Top 6 Reasons You’re Afraid to Write Your Book

If you’re going to become a published author, it is likely you have some fears about the process that you will have to overcome.

You are not alone. All authors, whether we’re working on book #1, book #25, or book #100, have some element of fear and uncertainty about the next one. The sad thing is many potential authors never allow their works to see the light of day because of this.

As the author of 16 published books and several Amazon bestsellers, I can attest to the fact that some of the fears I am going to detail below can be incredibly crippling. But knowing the fear and acknowledging that it is there is the very first step to overcoming it.

My book won’t be perfect.

How many times have we thought this to ourselves about other things in our lives? A career move. A work presentation. Going to college. Applying for the scholarship. Parenting. On and on the list can go.

The truth is, nothing we do will be 100 percent perfect. And if you asked some of the greatest authors if they would change anything in their books, they would probably list dozens of things they’d change. But perfection should never the goal; instead getting 1 percent better with each chapter, each page, each word, and each book should be.

Don’t allow perfection to be your enemy and hold you back from sharing your thoughts with the world.

People won’t like my book or writing style or me.

This sounds like one that we should not be concerned with much but it absolutely holds a lot of us back from sharing our stories with the world. What matters more than anything is that you get your message out to those who need it.

Sure, your book won’t be for everybody. But it will be for somebody. You can’t worry about the few naysayers or people who don’t quite believe you can write. Instead, focus on the people who are waiting to hear what you have to say.

I don’t have time to write.

Said another way, I might start but I won’t be able to finish because of this or that or the other thing I have to do. There will never be a perfect time for you to write a book. Writing is a choice; it’s also a very spiritual discipline that requires us to set aside the time and space to do so.

Time is really construct. We build our lives in alignment with the time we think we have to assign to it. If you say and plan to spend 1 hour a day writing, you will. If you don’t plan to do so, then yes, everything else will get in the way of what you intend to do.

We all make time for the things that are important to us. Setting aside time to write on a regular cadence is telling yourself that it is important.

I don’t know what I am doing.

This fear may be true, in that you have never written a book before, especially if this is your first one. But, what do we do when we don’t know what we are doing? We look it up. We ask questions. We attend webinars and conferences. We get help.

Imposter syndrome — the belief that we don’t really know what everyone thinks we actually know — is a very real thing. It holds us back in ways that we cannot even imagine. But we don’t have it all figured out and neither does anyone else.

The truth is, we all know something about something and that is where we hone in on our talents and gifts and share what we know with those who don’t.

I don’t have anything new to say.

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun,” says Ecclesiastes 1:9. And it’s true. You likely won’t come up with something that no one has ever heard of before.

The point of writing — the reason so many books are written — is because we all have ideas about old concepts and constructs that have been around for centuries. Our opinions, the lens through which we view the world are all unique, specialized, and worth sharing.

No one really cares if you’re the first to ever do it or the hundredth. People only care if what you are sharing is relevant and useful to them.

I don’t know where to start.

This is the number one statement I hear from potential authors who are working on their first book. The book writing and publishing process can feel overwhelming that it can cripple you from just getting started.

I tell writers to forget about all the other things — how the cover will look, what the description will say, how much money can I make — and put all of their mental energy and focus on placing one word after another.

To help you get started in your journey, we’ve created the Book Publishing Power Pack 101, filled with a few helpful ideas and templates to get you going on your path to becoming a published author. Sign up to receive it today.

Author

  • Danni White

    Danni White is the CEO of DW Creative Publishers, a publishing house designed to help authors share their stories with the world. She is also the author of 16 books, including several Amazon.com bestsellers.

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