How to Not Feel Terrified While Sharing Your Work
A problem that I face over and over is the terrifying task of sharing and publishing my work. While I haven't yet achieved the latter goal, I do have several tips that I fall back on consistently to keep myself motivated.
1. Find someone in your life who you're comfortable sharing your work with. This is the first step to sharing your work. While it might seem tempting to only share your work online for strangers to read, there's always the chance that someone you know could find your work, and if you're not prepared for this, it could be rather terrifying. However, if people in your life know about and enjoy your writing, the task of sharing your work anywhere will be less daunting.
2. Imagine the "what ifs." This is not a tactic that you want to utilize at every turn. However, it might be good to figure out how you want to handle potentially negative or confused comments. I would reccomend always taking the higher ground when it comes to cyberbullies...unless you come up with a really good retort, that is.
3. Understand that whatever you're imagining is worse than the reaction's going to be. Humans are prone to imagine the worst-case scenarios...and then some. Don't let yourself do this. It can help to take a deep breath, step back from the situation, and sort of laugh at yourself. Look how silly you're being! Of course [insert your nightmare here] won't happen. Maybe not everyone on the planet will like your book, but unless it promotes child murder or something, it's highly unlikely that it'll attract too much negative attention.
4. Yes, there is a thing as too much editing. Sometimes, out of nervousness, writers edit...and revise...and add some more...and cut out a few paragraphs...and just keep doing things like this until their piece is a convoluted mess that no one can make heads or tails of. The biggest word is not always the best, modern characters don't talk like they live in the Renaissance era, and run-on sentences are deadly. Sometimes, your third or fourth draft is simply the best that you alone are going to be able to get it!
5. Accept that there will always be someone better than you. This is perhaps the best piece of advice I have ever received: it comes straight from both my father and his father. There will always be someone more skilled than you. Even if that person's long dead, even if they have yet to be born, your work will not forever reign supreme, and the odds of it doing so even now are extremely unlikely. I know that seems like the opposite of encouragement, which is the core of this blog, but trust me, it takes some of the pressure off. If you're striving to be your best, and not, like, Beyonce's best, then you're going to be less stressed and happier with what you produce.
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To recap:
1. Find someone in your life who you're comfortable sharing your work with.
2. Imagine the "what ifs."
3. Understand that whatever you're imagining is worse than the reaction's going to be.
4. Yes, there is a thing as too much editing.
5. Accept that there will always be someone better than you.
Follow these five steps, and while you still may be nervous about sharing your work, I promise, it'll be easier! Happy writing and I'll see you next week :)
