I'm a fraud!

[maestrowork]

Every time someone say they are reading my book, or ask to read my work -- whether it's published or not, I get sweaty palms. Feel like a fraud. That I'll be found out soon enough.

Will this feeling ever stop?

Is this feeling productive?

[C.bronco]

I get excited whenever someone reads my work.
By the way, you had to slip in that line about being as deserted as a midnight screening of Ishtar on Christmas: LOL!

[WendyNYC]

I think that feeling is productive, at least for me. I equate it with fear of failure and that's quite the motivator.

[MidnightMuse]

Wait one second.

Hold on.

Are you telling me that feeling never goes away? Even after you've published a real live, honest to God, novel?


Sh!t

[Shadow_Ferret]

Wow, I feel like a fraud now BECAUSE I haven't published a book.

Thanks for the pep talk there, Ray. :tongue

[escritora]

My published book is nonfiction, but I did tell my friends to buy it and not read it. So I can feel your pain.

[icerose]

Hey Ray,
It seems like we both started the exact same post about the same time, but mine's in script writing.

I know how you're feeling, I'm hoping mine goes away after the first round of public scrutiny but that remains to be seen.

I had heard of other professional writers, even highly paid ones who felt the same way, even years after being very accomplished writers. I think it comes down to allowing yourself to recognize your own accomplishments and your own failings and just know it's going to be okay.

Easier said than done, I know I'm still trying to figure out how to do it myself.

Hang in there.

Sara

[C.bronco]

It makes me very happy, because I know every time someone reads my book, the little people in my head get to live again. ;)

[WendyNYC]

It makes me very happy, because I know every time someone reads my book, the little people in my head get to live again. ;)


And an angel gets it's wings?

[jst5150]

No, Ray. You are a fraud. Please stop bilking people of the tens of dollars they make.








;)

[StoryG27]

Ha, well at least we know this feeling is normal for many of us crazy writers.

I've read one of your books. . .You're not a fraud.

[stutteredtruth]

There are people willing to read what you write? Man, what am I doing wrong? Maybe I should consider a career in bowling...

[maestrowork]

You are a fraud.

You're not a fraud.

U R not helping!

:)

Jenna once told me the feeling didn't disappear even after she had published more than 14 books. I don't know what to think of that...

[StoryG27]

I AM helping.

Jason, well, he is NOT helping. He's such a troublemaker.


:)

[jst5150]

Jenna once told me the feeling didn't disappear even after she had published more than 14 books. I don't know what to think of that...

Time to depth charge that baby with some weapons-grade Paxil then, Ray.

[swvaughn]

The only way to get over that feeling is to embrace it.* Much like rejections.

Be proud of your fraudulent-ness! Shout "I'm a fraud!" to the whole world! You can't beat it, so become one with it.

/couch session

*Yeah, I know. Not helping... :D

Seriously - we all feel like frauds. Except for possibly the Oneness that is a certain ex-writer of genre fiction, who shall remain nameless.

[rugcat]

Welcome to the club, Ray.

I've sold four novels, and gotten (mostly) great reviews. I constantly live in fear that I'll be found out as the fraud I know I am. Each book seems progressively more lame. Only other people are "real" writers.

Strangely, when I do get a bad or even so-so review, I don't think they've caught on to me. I think the reviewer is an idiot.

A bookseller I know, who knows many authors, says that this particular pathology is the norm for all authors. Except for the few who believe that every word they write is gold. These people tend to be insufferable, and often wrong as well.

[Dasence]

Time to depth charge that baby with some weapons-grade Paxil then, Ray.

I found that Paxil didn't work all that well after the first few months. Effexor seems to be doing better, but even then there are still those days when the voices and thoughts just--

Wait. Shut up. Never mind.

[ClaudiaGray]

I used to think I was the only person who felt that way, too. Now I think that virtually everyone feels that way at times. The person who finally convinced me that this was a worldwide phenomenon was a network TV newswoman (who will here remain nameless), who was about ten times more gorgeous in person, hugely accomplished, and told me she felt like a fraud every single day.

We never wholly grow out of this, I think.

[III]

Double ditto with cheese. Nice to know I'm in good company.

[benbradley]

Ha, well at least we know this feeling is normal for many of us crazy writers.

I've read one of your books. . .You're not a fraud.
I don't understand how you can say he's not a fraud just because you've read one of his books.

And I really need to get on this write-submit-publish treadmill so I can feel like a fraud too!

[JimmyB27]

Hey, you've published a novel. Which means, at the very least, that you are a good fraud. ;)

[chartreuse]

And an angel gets it's wings?

ROFL!!!!

[CheshireCat]

Every time someone say they are reading my book, or ask to read my work -- whether it's published or not, I get sweaty palms. Feel like a fraud. That I'll be found out soon enough.

Will this feeling ever stop?

Is this feeling productive?

Just about every writer I've ever known has felt this way, including me. I still feel that way.

So my guess is that it never stops.

[JoNightshade]

My mom called me today to say she finished reading my book and really liked it. I was like "Oh... okay... SUBJECT CHANGE!" I felt bad but in the back of my mind I was screaming, "YOU'RE JUST SAYING THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE MY MOM!"

Which may be true, but you'd think at least I could enjoy that.

[jst5150]

A bookseller I know, who knows many authors, says that this particular pathology is the norm for all authors. Except for the few who believe that every word they write is gold. These people tend to be insufferable, and often wrong as well.
Ray, again, don't let these people sway you. You're a fraud. Just let it come out. A paradigm for the future. Show people that you've had your run. You're caught. You're moving on to retail. And that's that!


;)

[maestrowork]

I already applied for Wal-Mart. What more do you ask of me?

[jst5150]

I already applied for Wal-Mart. What more do you ask of me?
That you accept the position.

:)

[maestrowork]

They can't afford me.

[pepperlandgirl]

I've published plenty, and I've spent the last two nights convinced I should just throw in the towel and find a hobby/career I didn't suck at.

[SageFury]

Every time someone say they are reading my book, or ask to read my work -- whether it's published or not, I get sweaty palms. Feel like a fraud. That I'll be found out soon enough.

Will this feeling ever stop?

Is this feeling productive?

I believe in my work too much to fear about any of that =P

[My-Immortal]

Whew. I thought I was the only one that heard that 'voice'...the one that whispers 'you're a fraud'...'you're a fraud'....'you're a fraud'...

I mean, I have no idea what you're talking about.

:)

[Straka]

I would almost think if you didn't have any sort of reaction to people reading your work then you've become jaded or lost something during the process.

Having never been published I pick who reads my work and I'm selective about it. Mainly because they have to have stamina to deal with my pestering to see if they read it and what they thought.

[Hillary]

There's a typo in your original post. You're a total fraud.

But really... I think it's productive. At the very least, it's a hell of a lot better than walking around thinking you're God's gift to the literate. That's a punchable offense in my book. Ha, "my" book... I don't have a book... Ha...

[benbradley]

There's a typo in your original post. You're a total fraud.
That might still be a typo, perhaps he's a toadal frog.

[Hillary]

That might still be a typo, perhaps he's a toadal frog.

Legally, going from toadal frog to total fraud would constitute an "inexcusably disgusting brain fart" not a "typo."

[TrainofThought]

Every time someone say they are reading my book, or ask to read my work -- whether it's published or not, I get sweaty palms. Feel like a fraud. That I'll be found out soon enough.

Will this feeling ever stop?

Is this feeling productive?Huh. I get this way every time someone DOESN'T want to read my book, which is all the time. I think this feeling will always stay with me. :Shrug: I am the epitome of writing for myself.