Friday, April 13, 2012

Face Your Fear Friday - Episode 2

Face Your Friday is back, after a long (unplanned) hiatus. 


Just like with "Take A Chance Tuesday", I want to make this weekly feature more accessible to those you juggling far more than I can or do, but at the same time remember, facing one's fear's take TIME. 


All Face Your Fear Friday's about is taking the 
FIRST BABY STEPS to facing the writer fear of the week.


For example, if the theme was "Reading what Scares You" or "Name 5 writers you respect, even if their books are just not your thing, and why" all you have to do is admit and share a little from your personal experience. There are no right or wrong answers here.


Writers are all different, even if our goals overlap in the the general sense (Those of us who are struggling for their first SALE, be it book-length story or magazine piece, poem, etc. Already published writers trying to advance their career, etc) how we get there is varied, and some wait longer than others, but unless your naturally pragmatic in your thinking, you can feel alone in your frustration sometimes, especially if most of the writers you know are strong in areas your weak, and it's those weak areas that might be holding your writing back. 


Sometimes simply admitting to a fear, however off the wall it may be, is the first step to getting better at facing that fear and pushing past it to achieve your writer dreams and goals. You have to acknowledge your fear is REAL, no matter what anyone tells you, many writers I know don't feel the same level of frustration about writing YA level fiction, and don't have problems writing nonfiction, but these are barriers for ME, in the same way some of those pragmatical writers don't feel as in tune with their imagination as I do,


While that makes critiquing each other's work hard, we can appreciate what the other does better than us, and its imperative that support goes both ways.


With that said, let's get into this week's challenge.


All you have to do is answer the following question-


"If you could name ONE writer skill you could magically enhance, what would it be and why?"


My answer: Better Query Letters, Better Query Letters, Better Query Letters!


Why? Because these letters are becoming all the more vital, but I HATE writing them regardless, because it's easy to feel like the most hapless writer on Earth because they have to be so professional without being soulless, and anyone who takes this lightly will be sorry, that's as much speaking from my personal experience as it is a friendly warning.


Now it's your turn! Share you answers to this week's challenge in the comments below.


Please keep your answer PG-13 and below, and please stay on topic (No "I don't have time to comment" type comments) comment when you do have time, or try again for next Friday's challenge.


I moderate the comments on T.A.A. and will not approve posts that don't follow the guidelines.


Your answers must be posted by Friday, April 20th, 2012, Noon EST, think of it as a mild time challenge, since for some of us, admitting to fear or weakness is a BIG DEAL, and sharing it among our fellow writers can help take the fear away, or at least bring it down to less traumatic levels, and we may even find a precious gem of advice, insight or a comrade-in-revisions (Comrades in Arms for writers, get it?) that will serve us well for the future.


Anyway, see you here next Friday.


UPDATE (4/20/12): Commenting Closed.

3 comments:

  1. sharing with other's what I write is like taking a test...I hate test. I am to grow in courage to share my writing and even my paintings.

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  2. Thanks for sharing. I hope other writers are willing to share under their name, but I understand why some are anonymous, but please, in general, be brave enough to use your name.

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  3. One fear that I have semi-related to writing (for picture books) is drawing in colour. I don't know why, but colour scares me. It's all the blending, and highlighting, and that kind of stuff. I can do black and white. Black and white makes sense. But colour is terrifying.

    However, I drew a green apple yesterday, and a red cherry the day before, so I'm going to think of it as PLAYING rather than work. I'm not going to work at figuring out colour. I'm going to play with it.

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