publication – Jean's Writing

How to overcome your fear

Published on October 30, 2018October 29, 2018 by Jean M. Cogdell5 Comments

Well, it’s Halloween again and scary things are heading your way.

But do you really need to open the door to find scary things that instill fear?

No, not me. All I have to do is walk over to my desk.

Because, if you’re a writer, you live with fear. At least I do. Fear of failure, and fear of success. Yep, that’s right. Sitting down at the keyboard is a whole other kind of fear.

Is it really fear of writing or is it fear of failure?

Do you suffer from Graphophobia, Scriptophobia, Achievemephobia, Atychiphobia or some other phobia?

Oh yeah, there is a phobia for everything.

Scriptophobia, fear of writing (in public, class, etc.). I believe a writer can feel this fear because we are expecting someone, someday to read what we’ve written. ie… public.

Graphophobia, fear of handwriting. Okay, this one is a stretch for writers. But, hey you never know, so I threw it in for good measure.

Achievemephobia, fear of success. Hmm, yeah sometimes this does bother me. How would my life change if I wrote a bestselling book? I’m not a big people person, preferring the quiet of my home to a convention floor.

But first I, and maybe you must get over the biggest fear.

Achievemephobia, the fear of failure. If there is a writer anywhere in the world that hasn’t felt a fear of failure at one point in their life, I’d love to meet them.

So, according to Mark Twain, it’s okay to be afraid but not okay to let fear stop us.

Doesn’t matter what you call it, we can overcome any fear including finishing that manuscript.

How? One word at a time.

What is your biggest fear?

What fear keeps you from writing?

What fear stops you from succeeding?

Want to read more about phobias, and how to overcome the fear of writing? Click links at the end of this post.

PLEASE TAKE ANOTHER MINUTE AND LOOK ME UP ON SOCIAL MEDIA BY CLICKING ON THE LINKS BELOW.

AND STOP BY JEAN’S WRITING ANYTIME, I’LL LEAVE A LIGHT ON.

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3 Tricks to Overcome Your Fear of Writing by Jeff Elkins

10 Ways to Harness Fear and Fuel Your Writing By: Sage Cohen

Writers Anxiety

Overcoming Fear of Failure – Facing Your Fear of Moving Forward

Fear of Writing Phobia – Graphophobia or Scriptophobia

I want to share an exciting announcement with you

Published on June 2, 2017June 8, 2017 by Jean M. Cogdell20 Comments

Rejections need not defeat!

One after another the rejections came but, nevertheless, I persisted.

I tweaked, edited, submitted the story and waited, again.

How many times did I go through this ritual? To be honest, I’m not sure. But I did not quit.

However, I did reach a point where I did let go and moved on to another project.

And Bingo!

All my persistence, tweaking, and editing paid off.

My story was selected for publication by Centum Press!

Precious Memories made the cut.

Centum Press selected Precious Memories to join One Hundred Voices Volume III and is now available for pre-order in a limited edition hardcover format.

Only 500 hard copies will be printed in this limited edition, to order one click this link bit.ly/100VoicesV3.

But it gets better!

Enter this following code and receive a discount on your purchase! Discount code: 100V3-20

Wait, there’s more!

While this isn’t my first story to make the cut for publication, this is the first time I’ll share the publication stage with my sister. Wow! You heard right. One of my sisters, Sheila Good, is an amazing writer and her story Maggie’s New Beginning is also among the one hundred authors chosen by Centum Press for volume three.

100 Voices III a

Thanks for sharing in my excitement.

Where have you submitted recently?

Please share your successes; I’d love to celebrate with you too.

And remember never give up!

Talk to me – I love reading your comments.

Please head over and “like” my Facebook page at Facebook at jeanswriting . Or to connect with me, click the “write me” tab. Don’t forget you can follow me on StumbleUpon, on Twitter @jeancogdell , and Amazon.com.

Please stop by and say “hey!” I’ll leave a light on.

Losing and Winning – I prefer winning

Published on January 5, 2015 by Jean M. Cogdell10 Comments

Ouch! “We regret …”

How I hate those words. Don’t we all? But since I shared my excitement and success with you, thought it only fair to share my disappointment and failure. Rejections keep me humble, reminding me, I’m not all that, and sometimes I’m just plain dumb.

I’d little time to bask in the warm glow of publication when up popped the damned devil, Rejection.

All comfy in my pjs and slippers, I sat down to relax in front of the fire, sip eggnog and catch up on emails.

After all, the holidays are a time to kick back and relax. A time to chill and enjoy the fact Fiction Southeast had published my essay. Can you tell I was feeling a bit proud?

Well, everyone knows with pride comes the fall.

My eggnog grew warm as the cold wind of reality swept though my computer and I read the following line in an email.

Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately….

I sulked, ranted and raved over my good story, which they’d declined. Why the hell, was it rejected? Apparently, the judges didn’t know good writing from a hole in the ground.

Then the free critique offered by the magazine arrived. Gulp.

Time to eat crow. Dumb, dumb, and dumber, I’m such a dummy. I repeated as I banged my head on the desk.

The judges liked my story.

“This story is well written, with a good character dynamic.” However, I’d failed to comply with one of the rules. Me I disqualified myself! Non-negotiable. No exceptions.

Messing up or missing a rule equals rejection.

Guess the judges did recognize good writing and they also recognized a dumb one too. A writer that can’t follow instructions.

Stupid, stupid… I took another minute and banged head on keyboard.

One step forward and two back… that’s me.

Now that I need Ibuprofen for my headache I’ll take a deep breath and try again.

Back to the keyboard, writing, reading and studying. To improve my chances for publication I’m reading and rereading a few websites. However not sure anything can help me remember to follow the rules.

Banging head again, need a minute.