Scared of Writing? You're Not Alone

In October of 2015 I started playing with an idea for a novel that was different than my usual fare. During Nano in November I used it as my nano novel and wrote 50,000 words (more or less) (there were about 10,000 words of one scene written three different ways).

I love this book. I really do. This is a book I'd want to read because it's things I'm passionate about: God, morality, religion, love, self-destruction and the always popular good vs evil.

So why is it taking so long to write?

Eloisa James wrote a wonderful essay that I'm too lazy to find and link to where she was talking about academia and why men do so much better in the publish or perish sweepstakes: because women will agonize over every word while men write it, decide it's good enough and get it out.

Women: I used and three times in that sentence. And I think I dangled a participle.

Men: Hope they don't mind the misspellings. Time for a beer.

Obviously that's a little generalized but the truth of it is pretty intense. Women are so much more insecure and where does that show up? In our writing. (As well as every other aspect of our lives but that's another story.)

So then I was rereading On Writing by Stephen King which is considered a truly brilliant book and I always thought it was too and I realized that it doesn't work for me. Papa King telling me what I may or may not do just doesn't cut it.

Because it works for one, doesn't mean it works for someone else.

So anyway, I've been thinking about putting a piece of paper above my writing desk that says Write Like a Man to remind myself to stop fretting over every word and just write the damned thing. And to stop seeking advise from others about how to write because if I haven't figured this out for myself by now, I'm never going to.