The poll itself was inspired by the recent Ditmar nominations<\/a> and by the fact that the writers over on Write Anything<\/em><\/a> are this month searching themselves for their greatest writery fears. It was a difficult question for me to face \u2013 you\u2019ll find out why on Tuesday 29 May when my post<\/a> goes live. But in the meantime, I thought I\u2019d conduct a little survey among the writers I know.<\/p>\n What do you fear most about being a writer?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now… here are the results!<\/p>\n Results as at 8th May.<\/p><\/div>\n As you can see, the most popular fear \u2013 by far \u2013 is the fear of not living up to our own standards. Typical! Although it can be scary exposing our innermost selves through our writing, receiving negative criticism or being in the public eye, it’s not what we fear the most<\/em>. Although sales figures and achieving publication or republication are important, these are also not what we fear the most<\/em>. What we fear the most<\/em> is not writing well enough \u2013 ‘enough’ often involving a comparison of our current writing projects to all the best writing we’ve ever read or written just to see how it measures up!<\/p>\n Why do we do it to ourselves?<\/p>\n Because we’re a little bit cuckoo? Because the writing industry is such a competitive one? Because we’re secret perfectionists who daren’t put anything ‘out there’ until it’s the best it can be \u2013 otherwise we won’t get published or republished, we won’t achieve the sales figures we need and<\/em> we’ll get negative criticism… in public? Possibly… all of the above.<\/p>\n So thanks the Facebookers who answered my poll, it’s given a really interesting result: Karen Miller<\/a>, Kim Falconer<\/a>, Kirsten Tranter<\/a>, Mary Victoria<\/a>,\u00a0Greg Barron<\/a>, Kirstyn McDermott<\/a>, Elizabeth Ottosson<\/a>, Rowena Specht-Whyte<\/a>, Kirsten Krauth<\/a>, Psyche Ready<\/a>,\u00a0Foz Meadows<\/a>, Dorothy-Jane Daniels<\/a>,\u00a0Paul Vander Loos<\/a>,\u00a0Nalini Meiyin<\/a>, Jonathan Crossfield<\/a>, F\u00fczzy Mijmark<\/a>, FemmeRuthless Angel<\/a>,\u00a0Theresa Sandow<\/a>, Imelda Evans<\/a>, Rachael Johns<\/a>, Matthew Rowe<\/a>, Marina Hawke Bignell<\/a>, Maria Gabriela Mu\u00f1oz<\/a>, Pippa Jay<\/a>, Kylie Scott<\/a>, Chels Springer<\/a>, Lucy Stone<\/a><\/p>\n That said, there’s an even more interesting result, in<\/em> the results…<\/p>\n Just take a quick look at those I’ve thanked above \u2013 maybe check out their websites, maybe find them on your preferred social media and tell them that they’re awesome writers! Because, as you’ll see, even established authors experience writing fear in one form or another. (Not all of them mind you \u2013 I’m looking at you, Kim Falconer! \u2013 but most). So buy their books, post an encouraging comment on their blogs, or just be safe in the knowledge that we all have our fears \u2013 it’s what you do with them that counts \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Oh, and thank you Stewart Kirby and Allen Schatz for your twitter suggestions:<\/p>\n Stewart: As a writer, I say it’s huge-mouthed clowns with long sharp teeth and eyes that roll back when the teeth get going. Hell yeah.<\/em><\/p>\n Allen: that I don’t have time to write.<\/em><\/p>\n Too true, guys \u2013 too true!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We’re our own worst enemy \u2013 what!? As those of you who read my last blog post, or who like my Facebook page, will already know, I’ve been conducting a poll over the last couple of weeks, about what writers fear most about being a writer. The poll itself was\u2026<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/writers-fear2.png\" "\\"writers")
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