I’m teaching a Novel Writing course at my college this semester. (I usually teach it once or twice a year.) For a midterm exercise, I asked the students to write about how drafting and getting feedback on their first chapter went. One of the students wrote that he was reluctant to offer any feedback that a writer might take as negative because he feared what they might say about his draft in order to get back at him.
Sound
silly? It wasn’t to him. And this fear kept him from giving his best feedback,
and it prevented him from gaining whatever insights into writing he might’ve gleaned
from giving that feedback. In other words, his fear held him back. It prevented
him from growing – and helping someone else grow.
Of
course, this student is young, and this is likely his first time giving
feedback on someone’s work. A more experienced writer would be long past having
such basic doubts, right?
Nope.
Whenever
I’m asked what’s the most important quality writers need, I always give the same
answer: psychological resilience. The fears, doubts, and worries never go away.
But if you’re lucky, you get better at dealing with them. And the first step in
that process is understanding that these fears are absolutely normal. All
writers experience them to one degree or another. And the second step? Acknowledging
these fears, understanding them, and learning ways to live with them.
So let’s talk about some scary stuff.
Fears Before Writing
· I’m not good
enough to be a writer. Wherever you’re at in your career, good enough
is always just out of reach. It’s an ever-moving goalpost. You are where you
are as a writer today, and if you keep working, you’ll be a bit better
tomorrow. That’s the closest thing to a guarantee you can get as a writer. Improvement,
no matter how great or small, is the goal.
· I can’t be a REAL
writer if I don’t have a writing degree. Bullshit. The only things you need
to do in order to be a writer is to read a lot and write a lot, get feedback on
your work, and never stop trying to improve. Writing programs can be very
beneficial for some, but they aren’t necessary. If you’re there
basically to purchase an identity as a writer, you’re there for the wrong
reason. If you’re there to experience structured, guided growth as a writer and
to be part of a community of like-minded writers, then you’re good. But a
degree still isn’t necessary. Most writers I know don’t have writing degrees,
and I know plenty of people with writing degrees who don’t write.
· I need to be in a
writers’ group to be a writer. Again, you don’t need this. But you
do need to be cautious. It’s too easy to allow the group to become a creative
end in and of itself, and you end up giving and getting feedback on work that
no one ever attempts to publish. But if you find a group that supports one
another and helps each other grow and work toward their writing goals, you’re
golden.
· I’m too young/too
old to be a writer. All
that any of us have is today. Start writing or don’t. Your age has nothing to
do with it. Besides, you won’t stay young for long, and you’ll be one more day
older whether you write or not.
· My life is small
and boring, and I don’t have enough material to draw on to be a writer. You have a
lifetime of experience up to this point, and you add to it every second you
live – especially if you remain open to the world around you. Work with what
you have today and make the most of it. Do the same tomorrow. And the next day.
· It’s selfish of me
to devote so much time to writing. That’s one way to look at it. But the
reality is, if you don’t take time to write – see if you can follow me here –
you won’t get any writing done. A difficult concept to grasp, I know. There’s a
reason why a lot of creative people don’t have kids and why they prefer to have
relationships with other creatives who understand their need to write. Writing isn’t
selfish. It’s self-fulfillment. By working toward growth, you’ll be a
better partner, parent, friend, coworker, etc. Balance is needed, though. When
my first daughter was born, my writing output slowed to a crawl. I knew it
would, and I knew that it was temporary. I learned to get up early to write, to
write during kids’ naptimes, to write in bits and snatches throughout the day,
to write after they’d gone to bed for the night. I made myself do it even when
I was tired, and I made time by not watching so much fucking TV. I also stopped
reading novels for a while and primarily read short stories. I wasn’t willing
to take time away from my daughters, so I made sacrifices elsewhere. I also
learned that things don’t need to be perfect; they just need to be good enough.
My great-grandmother used to say, “Your house will still be there when your
kids are grown.” Worry about how often you dust, do laundry, or mow the lawn
then.
· I don’t know what
I’m doing, so I need to learn much more about writing, then I’ll be skilled and
knowledgeable enough to start. Thinking you need a writing degree fits
here too, but I’m talking about going to writing conferences, reading
how-to-write books, watching instructional videos on YouTube, reading fantastic
author blogs like this one, following authors, agents, and editors on social
media, hanging on their every word. I’ve known too many people who never believed
they knew enough to start, and guess what? They never started. Start with the
knowledge and skill you currently possess, write, and keep learning, but don’t allow
learning to eat up all your time and become an excuse for not writing.
· What if this piece
doesn’t turn out the way I imagine? It never does. It might be better, it
might be worse, but it’ll most likely just be different. Send it out to an
editor and write something else.
· Everything I write
is crap. I
feel this way all the time about everything I write, including this blog entry.
I let myself feel it, and I keep writing anyway. Even if what you write is crap,
you’ve still created something that’s never existed before. You still learned something
from writing the piece. You still grew as an artist. When I was first starting
out, old pros used to say, “The first million words are practice.” I found this
very comforting because it meant it was normal to spend time learning, it was
normal that not everything I wrote would be successful as a piece of writing,
but it would be successful as a learning experience. The old saying is “Give
yourself permission to write crap.” I think a better way to think of it is “Give
yourself permission to practice.” And I bet that eventually, some of your
practice will result in publishable work.
· No one will ever read what I write. Maybe not. And even if they do, few people (relatively speaking) read for pleasure. Fewer still read fiction, and fewer still read the kind of weird-ass horror I like to write. I write for myself first (even when I write media tie-in fiction because it’s fun to write) and then I write for the people who would like to read the stuff I write, whoever they are and however many of them there are.
Fears During Writing
· Am I starting my
story at the wrong place? Maybe. But you won’t know until your write your story
and see what you think of the completed piece when you read it over. And there
are hundreds, maybe thousands, of different ways to begin your story. You only
need one that works, and there is no one right choice. So pick one and start
writing.
· What if I get
writer’s block? Some
writers don’t believe writers’ block exists, some do. I believe it can be
several different things: You’re afraid of failing, you’re tired, you’re not
healthy, you’re currently dealing with emotional stressors, you’ve been writing
so much for so long that you’re burned out. Identifying the reason you’re
feeling blocked will help you fix it. Tired? Get some damn sleep. Hungry? Go
eat. Burnt out? Take a vacation or maybe work on a different project, one that’s
just for fun.
· How will I keep
track of all these characters, plot points, settings, etc.? Experiment with
different organizing techniques. There are a zillion of them in how-to books and
videos. Try writing software (but not fucking AI). Keep experimenting until you
find something that works for your current project. And if the technique you found
doesn’t work next time, search for a new one. Plus, if you’re a newer writer,
maybe write simpler stories – fewer characters, fewer plot points, fewer
settings – to make them more manageable. It’s like learning to juggle. First
you learn how to throw one ball correctly, then two, then three, and so on. Building
basic skills allows you to add more elements to your work over time.
· My vocabulary
isn’t strong enough for me to be a writer. Use the words you know now, and use
new ones you acquire as you move through life if they feel natural and right to
you. Keep reading. Besides, there are millions of words in the English language.
Even a gigantic doorstop of a novel can only ever use a fraction of them.
· I’ll never master
all the skills of fiction writing. Correct, you will not. And what the hell kind
of fun would it be if you did? The goal is to keep learning, improving, and
growing. That only has to stop when you die. (And who knows? Maybe not even
then.)
· What if I’m
writing the wrong kind of story? There is no wrong kind. There is no right
kind. Write whatever the hell you want at any given moment. Explore. The more
types of stories you try, the greater the chance you’ll come across a kind you
love and are really good at. When I started writing, I wanted to write light
fantasy novels like Piers Anthony. (If you squint really hard when you read
some of my books, you’ll see his influence.) But I tried all kinds of things
until I found editors and readers responding most strongly to my horror and my
tie-in fiction. And lately, to my nonfiction.
· What if I’m
organizing the material wrong? Just write the damn story. You can always
rearrange things later. Plus, just like I said about beginnings earlier, there
are lots and lots and lots of ways to organize your story, and many of them
will work just fine. Just start making choices.
· Do I need to get
feedback every step of the way to make sure I’m doing this right? I think this is a terrible idea. You’ll continually second guess yourself
and may end up blocked because you’re afraid to make any choices at all. Getting
feedback on a finished, developed draft is fine. Getting feedback on an initial
idea or an outline is fine. But you don’t want feedback to end up becoming a
crutch that stunts your growth as a writer and makes it hard to complete
stories.
Fears After Writing
· What if it really
isn’t any good? Then
it won’t sell and you’ll write something else. Maybe you’ll recycle some of the
concepts or text for another story someday. Maybe it is good, and you
just need to keep sending it around until someone sees how good it really is. Never
pin all your hopes on one piece of writing anyway. You can always write more.
· What if people
don’t like it? Fuck
‘em. Try to find readers who will like it, and go write something else in the
meantime.
· What if no one
reads it? It
sucks when no one comments on your work or you get little to no reviews on
Amazon or Goodreads. Do like Chumbawumba says – Get back up. Write something
else. (Are you starting to see a pattern here?)
· What if no one
cares? What’s
most important is that you care – about your work, about growing as an
artist, about making contact with readers (however many you get). And the odds
are someone will care, maybe someone you’ll never know about. But the great
thing about social media is that you sometimes get to see someone say something
nice about your work. One positive comment can be like a drink of cold water to
someone traveling in a desert. It’s enough to keep you going for a little while
longer.
· What if I won’t be
able to write again? You
will. If you did it once, you can do it again – and probably better next time.
· What if I can
never write anything this good again? Good is a meaningless
term. Check out the Amazon reviews of a book you love. Some people love it,
some hate it, some are indifferent to it. Same book. Different readers. Try not
to compare your current work to your previous work. Write today’s work.
Writing Career Fears
· What if my work
gets rejected? It
will. I got two short story rejections this week. You might apply to get a table
in the dealer’s room at a convention and not be accepted. You might propose a
workshop at a convention and be turned down. Setbacks of varying kinds are
normal in an artist’s life. Take the hit, take some time to recover if
necessary (but not too much), and get back to work. The more rejections you get
early in your career, the better, because you can get used to them, and they’ll
lose their power over you. They still suck, though. (Any editors out there want
to buy two weird horror stories?)
· What if trad
publishing/indie publishing is the wrong way to go? I’ve said it
before, there is no right or wrong choice in writing; there’s only what you try
at any given time. Try it all and see what works for you, what you like, what
you have the most success with (however you define success).
· I’ll never find a
publisher/agent. Not
with that attitude you won’t! But seriously, there are so many options
available for writers to get their work to readers that you don’t need a
publisher or agent. And if you want to find one, do other things while you’re
looking. Write short pieces, start another book, start a YouTube or TikTok
channel . . . Don’t wait around for anything. Use the time.
· I won’t be able to
negotiate contracts. You
can learn. There are so many resources available on the internet, and you can
reach out to more experienced writers for help. Short story and article
contracts are fairly easy to deal with. Book contracts, not so much, but like I
said, you can learn. I know many writers who handle all their contracts. I handle
my contracts for short stuff, and I rely on my agent to deal with book
contracts.
· I’ll get ripped
off by scam editors/agents/reviewers. It could happen, so you need to educate
yourself on how to recognize scammers. This is a great place to start: https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/
· What if I get
terrible reviews? A
lot of writers don’t read reviews because they don’t want to be influenced by
them, whether they’re positive or negative. The truth is, if enough people read
and review your work, some will dislike it. Science Fiction writer Mike Resnick
used to say, “I never argue with people’s opinions of my work.” I think that’s
one of the healthiest attitudes you can have. A review is an opinion, not fact.
I read all the reviews of my work that I can find because I can learn from
them. But some are easier to take than others. If you’re afraid of seeing
terrible reviews, don’t look at any. If you just have to read your
reviews, start developing a tougher skin as fast as you can. If you want to
write, don’t let anything stop you, especially bad reviews.
· What if I get no
reviews? This
is one of the worst things than can happen to an author. Indifference is far
worse than hate. If people hate your work, they’ve at least engaged with it,
and they’ve reacted to it. Offer free copies – print, electronic, or both – for
honest reviews. (And don’t get upset if the reviews aren’t five-stars all the
time.)
· I’ll never have
the time to effectively self-promote. This is probably true. Partially because,
no one knows what effective means when it comes to promotion. It’s difficult
to correlate a promotional effort with sales data. Your Facebook or Amazon ad
might or might not have caused the small spike you see in your sales. There’s
no way to ever know for sure. Remember that you’re a writer, not a promoter. Promote
as much as you can without eating too much into your writing time. And do
whatever kind and amount of promotion you’re comfortable with. The best
promotion for your writing is your writing, and the more writing you do, the
more each piece promotes the others.
· What if my sales
are low – or nonexistent? I feel your pain, my friend. And here I’m going to sound
like a broken record, but write something else. Try a different genre if you
like, just keep writing.
· What if my author
persona is a dud? Fuck
personas. Just be yourself (or at least the best version of yourself). A
persona of one kind or another will develop naturally over time anyway.
· What if other
authors don’t see me as a colleague? What if they think I’m a joke? Writers are, in
general, very welcoming to newcomers. Some of the biggest names might be a
little standoffish at first because they’re so accustomed to people trying to
use them instead of getting to know them as people. But many will warm up to
you given some time. And if someone does treat you poorly, fuck ‘em. Don’t let anyone
else define you. Don’t give them that power. Only you get to define you.
· What if no one
shows up to my signing/reading/workshop? This will happen to you. It’s
happened to me and will likely happen again. This is a situation where you have
to feel like shit for a while, and then move on.
· I’ll never win an
award for my writing. Maybe you will, maybe you won’t. You have no control
over this, so do your best not to worry about it. Awards are nice – they’re
acknowledgements from your peers that you’re doing good work – and you can use
them as marketing tools. But there are all kinds of “awards” that are less
tangible and far more valuable. I attended the Ohioana Book Festival as an
author one year, and a young woman came up to my table and asked if I was the
Tim Waggoner who wrote a young adult fantasy tie-in novel called Temple of
the Dragonslayer. I said I was, and she told me that was the book that made
her want to be a writer. No award, however nice it may be to get one, could
ever come close to a moment like that. If you write for any length of time, you’ll
get similar “awards” too.
· I’ll never be able
to support myself – let alone a family – with my writing. Odds are this will
be true for you. It’s always been hard as hell for most artists to make a good
living in this world. A lot of writers who say they’re full-time writers have spouses
who make good money (and provide health insurance for the family). They
probably also live very simply in a place where the cost of living is low, and
they live alone (or with a roommate) so they can get by on not a lot of money,
and even then, things can be tough for them. There’s a great chance they do
other types of writing – nonfiction, freelance business writing, technical
writing – that pays better than fiction, or they do freelance editing, or they
might teach (like I do). I teach writing, and according to the Ohio Arts
Council, anyone who produces art or teaches an art is considered an artist. I
think most people wouldn’t count teaching an art as equivalent to producing
art, though. At any rate, my goal when I started out was to live a creative life,
and I have, and I’ve supported myself and my family with the money I’ve made (more
as a writing teacher than a writer), so I’ve succeeded in my goal. I still sometimes
feel like I’m not a “real” writing since producing writing is not my sole
source of income. Maybe I probably always will.
Strategies for Dealing with Your Writing Fears
· Write, write,
write, and write some more. Writing is the antidote for almost all
writing fears. It’s like if Dory in Finding Nemo was an author. “Just
keep writing, writing, writing . . .”
· Learn to function
with fear. Your
writing fears may never go away completely. Mine haven’t. So you need to learn
to get on with your work despite the fears. The more you write, the better you
get at functioning with fear.
· Make choices. Much of our writing
fear comes from being afraid to make a wrong choice. But if you make choices
and keep making choices, even if they aren’t always successful, fear will lose
its hold on you.
· Build a support
network of fellow writers. One of the best ways to fight fear is to have company
while you do it, people who understand what you’re going through because they
go through it too. Not only can you get emotional and professional support from
your network, you can also learn others’ strategies for dealing with writer
fears.
· Accept where you
are now and keep working toward tomorrow. Don’t be in a rush. You can only do
today’s work today, and you can only grow so much in a day. Where you’re at
right now is okay, and where you’ll be at tomorrow is okay too.
· Understand it’s a
marathon, not a sprint. Learning a craft, getting good at it, and learning the
ins and outs of the publishing business takes time. A lifetime, really. The
sooner you understand this, the less power fear will have over you.
·
Envy is the writer’s disease. Don’t compare
yourself to other writers. Don’t eat yourself up because you can’t write like
they do, you haven’t won their awards, haven’t published as much, don’t have
all their fans or their money. Run your race, not someone else’s.
· Remember the Dark
Voices lie. Once,
I was trying to write while I was exhausted. For some reason I don’t remember,
I didn’t sleep well the night before. I nodded off in front of my computer, and
I had a quick mini-dream where a voice said to me, “Your words are small words.”
I started awake and said, “No, my words are big words.” The Dark Voices will
always speak to us, sometimes more often than others. We can’t help but hear
them, but always remember – those voices lie. Don’t believe them.
Resources That Might Help You Work Through
Your Fears
·
Eric Maisel has written a number of wonderful books to
help creative people deal with the emotional difficulties that come with being
an artist: www.ericmaisel.com
·
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association’s Writer
Beware Blog
is the place to learn about writing scams: https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/
·
The SFWA Information Center has all kinds of great
resources – sample manuscript formats, sample book contracts, etc. If you’re
not sure how to do something writing or publishing-related, this is a great place
to go: https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/information-center/
·
Jonathan Maberry’s Free Stuff for Writers. Jonathan offers
a ton of examples he’s written, from outlines and synopses to comic book scripts
and more: https://www.jonathanmaberry.com/freestuffforwriters.cfm
·
Jane Friedman’s Blog. Jane is the
authority on up-to-the-minute information on writing and publishing: https://janefriedman.com/blog/
DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
It’s
rare, but April is one of those months when I’ll have two novels coming out at
the same time from different publishers: Lord of the Feast and The
Atrocity Engine.
Both
books deal with the same mythos and share settings that I’ve used in a number
of my novels, but Lord of the Feast is a horror novel and The
Atrocity Engine is a dark fantasy adventure. You can enjoy each novel on
its own terms, but it might be interesting to read both and see how I present
my mythos in different ways.
Lord
of the Feast
This novel is due out from Flame Tree
Press on April 16th, 2024.
Synopsis:
Twenty years ago, a cult attempted to
create their own god: The Lord of the Feast. The god was a horrible,
misbegotten thing, however, and the cultists killed the creature before it
could come into its full power. The cultists trapped the pieces of their god
inside mystic nightstones then went their separate ways. Now Kate, one of the
cultists’ children, seeks out her long-lost relatives, hoping to learn the
truth of what really happened on that fateful night. Unknown to Kate, her
cousin Ethan is following her, hoping she’ll lead him to the nightstones so
that he might resurrect the Lord of the Feast – and this time, Ethan plans to
do the job right.
Flame Tree Press Paperback and eBook: https://www.flametreepublishing.com/lord-of-the-feast-isbn-9781787586369.html
Barnes & Noble Paperback: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lord-of-the-feast-tim-waggoner/1143636012?ean=9781787586369
Barnes & Noble eBook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lord-of-the-feast-tim-waggoner/1143636012?ean=9781787586376
The
Atrocity Engine
The
Atrocity Engine
will be out from Aethon Books on April 30th, 2024. It’s the first of a dark
fantasy trilogy, and the other two books – Book of Madness and The
Desolation War – have already been turned in to my editor. I don’t have
publication dates for them yet, but I’ll keep you posted.
Here’s
the publisher’s description of The Atrocity Engine:
Men
in Black
meets Hellraiser in this rollicking mash-up of urban fantasy and cosmic
horror from four-time Bram Stoker Award-Winning author Tim Waggoner.
Creatures
from dark dimensions infesting your home? Demonic beings trying to drive you
insane? Alien gods attempting to destroy your universe?
Just
call Maintenance.
This
underpaid and overworked secret organization is dedicated to battling forces
that seek to speed up Entropy and hasten the Omniverse’s inevitable death.
Neal
Hudson is a twenty-year veteran of Maintenance. A surveyor who drives through
the streets of Ash Creek, Ohio constantly scanning for the deadly energy known
as Corruption. Since the death of his previous partner, Neal prefers to work
alone, and he’s not happy when he’s assigned to mentor a rookie.
But
they better learn to get along fast.
The
Multitude, a group of godlike beings who seek to increase Entropy at every
opportunity, are creating an Atrocity Engine. This foul magical device can
destroy the Earth, and they don’t care how many innocent lives it takes to
build it. (Spoiler alert: It’s a lot!)
Just
another day on the job. . .
Amazon
Hardback:
https://www.amazon.com/Atrocity-Engine-Tim-Waggoner/dp/1949890899/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1699124447&sr=1-2
B&N
Hardcover:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book/1144299910?ean=9781949890891
Review
Quotes for The Atrocity Engine
The Atrocity Engine received positive reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist, plus it got some wonderful blurbs from fellow writers!
·
“Waggoner
offers a fresh variation on the trope of a covert agency combating evil in his
blood-drenched Custodians of the Cosmos series opener.” – Publishers Weekly
·
“This
gripping dark fantasy boasts an indelible cast and an unwavering pace.” –
Kirkus Reviews
·
"The Atrocity Engine is a wild ride full of
entertaining scenarios and scary monsters!" – Booklist
·
“The
Atrocity Engine is a kick-ass cross-genre thrill ride of a novel! Holy
moly! Tim Waggoner is easily one of today’s best horror writers.” – Jonathan
Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of Cave 13 and Necrotek
·
"This
is edge-of-your-seat Horror Fantasy. It's as if Stephen King wrote Men in
Black!" —Scott Sigler, #1 NYT Bestselling author of Earthcore
·
“Fast-paced,
cleverly thought-through, and deeply unnerving in all the right places—urban
horror fantasy with a decidedly creepy difference. Don't read it in the dark!”
– Diane Duane, New York Times bestselling author of Tales of the
Five: The Librarian
·
“A brutal,
dark, and disturbing novel that will live in your nightmares. It’s so good!” –
Horror Reads
SCHEDULED APPEARANCES
StokerCon 2024. May 30th to
June 2nd. San Diego, California.
IGW Genre Con. August 17th
and August 18th. Huntington, West Virginia.
WHERE TO FIND ME ONLINE
- Newsletter Sign-Up: https://timwaggoner.com/contact.htm
- Website: www.timwaggoner.com
- Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tim-Waggoner/author/B001JP0XFM?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
- Blog: http://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/
- YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/timwaggonerswritinginthedark
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.waggoner.9
- Instagram: tim.waggoner.scribe
- Threads: @tim.waggoner.scribe@threads.net