Writing is more than putting words down on the page with good technique. Writing is also about finding our way to those words, the story we want to tell, and the belief that we can do it. And I don't think we get a lot of guidance around this as writers when it comes to finding our stories. Welcome to the Write It Scared podcast. I'm your host, Stacy Fraser, a formally repressed creative soul, turned fiction writer, story editor, and author accelerator certified fiction book coach. At Write It Scared, we tell the truth about why writing a novel is so hard by acknowledging that most writers grapple with two stories: the one they want to put on the page to the best of their ability, and the often subconscious internal story that prevents them from doing it. This show is designed to help you identify and rewrite the internal narrative holding you back while you discover and write the story you want to tell and learn all the tools to help you do that successfully. Join me each week for a new episode where we'll talk about writing to deepen our understanding of the craft and of ourselves as writers. Writing a novel is an inside job that we do not do alone. Welcome to Red It Scared. I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in. Hi, writer. Welcome back to another episode of the Ride It's Scared Podcast. I'm Stacy. Today is episode number 25, and apparently that's a big deal. At least to Buzz Sprout, who is my podcast hosting and editing platform, I guess you would call it. I don't know. I'm not super technical when it comes to those terms. But yeah. So apparently there's kind of a rumor in the podcasting industry that says if you make it past 20 episodes, then apparently you're considered legitimate. And Buzz Sprout sends you like a little certification, like, woohoo, you made it past so many episodes. Anyway, so we're at 25, and I have plans for many, many more episodes. I hope you're enjoying it. And if you are enjoying the podcast, please, please leave a review. It will help other writers like you find the podcast and uh the resources that they need to move forward in their writing journey. And I would be forever grateful. Today, I want to talk to you about how knowing who you're writing for can help calm down your inner critic so you can finally push past the discomfort that you're feeling and get your first draft done. So let me start out by telling you a bit of a story about the American novelist and essayist E.B. White, who is quoted to have said, I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all. Now, you may be familiar with this writer's work through his classic stories like Charlotte's Webb or Stuart Little, or perhaps his multiple essays that he wrote for The New Yorker, or maybe from his updating the William Strunk's elements of style. He's iconic, and when you read his work, it's hard to imagine that there was ever a word out of place for him. But it surprised me to learn that EB was a writer plagued with anxiety, who, according to an article, preferred heights and a fire escape over small talk. I can totally relate. This writer disliked being in the public eye so much, and he constantly questioned whether his work was good enough, to the point there's a story of him begging a postmaster to return his manuscript that he just submitted so that he could fix the ending one more time. Now, I've never chased down a mail carrier before, but I have definitely had that gut punch feeling of what have I done after sending my work off to a beta reader or an editor or pushing the submit button in Query Tracker. So why did I tell you that story? Because Elwyn Brooks White pulled his pants on one leg at a time, just like you, just like me, and he found a way to write past that fear. So can you. And I believe that it begins by knowing who you're writing for. Now, personally, it took me years to work up the courage to write my first novel. Years to commit to a story idea. And I had many reasons for that. I didn't think that I had anything to say. The premise of what I was working on seemed silly and unsophisticated. It embarrassed me a little to write in that genre, even though it's what I secretly love to read. And plus, at the time I knew my creative writing chops were next to non-existent. In all honesty, I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed by my grammatical struggles, my spelling, my tendency to leave out an entire word from a sentence or rearrange letters unconsciously. I still do all those things today. I just have systems in place to check me that help me. So, but at the time I thought all of that meant that I was a terrible writer, or at least I'd never make a good one. But honestly, behind all of that, I wasn't writing because I was afraid of failing, and that kept me stuck for a long time. And I can't exactly tell you when or how it happened. Maybe it was more like a slow progression or a quiet awakening. But I began to question my definition of failure. Who exactly was I failing? Who was I so worried about disappointing? And that's when I realized I was writing for them with a capital T. Them who would judge me, them who would laugh, not to my face of course, but them who'd see how silly I was. Them. People I didn't even know, people I probably didn't even like. And I I realized that I didn't want to write for them. So why was I? All I can tell you is that when I decided to write for myself, things changed. The story that I was working on started to come together because I lowered my expectations enough to allow it. And I managed to let go of the worry around what would so-and-so say. And I finished a hideous first draft, and over time I turned it into a polished manuscript that I'm proud of. And eventually I offered it up to the world. The world remains undecided about accepting my novel, but I'm not. I am 100% glad that I did it. Even if that book never gets traditionally published, I wouldn't change a thing. That book was exactly what I needed. It taught me I could do it, that I would survive it, and not only would I survive it, but I'd be burning to do it again and again. And now I'm working on another story, and all those familiar anxieties that plagued me in the last book. What if I get it wrong? What if I offend? What if I spend all this time working at an angle and it still doesn't gel? What if it takes me too long? What if I'm wasting my time? All those things are back. But they're not as loud this time because I know who I'm writing for. Right now, in this draft, I'm only writing for me. This is one of the reasons why I so admire Author Accelerator's process of story development and why I find it to be so powerful. Their coaches like me focus on the why behind the book. Why does the writer want to tell this story? So let me ask you this. Why do you want to write the particular story you're thinking about or working on? What does it mean to you and why does that matter? So we're focusing on the you here, not the future reader. And I've always loved the saying, if you're not scared, you're not writing. Because it flies in the face of all the just shut up and write, and there's nothing to be scared of sentiments permeating the writing industry. I mean, come on. If it was that easy, we'd all just shut up and write. But it's not. Writing something that matters to us takes guts. We're putting a little bit of ourselves on the page, some piece of our lived experience breathes in those words. The work is vulnerable. And sometimes it's damn right terrifying because you face yourself at the end of the day. Honestly, writing something you care about deeply is kind of madness. We're mad to do it because what we're silently saying, once we've given it to another person to read, is here's my guts and here's of my effort. Please don't mutilate them. But oh I I hope you enjoy it. But what if we don't do it? Like what if we don't write something we care about? Well, the result, it could be madness, but more likely it will simply be regret. So, writer, I say we embrace the madness and we develop the courage to write what we care about by taking action. Because remember, confidence comes through doing, not by thinking. So, here are three ideas for you to consider the next time you catch your inner critic whispering those ugly thoughts in your ear. Number one, identify who you are not writing for. Remind yourself this is not for your friends, your colleagues, the literary critics, or your family. None of them matter right now. The only people who matter is you and your characters. Number two, don't worry about identifying your potential audience. Instead, I'm not saying this isn't an important step, but I'm just saying, in the beginning, instead, identify and define your first reader, which is you. This writing business is only going to work if you're writing about something you enjoy and you're curious about, something that makes you anxious or sad or angry or happy, something that makes you feel. If you're writing what you think you should be writing, this is not going to work out. Number three, learn to embrace what scares you. Learn that resistance is just smoke and mirrors, working to keep you safe from failure. But if you do nothing haven't you already failed? The person who matters, you. Fear can become your compass. And where you want to go is on the other side of what you're afraid of. And the only way to get there is by taking action. So remember, the only person you're writing for is yourself. And it's okay to write it scared and trust that you are safe because you are. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you have any questions, you can always reach out to me at my email, Stacy at writeitscared.co. And if you're interested in learning more about the coaching opportunities that I offer, please visit my website, writeitscared.co, and I will see you next week. Thank you for listening to the Right It Scared podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please make sure to hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. And please leave a review. Reviews help other writers like you find the voices and messages they need to hear to continue to write their stories. Let's lift each other up. Remember, you can be scared and still be unstoppable. I'll see you next week.