Conquer Your Writing Fears | 3 Powerful Lessons From Stephen King

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Stephen King has written over 60 books, has over 200 published short stories, and numerous film adaptations of his works.

But the King of Horror might be more aptly named the King of Fear because of the many personal fears that have inspired his works—including fears of cars, trucks, and toasters.

Yet, as early as 2014, with several decades of published work under his belt, he said:

“I’m afraid of all kinds of things. I’m afraid of failing at whatever story I’m writing—that it won’t come up for me, or that I won’t be able to finish it.”

King also says in his book On Writing:

“Fear is at the root of most bad writing,” and that, “good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation… Affectation itself, beginning with the need to define some sorts of writing as ‘good’ and other sorts as ‘bad,’ is fearful behavior.”

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I have some slightly different takes on what King has to say about writing, aimed at those of us who are newer writers, or—at least those of us who are not (yet) as prolific as King. Here are three of Stephen King’s best pieces of advice to help you overcome your writing fears, with a few of my own modifications.

Lesson 1 | Read & Write A Lot

King says in On Writing, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

But I would add this—write more than you read—even if all the writing you can do in a day is copying out another author’s work for inspiration.

This might sound contrary to some of the advice you’ve heard before, but we learn more when we act than when we study.

And I know that many fearful writers (or formerly fearful writers such as myself), have often used reading (or watching YouTube videos about writing) as a form of procrastination to avoid our fear of putting words on a page—lest they be The Worst Words Ever Written In All Of Human History.

So what’s the solution to this fear?

For every time you sit down to “study” writing, spend twice as much time actually writing.

Cultivating good writing, like any skill, is about trade-offs.

That means if you spent one hour on Saturday re-reading Harry Potter to “study” J.K. Rowling’s writing, schedule two hours during your week to work on your novel, or your next short story, or just to practice. That’s three hours total.

Don’t have three hours a week to devote to “writing time”?

Then next time you sit down to “study” Harry Potter, give yourself only 30 minutes. And then go write for one hour. That’s only 30 minutes more total than your original hour spent reading. And this time around, most of your “writing time” was actually. spent. writing.

Lesson 2 | Write Every Day

Stephen King’s writing routine involves writing for 2-4 hours a day, or producing about 1,000 words total.

For the fearful writer, that might seem daunting.

What if I write 1,000 words of steaming hot garbage?

What if I stop at 500 words and don’t know what to write next?

What if I don’t have time to write that much every day?

Well…I have answers to all of those questions.

Firstly, your writing might actually be garbage. But it’s good practice anyway.

You can only improve bad writing. You can’t edit a blank page.

Secondly, you don’t have to write a complete story, or even a complete chapter or scene. Your goal is simply to WRITE…even if you have to resort to writing blah, blah, blah 20 times in a row or write in stream of consciousness.

Stretch your writing muscles by letting go of perfectionism and leaning into the reality that this won’t necessarily become part of a completed manuscript—or even a first draft.

Thirdly, if you don’t have time—make time.

It can be 20 minutes a day or one hour a week, whatever works for you.

These are the key takeaways from King:

Consistency and persistence.

King is a full-time author. Of course he can write 1,000 words a day!

But I’m willing to bet many of you reading this are not full-time authors. Don’t set yourself up to meet expectations that are not realistic for your current circumstances.

The lesson is simple.

Make a commitment to yourself to show up regularly and write for a set amount of time, pages, or words. The results will follow.

Lesson 3 | Embrace Rejection

King used to nail his rejection slips onto his wall. Keeping a record of your rejections can be useful because rejection is something all writers must face in order to grow.

My take on this is:

Rejection can come from all manner of places, and you don’t have to submit your work the “traditional way” to get it.

Maybe, as a newbie writer, you’ve never submitted your work to any publication out of fear of rejection.

Or maybe you’ve renounced traditional publishing altogether because they just wouldn’t “understand” your work.

But if you’ve never shared your writing anywhere, for publication or otherwise, then maybe fear—of rejection, criticism, or both—is what’s motivating you to avoid scrutiny.

Now, I’m not suggesting you have to submit anything for traditional publication. These days, that’s just one of many ways to get feedback—and not submitting traditionally doesn’t make you any less of a writer. What makes you a writer is that you write.

My advice to you is to share boldly.

Share on social media, with family, with friends, with any readers you can find, in writing and critique groups, with both published and unpublished writers—in all genres! You’re already reading this on Substack, so this would be a great place for it!

Only by gathering diverse perspectives on your writing will you truly be able to sort the signals from the noise, see where you can improve, and find your real audience.

To Recap

Lesson 1

Write more than you read. It takes practice to hone your craft.

Lesson 2

Write consistently. This is the best way to improve your writing in the long run.

Lesson 3

Embrace rejection. Seek out critique even if it hurts. We can only grow by learning from our mistakes.

Good luck on your writing journey!