The scary stuff

[stephanieburgis]

Here's the weird truth about fulfilling my dream for the past 25 years and selling my first books - oh, and finishing the trilogy, too, and being about to see the first book come out in bookstores where I live. (97 more days till the UK pub date, according to my daily Waterstones.com update

Comments

[angie_frazier]

I'm glad you pressed the "post" button instead of "delete." Insecurities are ever-changing and yet always the same, aren't they? As you progress as an author with your career, your worries shift to things like what do your editor/agent/fans want from you next? I hope you continue on with your dragon story because it's giving you joy--and most likely it will give your readers joy, too!

As for me, I'm just entering the "don't read reviews" phase of being an author. I'm scared of them, plain and simple. I'm also scared of not progressing or improving enough as a writer with each new book. All I can do is try :-)

[stephanieburgis]

(Oops. Re-posting this comment due to LJ confusion...)

YES. It's amazing how new fears pop up for every stage of the process. And ohhh, reading reviews feels like picking scabs - we know it's not a good idea, but it can feel impossible to stop! So far I've been lucky with the few reviews that have been posted so far, but the one "meh" review I read completely traumatized me even though I KNOW not everyone will like any book. Good luck avoiding them as much as possible!

And it's so hard to know whether our own writing is improving. All we can do is have faith and keep on trying... *hugs*

[krysteybelle]

Scared? More like terrified. My unpublished novel is in the quarter finals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards, and tomorrow they announce the semifinals. I haven't talked about it too much to anyone, but all of the first reviews weren't great (some were), so I don't expect to move on. However, I get a review from Publisher's Weekly and that's what I'm terrified about. I don't want to be crushed, but I do want to improve my writing. It's a scary thing to put my work out there for professional critique.

Anyway, I am looking forward to reading the first Kat book, although being in the US, it'll be a while for me. I wish you all the best with your UK release and your dragon novel. =)

[stephanieburgis]

Oh, being part of a competition is terrifying! It's fabulous that you've gotten to the quarter finals. Good luck!!! And good luck with the review from PW. It's really brave and smart of you to get professional critiques.

Thanks so much for the good wishes!

[krysteybelle]

Thank you.

I made it to the semifinals. Top 50!

[stephanieburgis]

Wooooooot!!!! Congratulations!!!

[juliakarr]

Insecurities - I got 'em, too! Love your post, glad you didn't delete it! I posted today about slaying [writing] Goliaths. No getting around them, gotta get through them. Good luck from a fellow elevensie!

[stephanieburgis]

I'm glad it's not just me. I will be checking out your post! Thank you!

[charmingbillie]

I lived in my first house for almost 20 years. It was a great little house but had some significant drawbacks, in particular, a small yard on a corner. For two and a half years I looked for another house. I had really clear ideas what I wanted. In that time I missed out on my ideal house, made an offer on a house I'm grateful I didn't get and offered on another house that my realtor didn't like and fortuntely sold before I could buy it

[jennreese]

Yes. I love this: "we go forward because we can't go back."

We can't write our first book over. Someone once called my book original, which paralyzed me with fear. Do I have to be "original" every time? ACK! What if I'm not? What if it was a fluke? It's my only good idea, and now it's gone, and everything is downhill.

But we must go forward, right? We're writing new books, and they are what they are, and all we can do is put our hearts and souls into them and enjoy the journey, because everything else is uncertain and out of our control.

Also, I *love* the dragon novel. I can't wait to see where you go with it!

[merriehaskell]

Yes. I love this: "we go forward because we can't go back."

Ditto. SOOOooooo ditto.

[stephanieburgis]

Isn't it funny how even compliments can feed into the insecurities? And OH, yeah - having sold one series of books, based on Book 1, gave me NO confidence that the rest of the books in the series would be marketable...and getting a great response from my editor to Book 2 gave me no faith that Book 3 would be good...and now I'm getting ready to revise Book 3 and getting good crits for it, I'm panicking that I'll never be able to write good books about anyone except Kat...sigh. Even knowing that it's a set of irrational fear responses doesn't make it feel any different inside!

Thank you SO much for the kind words about the dragon novel! I'm really hoping to send you more of it very soon...

[kellyrfineman]

Feel the fear and do it anyway. And to hell with whether it's commercial or not. Because the books that sell a lot? Usually they're written by people who love their story, the same as the award-winners and, to be fair, the books in the midlist.

[stephanieburgis]

Feel the fear and do it anyway. And to hell with whether it's commercial or not.

I think I need to print this out and hang it over my desk! Thank you!