Fear is something we all face at some point or the other in our lives. When it comes to our careers, there are a number of fears, especially since our work is so inextricably connected to our capacity to earn money and keep up our lifestyle. Writers are no different and they too can face fears. But the thing with fears is that they can be overcome with some rational thinking and perspective, as well as a great deal of preparation to prevent the things you fear from happening. Some of the major fears all successful writers must overcome are listed below.

1. Fear that no one would read your book

This is the biggest fear that writers have to face, and probably every single writer has had to face it at the beginning of their careers. But if you want to write, you want to write. Do it for yourself first, and the readers will come. The possibility of your book not doing well will always be there, but there are things you can do to reduce the chances of this to a minimum. Put out a professional and well-edited book, build relationships with other authors and readers and build up an author persona to which readers can relate. But most importantly, put that book out on the market. There is no way to know if people would read your book or not until it is available to them.

2. Fear of being penniless

This is a valid and very practical fear that most authors face when they want to leave their full time jobs in order to write. If your book doesn’t do as well as you think it should, you can face severe financial problems. The only way to handle this fear is to make provisions for the future. Start writing part time while still working. If possible, put your savings away so that you can take a sabbatical from work until you finish your book. Learn to cut down on the unnecessary expenses and write more every day. The sooner you finish, the sooner you can sell your books and earn money.

3. Fear of criticism

It is normal to fear criticism of your work, and especially so when you are a writer. There is the very real fear that someone will come along and pull your hard work to pieces. This is natural, but you really need to get over this. Learn to appreciate criticism because it can only help you improve. If readers or friends are coming to you with suggestions or pointing out mistakes, it’s because they think that you can improve, not because they hate you. Learn to separate yourself and your identity from your work. When people dislike your work, it does not mean they dislike you. Note down the criticisms and work on them, and you will do much better next time.

4. Fear of being a bad writer

A lot of people face this fear because they have no clue what goes into being a good writer. You might not be a great writer, or even a good writer, but there are ways to ensure that you don’t become a bad writer. Keep your sentence structure simple, make sure that your writing is comprehensible, take care of the grammatical and punctuation errors, and last but not the least, have a story arc that goes somewhere. These are pretty basic writing rules and once you master them, you can move on to learning how to develop characters, set the background. Writing has to be learned just like everything else, and you can only do so by writing!

5. Fear of not knowing what to write

If you really don’t know what to write, then you are probably considering the wrong profession. Writers are story tellers and always have a vague idea of what kind of stories they want to tell. The real challenge should be in developing these stories. Look within yourself and find out what the stories you want to bring to the world are. Don’t worry if they sound silly or non-interesting. Even the most ordinary stories can find readers if you write them well. You will never know if you have a story worth telling until you explore your options.

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Kavitha is a freelance content writer and French translator, and has been working in this field since 2008. She has degrees in computer applications and international business and has a background in business and international trade. She enjoys learning languages and is currently learning Japanese. Her interests vary from books and writing to travelling and history.