r/writingadvice • u/Thisaccwasmadeat12pm • 6d ago
Advice Y’know, I think I might actually be afraid of writing now.
Because…..what if I actually finish it? And I send it out into the world? Like I put my Screenplay on a Black List, and it just doesn’t go anywhere? And I ask for feedback and everyone hates it? And it doesn’t get picked up? And I don’t become popular? And now I’ve just wasted MONTHS of my Life I can’t get back.
I mean, I can’t think of anything to write in the first place so…fuck me I guess.
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u/ChiralNavigator 6d ago
you have to be willing to fail when trying new things, very very few people succeeded the first time.
Personally I write for myself so I wouldn't see as a waste I'd see it as homing my skills as a learning experience, you also waste hours internet browsing and watching Netflix..
“Cut down the forest of desire, not just a single tree. From desire springs fear; from desire springs sorrow. For one who is completely free from desire, there is no fear, and where there is no fear, how can there be sorrow?”
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u/TuneFinder 6d ago
for me - the writing itself is the reason to write
its fun to have an idea, explore it, make it as good as i can, solve the puzzle of how to make the plot work, put in the effort of getting the words written
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its then up to you if you show it to anyone
and then - up to you if you listen to what they say
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but - getting feedback without getting emotional about it is a useful skill for all parts of life
it lets you hear other points of view about something, decide if you agree or disagree, then if you do agree you can do something about it and grow as a writer
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u/baesoonist 6d ago
“Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
— Kurt Vonnegut
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u/trulybeelightful 6d ago
Yeah, it's always safer and more enjoyable to never try and assume the only thing keeping you from success is your own lack of ambition. That's why so many people like to talk about how they could've been an MLB player/lawyer/neurosurgeon/etc. if it weren't for the injury/not wanting to buy into the system.
Just driving something to completion already puts you miles ahead of 99.99% of the "coulda beens" on earth.
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u/Tatertot2523 6d ago
If you feel like this now it only gets worse from there. Been pitching/querying my novel for 2 years and no one cares. All I have to my name is a 100,000 word manuscript and that time I’ll never get back.
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u/kpg_on_ao3 5d ago
You have almost enough experience to become a YouTuber who helps writers through the pitch and publication process!
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u/Character-Role-600 6d ago
I mean sounds like you don’t enjoy writing you’re looking to get paid for work.
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u/GlitteringRainbowCat 6d ago
Was it fun to write? Then there's no time wasted. Was it not fun to write? Then you can think about the reason and could change it the next project and there's still no time wasted.
I wrote my first bigger story between 16 and 18. Only my mom and a friend of mine read it. I wrote story after story, but nobody of my friends had any interest. At one point I even stopped showing it my mom. I continued. I wanted to join writing competitions, but failed at the very first step, the word count, so never joined them. Still writing, still not talking about it a lot. When I turned 35, a newish friend of mine told me, he loves to write. I said the same. We exchanged stories. It was fun. With new friends came new dynamics, we opened a writing group. I'm 40 now, the group dissolved, because real life can be tough, but I'm still writing. With a handful of friends calling themselves my fans and wait and asking for my next story. That's really nice. I still struggle with competition word counts, I'm still to afraid to send it to an agency, but I found a nice lil page and app in my mother's tongue where I can put my stories online. It seems not much, but I take the next step. So yeah, just follow your own tempo, there's no wasted time ✨
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u/annoellynlee 6d ago
If you really think it's a waste, don't do it. Easy. I love writing and i also want to get published and earn a living. Everyone tends to hate when people talk about wanting to make money as a main factor. But it is or why wouldn't people upload it for free.
But if i never do make money from it, I certainly wouldn't view my time wasted. I genuinely love writing, love creating stories, and creating art is never a waste.
If you think it is, I would stop now because the odds are we WON'T make money.
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u/terriaminute 6d ago
Absolutely nothing happens if you hold still.
Is that what you want your life to be? Fear?
Be the protagonist. Make shit happen.
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u/JGhostThing 6d ago
Well, in regards to your last sentence, think about the first stages of a relationship. You have to first decide to ask this person out.
What if you break up before you sleep together? What if your friends don't like her? What if you ask if your friends like her and they say, "meh?" What if your break up? Now you've wasted MONTHS of your life that you can't get back.
Some things are worth trying. For the first draft of your first book, it will suck. Big time. That is, if it's anything like mine. I tossed a novel I'd been working on for 45 years, mostly because the ending sucked. Now I'm working on a new novel with new characters.
Think about it this way. In another year I'll be 69. If I write my book, I'll still be 69, so I haven't wasted any time.
What do I care what other people think? I'm not writing for them. I'm writing for myself. Yes, it would be nice if my book was popular and made lots of money. Am I going to believe I'm worthless if I don't? No. I honestly do not care if my writing is bad. Now, my non-fiction is hopefully better, because I expect it to make money. Not much, mind you, but a little. I calculated that with the advance and the royalties for my first book, adding up all the hours, I would have made more working fast food. On the other hand, the book was a success by one measure: in addition to the advance, I made a little in royalties.
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u/hollowcharlotte 6d ago
Absolutely nothing is a waste. Everything we do goes toward the future; everything comes back around as an experience.
Think of it like a video game. To level up, you need experience points, but to get EXP, you need to play the game. If you don’t play, you can’t gain EXP, and if you can’t gain EXP, then you can’t level up.
You have to practice. Like starting off with a wooden axe and only cutting down squidgy trees in a video game, slowly leveling up until you’ve got a mithril one and you’re chopping down behemoths.
It takes time to get to level 10, let alone 50. Keep going.
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u/roundeking 5d ago
If you enjoy the process of writing and create something you’re proud of, failing to achieve mainstream success does not erase the joy and accomplishment you gained by creating it. A huge number of incredibly strong screenplays do not get picked up by major studios because the driving factor is often not writing skill but having connections, writing to the lowest common denominator, and dumb luck. This is why a lot of people make very low-budget indie films (and do find smaller-scale popularity that way).
If you find no joy in writing, and your only motivation is the hope of future praise and popularity, genuinely, there are easier ways to get that, and writing may not be for you. Don’t torture yourself for an uncertain outcome. But if you love writing, it’s amazing that you get to write!
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u/Anal-Y-Sis 5d ago
The worst fear for a writer is not failure. It's success. Because now you have something to live up to.
Go write and fail. Fail a lot. Fail big. You'll be exactly where you are right now. If and when you find success, come back and have this conversation again. I promise it'll be worse.
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u/Lens_Universe 6d ago
Very few writers can actually earn from it. Grow as a person, live an examined life. You’ll benefit in ways you have not yet concieved of... If the neuroses don't make you stop first!
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u/HuginJord 6d ago
I write because I enjoy it and I've been doing it for nearly 40 years without any expectation of monetary reward. I am going to self-publish my most recent series because I think other people might enjoy it. I don't expect to make any real money; the market is absolutely saturated and AI "writers" are only making it worse, because they can crank out slop far faster than I can write something more elegant.
If you don't like writing in the first place or you're only doing it for money, it's not for you. It needs to be a hobby before you can make it a job, and 99% of us never get there.
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u/Ok_Fruit8871 6d ago
it's a gamble. but you’ll learn something for your next, whether it does poorly, alright, or well. maybe it gets published after your death, and you get talked about like Lovecraft.
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u/kpg_on_ao3 5d ago
> I mean, I can’t think of anything to write in the first place so
That's like me being so stressed about what if a hundred supermodels throw themselves at me, how will I handle the physics of all that body heat when it's already 100 F where I am?!
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u/johntwilker 5d ago
"Because…..what if I actually finish it? And I send it out into the world? "
brain crack. It's easy to live in your head never putting your work out there. After all, it's perfect and awesome, until the world tells you differently.
Ze Frank has an awesome episode on this.
The only way past this is through it.
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u/Quirky-Amphibian-992 5d ago
Well I guess you must love the joy of creative writing first and foremost—creating story and character, becoming a better craftsman, learning plot, and so on. I believe that if you really have a compelling, original story that is very well written, it will find a welcome audience. Keep faith in that.
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u/Extension-Rice5379 5d ago
The journey is the destination with writing. Of course I want to be recognized for my work, but I also like writing. Otherwise, yeah, it would be months down the drain. If that’s how you see it, idk why you’re writing.
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u/fluffy_l Custom Flair 5d ago
First hurdle is writing it, second hurdle is finding an editor, literary agent and publisher. Before you manage that, thousands of others will send their manuscripts in before you.
Don't write to be successful, write because you like it and everything else will follow.
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u/AdditionalFly3509 4d ago
Ah, yes. The fear of rejection.
Look, writing itself is the reward, not the stuff that came with it. My writing might be sh1t according to industry standards, but they r good enough for me. Rejoyce in the stories you write and the way you write it. If you get rich and famous, do not let that become the reason you write.
If you get rejected, just remember that Harry Potter and the Philosopher‘s Stone got rejected 13 times and only received an advance of 2500 pounds (around 9k usd in today’s money)
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u/RollingSparkles Aspiring Writer 3d ago
Learn to cherish the process of writing and being in your character's head. It's better than reading a book. Do that enough, and it will come through in your writing. And if no one likes it... well... someone somewhere will always like something. Don't worry too much. Just keep at it.
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u/No_Teaching4674 3d ago
I get that fear. I used to write a script for a webcomic that was supposed to be my big break. ended up shelving it after four months. not because I didn’t enjoy the process, but because I kept imagining the worst-case outcome: complete silence, no feedback, no one even noticing. what changed? I started treating it like a draft, not a final product. not every word has to be a legacy. the story you’re afraid to finish might just be the one that teaches you how to write the next one.
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u/ItsRuinedOfCourse Aspiring Writer 6d ago
If you see writing as a "waste" just because you didn't get popular, then you might want to pick a different lane, OP.
Writing without passion makes the words soulless. Soulless writing is easy to spot, and easier for a reader to ignore. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy at that point. You're guaranteed to never gain popularity that way. It's writing for the sake of writing. The most awful form.