath.
Maybe the fear of writing is never something you fully escape. No matter how much you study, no matter how much you write, no matter how popular you are or how well you sell, the same fears will always grip you.
And that's why writing takes a degree of courage. The courage to write in spite of your concerns, your fears, your desire to throw the manuscript away and act like it never happened. Maybe my problem is that I hope at some point the fear will go away, but it never does. So maybe I need to learn to write even though it scares me shitless.
Am I alone in this? Anyone else have experience with the fear that comes with exposing a part of yourself to the world? [No, not those parts. Stop thinking dirty, Sect.]