Three Things to Overcome the Fear of Writing a Book

If you have an amazing story idea but haven’t started working on it yet because of all sorts of unrelated reasons, then you are in the right place. 

The truth of the matter is that there are always going to be reasons not to start writing and working on your book project than to just start. But if you want to write and get a book out, you have to pay attention to the benefits of starting today – not tomorrow or the next week. 

Control Your Feelings

The feeling you might be having right now might be related to an underlying fear of failing and negative thoughts. You might feel that you are bad at it; however, all these negative feelings aren’t helping you at all. 

The feelings of potential failure don’t protect you from failure itself. Instead, they guarantee that you will fail, that is if you delve into them for a long time. The thing is that if you never start, you never have the chance to succeed. 

Now, how the entire idea of writing a book and starting today is making you feel is certainly not worse than living in a constant state of not knowing because if you never take the steps, you will never know. We are also referring to the constant state of wanting something without making any real efforts or any real progress toward it. 

Stop Worrying and Start Writing

Think about the bigger picture of becoming an author. If you have a big idea that you want to share with the world, you might as well hire a ghostwriter for an ebook, as most people prefer listening to ebooks compared to reading books as it is way more convenient. However, you can also hire a ghostwriter for your book – that is – if you have a busy lifestyle that you believe might intervene with the writing process. 

Nonetheless, if you are absolutely positive that you have all that it takes to become a writer, then you will certainly need to undergo something known as a mindset shift, where you stop worrying and start to take actions that will bring you closer to your goal.

If you are reading this article, it means that you want to learn and give yourself the best chance. Of course, it can be really worrying that you might start a story that you really care about and it is a story that you have been thinking about for a long time – only to discover that your writing might not be that great.

But – you must remember that all these thoughts are only in your head as you haven’t started writing yet. The goal is to get the ball rolling and then enjoy the momentum until you reach the final chapter. 

Here is the thing – when you first start to write, there is a good chance that your writing might be disappointing at first. But even if this is the case, it means pretty much nothing about your potential future and success as a writer. 

Everyone on this planet who has ever sat down to write something has definitely done it badly at first, and if anyone says that they haven’t been bad at writing, then they probably are still bad at it. You will certainly have a bad start as a writer; however, it doesn’t mean that you should give up on writing altogether. On the other hand, it is a sign that you are about to learn a lot. 

Initially, in the starting phase of writing, the feeling of despair is just temporary. You will want to use your feelings of despair and dissatisfaction as potent forces to fuel your development as a writer. You get the point – feelings are energy, and you can use the energy and direct it in a different way, using it as fuel.

Your initial chapters of the book will also be the fastest period of learning, growth, and discovery you will ever experience in writing. This period passes quickly as it is temporary; however, it is essential. Writing a bad first story or chapter is simply putting you on the armor that you will wear for the rest of your writing career. 

Remember that it is the case of feeling the fear and doing it anyway. For a short time, you will want to get comfortable with the uncomfortable and set your safety aside to really do the difficult things because you know the benefits of keeping going and doing it are immense.

Make Writing Your Inner Pursuit

If you are not happy about your first few attempts, you must know that nobody has to see them except for you. As a matter of fact, you can turn writing into your own secret pursuit. You might want to shut everything out and make writing your own secret world that only you have the key to. 

Whenever you sit down to write, you will want to let go of all the real-world baggage so you can direct your mind toward the writing process. Your first story might be horrible, but one thing is for sure: you will never regret writing your first story. If you never start, there is one thing that you will surely regret, which is never starting. 

Also, if you don’t start working on your book and start the writing process, you will certainly regret never becoming a writer and never making an actual effort to reach your goal. Another reason that you might not have started writing is that you might be stuck in an endless loop of planning things. 

You might not be sure about what perspectives, themes, and plots you might want to use in your story. You might as well be stuck in the opening lines and struggle with getting the hook right. As a novice writer, you might as well wonder whether or not you are going in the right direction.

If you can relate and you are past your fear of failure but stuck in an endless loop of planning, then the best writing advice for you is to simply start writing as you will find everything as you go.