I’ve written here a few times about terror and writing and publishing. The terror of people actually reading your work, the terror of writer’s block and of never being able to write again, the fear of presenting your work–all of that is real.
Today’s terror is whether I can make lightning strike twice. I have a work-in-progress out for beta reading, and I’ll do a rewrite after that, then send it out for a deeper reading to get the opinion of other writers on my text. Then probably another rewrite.
But what about after that? I go back to the rounds of sending it off for queries. I don’t have any kind of deal with my current publisher to submit it to them first, though I probably will do that once they open for queries again. I have a publisher I met last year at a conference that’s interested in it, so I’m definitely going to send there first.
But what if they don’t like it? What if I haven’t sold enough of Hurricane Baby? What if, what, if, what if?
I’m learning to ignore the “What if?” question. It doesn’t do me any good to ruminate over that. All I can do is work to advance the book and get it in as many hands as possible. I have to write the best book I can right now and ready it for querying with as much care and concern as I can muster up.
What about writing terrorizes you? List it in the comments. Happy writing!
Julie Liddell Whitehead 