How do you get over the thought that your book will fail before you are even half way through writing the first draft?

[Guest]

(I already paid for everything outside of editing).

[Eryn]

When it comes to writing especially self publishing anticipate that odds are against you making a profit at the start, especially your first book. Make the best effort to produce the best quality and for self publishing there are methods to help turn the odd in your favor, but nothing is guaranteed. Anyone who thinks they can retire on their first book should save their time and money, and just buy a lotto ticket.

[Gabrielle]

Start writing because you enjoy it and stop writing for success. It’s something i remind myself daily. Being able to start a book is incredible, being able to finish a book is incredible, publishing a book is incredible. Every step of the way is an accomplishment. Never stray from your passion or talent!

[Ally]

If the thought only pops up every once in a while, I recognize it as a sign that I need to take a brief break from my story. Take a walk, read a book, watch a show, do whatever it is that makes you relax.

If the thought is constant, then you need to remind yourself why you're writing. Think about what it is that made you come up with the idea for your story and revisit it- maybe look at pictures or read a book etc or whatever it is that inspired it or something that reminds you of it. Sometimes all you need is to fall in love with your story again in order to push past that mental block.

[Gary]

Like building a house, you keep your eye on what might crack, where it might fall over etc. If you didn't do that, it might: if you worry it could fail, you're giving it the best chance of success. BUT, I wouldn't pay a penny out until it's done. How long it will take it very hard to say. The final form can change, and I have started novels/ novellas etc then left them and may not go back (For all kinds of reasons but 99% I have a better idea, though this hasn't happened for years because I feel I have a gut instinct for what work I become dedicated to). When you're some way in, and you've endlessly wrestled with parts that don't work (YET), you'll have your "YESSS!" moments where you feel it working.

[Robert]

First: why have you spent any money at all if you haven't even written a first draft yet? I've written four books and I've yet to spend (or make) a penny. Second, there are many, many "get unstuck" tricks you can try. For myself sometimes I say, "imagine I only have five minutes to finish this...what handful of words can I write to give the reader closure at the end of this incomplete work?" Making yourself summarize can help. Do it in 10 words. Than in 100 words. Than in 1000 words. Then in 10,000 words. Then finish the book. Or do any of the many other tricks out there. Good luck!

[Bambi]

I know that some people write to make money, and I know that we all want our book to be a success and for people to see what we see. But I look at it more like it’s healing for me, it’s my dream, it’s my vulnerability, and if it doesn’t sell it still will live on even after I’m gone

[Dexter]

Without wanting to dampen your hopes there is a good chance you could struggle to get it published. Or it could fail if you self publish. Breath that in and accept it. HOWEVER!!! Don't stop creating it. Enjoy the process (actually enjoy creating it I'm not sure anyone enjoys the endless fine tuning and edit bit that comes after). Get the thing made. You may find out that it's the 5th novel you write gets you published and that the 1st and second are released after. Just do not give up but try to be at peace with the reality of the publishing world. It's tough. Be a writer because you enjoy writing.

[Irene]

What did you need to pay for? At the writing stage, the only thing that costs is the laptop; if you write on Google docs you don't even need to pay for word processing software.

In any case, what you're doing is self-sabotaging out of fear. The negative thoughts could end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. You need to tell yourself that you will do the best you can and even if the first draft is not great, it's ok because that's what revising is for. You tell yourself to focus on the story and the characters, and do justice to the characters. Let the story come out.

[Mellody]

For me, it’s as simple as telling myself that I’m not writing for other people. It’s good for *my* soul, it’s *my* story to tell, and it doesn’t matter if other people like it or not.

[Nikki]

I look at famous authors who blazed the trail before me and feel WAY better! Like Edgar Allen Poe, who was basically a total failure…in the USA…but a HUGE hit in France where Jules Verne was hardcore fangirling. Or Charles Dickens, who was broke AF but had things to say and a bone to pick with society so he wrote a ghost story about some jerk who hated Christmas…and eventually made bank from being paid per word. But ultimately, there’s the irrefutable fact that every great author of every great age was a nobody before they published. The magical world that enchanted our entire childhoods and made Rowling millions started on a napkin in a train station, penned by a broke divorcee at the end of her rope. Tolkein was a professor flipping through an endless pile of term papers when someone accidentally stuck a blank page in—and he was SO thrilled at the reprieve, he finally took a moment to write the first line of his first book: “In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit”.

You won’t know how far your stories will go until you throw them into the universe for the rest of us to enjoy!

[Bernadette]

When I wrote my first novel I knew no publisher or agent would look at it because it was too long, so I looked at the money I had available and what I could do with it and made a decision. I could self-publish and make a fairly huge loss or I could get the thing edited and still never get accepted by a publisher. So I took the hit, got the book self-published (it got a few good reviews on Amazon but that was about it), and even though it was never a commercial success, I look at that book on my bookshelf and I'm as proud as Punch of myself because I. Achieved. Something. Don't do it for anyone else, and don't put your focus on whether you can get it published or not, or even whether anyone else thinks it's any good - do it to give YOURSELF joy! Anything else that happens afterwards is just a bonus!

[Jaidyn]

No one ever writes a good first draft. They’re always crap. Even the greats of the world have written junk. First drafts aren’t meant to be perfect. They’re meant to get the bare bones of your story on paper.