Fears...

A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning." --Billie Jean King, American tennis player.

This quote was tagged onto the bottom of a regular (non-writing) newsletter that I am subscribed to, but I immediately thought of writing. As writers, our inner critic/inner child (irrational fear of failure) can hold us back and prevent us from ever reaching our dreams. Why do you think that there are significantly more "writers" who never finish anything than actual writers?

I have been in a writing slump recently. I must have gotten back a month's worth of poetry rejections during the week I was sick. I guess it's that time of the year when magazines that do not accept summer submissions clear their desks. I did get an "almost" on a short story I submitted to a regional magazine. But I'm starting to wonder if I'm just wasting my time and postage submitting poetry since every single piece has been returned rejected.

That fear can be a hard thing to control.