One Thing I Want Every Writer to Have in 2017

I get the honor of being the first blogger of 2017. But what do I want to give all the writers reading this blog for the year to come?

I considered encouraging you to be fearless. But I realized that's not what I'm wanting to convey. Unless you're a robot, you're going to have fears--fear of rejection, fear of criticism, fear of never getting published, fear of bad reviews, fear of not finishing that novel, fear of running out of ideas, fear of failure, fear of not being able to accomplish edits or rewrites, fear of what others think. As writers, we have so much to be afraid of.

You are going to be afraid.

Nelson Mandela said, "I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."

• You are going to be afraid when you ask for critique of your writing.
• You are going to be afraid the first hundred time you query your manuscript.
• You are going to be afraid of never getting published.
• You are going to be afraid the first time real readers read your book.
• You are going to be afraid no one will buy your book.
• You are going to be afraid of one-star reviews.

And I could list a hundred more things that, as a writer, you are going to fear.

But have courage. Face your fears and never let them rule you. Stand up to them. Take the hits. Fall down and get back up. Fail and try again. Get rejected and keep sending out queries. Get writer's block and keep writing. Get bad reviews and keep moving forward.

Canadian writer, Emma Donaghue wrote, "Fear is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing."

So this is what I want to give you as you go forward into 2017:

Be courageous.

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Melinda Marshall Friesen writes speculative fiction for young people and adults from her home in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She's the author of Enslavement, Subversion, and  The High-Maintenance Ladies of the Zombie Apocalypse. She works in marketing and acquisitions at Rebelight Publishing Inc.

'Not-that' and Writer's Fear

I don't get writer's block.  Instead, I get writer's fear.

While the white page doesn't bother me, filling that page involves navigating strange territory.  Even detailed maps and outlines warp in the act of writing.  Settings shift.  Characters refuse to be the people I imagined at the outset. This is wonderful: surprise is one of the best and truest parts of writing. But the more I press into new territory, the more the worries grow.

They start out logical: does this character make sense?  Is this response authentic?  Does this scene matter?  Will my readers understand this story and setting?

But then they reproduce like tribbles in heat.  I trip over them.  They change character, become accusations.  Your story's irrelevant.  Pretentious. You don't know what you're doing.  You don't have a right to talk about this topic.  Give it up.  And so on, and so forth.  Fears fill the empty space in my head, and strangling characters, plot, and world.

Wrestling with fears is part of every writer's life, but I've been slow learning the wrestling technique.  These fears feed on anticipation and attachment.  Which means that tools designed to approach excessive anticipation and attachment can help with fear.  Recently I've used a simple Buddhist meditation trick, which I think I first read in Tricycle somewhere: 'not-that.'

'Not-that' means confronting thoughts that arise during a period of meditation (and writing is a kind of meditation) and saying, 'not that'—this isn't the point, this isn't the problem, this isn't the focus of my existence.  'Not that,' said in silence or aloud, is a lot faster than arguing my fears into submission, and more effective: a few minutes' work can clear out a pile of emotional laundry, and free up time, and more importantly, mental and emotional space, that I didn't realize were occupied by fear.

Besides, it's fun.  My plot sucks—not that. Nobody wants to read this story—not that.  I should have gone with your other idea—not that.  Let everything go, except of course for the act of writing.  When I have a draft, when I'm editing, then I can invite all those concerns back in, and determine which are justified, and which aren't.

I don't expect this technique to work for everyone.  Like all techniques, it's just a finger pointing at the moon.  But if you find yourself stymied by fear, give this a shot, and see if it helps.

Playing with Fear

Over on my personal blog, I belong to a Blog Chain (a group of writers who blog on the same topic once or twice a month and link to each other). I was recently going back over some old posts and came across one whose topic has been on my mind a lot lately.

I'm currently in the process of rewriting the first novel I ever wrote. One thing I've needed to do is add a little more depth to my characters...make their hopes and fears more tangible, more a part of them and who they are, and above all, stay consistent to their inner selves.

It got me thinking about the subject of fear and how I bring that to my characters. Fears are funny, I think. When it comes right down to it, all fears are internal. You may have a very good reason to fear something, (like fearing fast moving vehicles after being in a car accident), but the fear you feel is still based in your head.

I had a nightmare once, when I was in my mid teens. I was in my room and a blinding white light was shining through my window - like someone had focused a spotlight on it. There was a man standing in my room, but he was made of shadow - black and sort of hazy. No features, just a black outline though it was solid. And red eyes.

I've slept with a nightlight ever since. To this day. Even though I KNOW it was just a dream and there is nothing to fear...especially twenty years later.

I also fear spiders, ghosts, enclosed spaces, heights and losing my loved ones. All of those fears are totally irrational, justified but unfixable, or unavoidable. I'm huge compared to a spider. I step on it and it dies. But I'll run if one is big enough. I generally stay out of my basement at night and never EVER watch or read ghost stories...esp at night (not even Ghostbusters - though one of my lovely crit partners writes very creepy stories so I've had to relax the ban a bit...I still only crit her stuff during the day though :D ). I avoid enclosed spaces and heights if at all possible and go to my happy place and breath deeply if I can't (no amount of exposing myself to such places has cured these fears). And I'm going to lose people I love. I already have. And I will again. Yet I fear it.

I put these same fears into my characters. Sure I give them a real monster to fight- that's always fun. :) But those internal fears...now those are intense battles. I like to watch my characters conquer their fears. Sometimes it takes more than one try, but there is nothing more rewarding than beating a fear...even if it's only temporary.

One of my fave quotes about fear is:

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that

something else is more important than fear.

~Ambrose Redmoon

I actually first heard that quote while watching The Princess Diaries :) But it's so true. I may fear a lot of things - but I can be courageous, no matter how bad my boots are shaking, when I need to be :) And I try to bring this to my characters. My current MC is terrified of losing control of her life. She goes to great lengths to be able to be queen of her world. So, when I need to amp up some conflict or torture her a bit, I play on those fears. I take away her control of the situation and watch what happens. Whenever I am writing with her, I try to keep her innermost fears in mind, because those are the things that ultimately drive her to do what she does.

What are you afraid of? Do you bring your experience of fear to your characters? What are characters most afraid of?

Hope and Dread

Writer Bryn Greenwood describes hope as a beautiful butterfly that you follow, eyes in the sky, until it leads you right off a cliff. She inspired a few blog posts on the subject of hope this week. (You might surmise we aren't the cheeriest bunch right now.)

Tracey, Hope

Steven, About Hope

Bryn, Dead Butterflies

Here’s mine.

When I submitted my current WIP to my agent, I made sure that it was a complete draft because I was so sure she was going to terminate her contract with me. I knew if I had a finished novel, when she pulled the rug out, I’d have a nice soft manuscript to land on.

But I still had hope. I hoped she’d love it as much as she loved my first book. I hoped she’d have a dozen editors in mind who were dying to read it already.

Instead she terminated her contract with me -- not what I hoped, but what I dreaded. And boy, it hurts.

Ouch, there’s that cliff again, with me bruised in a heap at the bottom.

I’m trying to sort through what being agent-free means. After all, “agent free” sounds pretty good. “Free agent” sounds better. Now, I can look for a new agent who really, really gets me. Maybe I can sub my first novel myself to editors who never saw it, or my future powerhouse agent will love it and sell it with my WIP in a two-book deal. Yay! Hope!!!!

The reality is that I’m going back in the slush pile, and I’ll never make it through without hope. So yeah, I have hope, but along with hope comes dread.

That slush pile is high and steep, and I’m braced to fall off the edge.