Stephen King Still Fears Failure. How About You?

Stephen King by Oscar Oliva OA / DeviantArt
by Oscar Oliva OA / DeviantArt

Today’s guest post is by freelancer and author Marcy McKay.


The November 2014 issue of Rolling Stone interviews the master of contemporary fiction, Stephen King. The Q&A covers a myriad of interesting topics for writers: the author’s typical working day, his literary legacy, as well as how alcohol and drugs affected his writing back in the day.

However, one quote in particular shivered through me. It might change your thinking, too.

The interviewer casually asked him, “You still fear failure after all these years of success?” King replied:

“Sure. 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.”

Holy apostrophe, Batman! Stephen X@#% King still battles fear?

After four decades of publishing, with over 350 million books sold (both fiction and nonfiction), and winning the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters—that guy still combats fear?

One writer-friend read that quote and bemoaned how it was hopeless for the rest of us. We’d stay buried in self-doubt forever.

Wrong attitude.

Those same 33 words freed me.

Learning from the Master

King fully admits his self-doubt. He worries his imagination will never even show up to the page, or worse, he won’t find the perfect ending for himself or his audience.

Hmmm, that sounds pretty much like the rest of us.

I know, I know, most of us will never be as prolific as the author of Carrie, Stand By Me and The Green Mile. We’ll probably never pen our memoir and a precise how-to that becomes a classic like On Writing.

It should still give us hope. Endless.

What Stephen King Teaches Us

King’s comments on fear offer three important takeaways:

1. Fear is part of the creative process.

We’ll never graduate and move on from fear like we did from high school. It’s a shadow always lurking behind us. It’s a horrible enemy that must be slayed over and over again.

2. Name your fear to destroy it.

Examine your fear to find the wisdom there. Look for specifics in your creative monsters.

  • Do you struggle with self-doubt like King? If so, at which stage? The beginning, the middle, the end, or all of the above? If so, be prepared, then ignore it and keep writing.
  • Is perfectionism a problem for you? Do you throw out draft after draft of your manuscript because it’s never good enough? Maybe you spend two hours rewriting one sentence? Striving for excellence is admirable, while perfectionism is damaging.
  • Are you a procrastinator? Do you keep telling people you’re still conducting research for your book when the truth is you’re too scared to start?
  • Do you sabotage yourself with alcohol or drugs to the point you can’t write? Do you create drama in your life instead of in your stories? Are you whiner who always talks about writing, but never writes?

3. Stop resisting fear.

Now that you understand fear part of the creative process, stop fighting it. Learn your internal/external signals as to what’s happening, and use it to your advantage.

Don’t misunderstand me: Even when you realize fear is part of the writing process, it will still scare the hell out of you. Each and every time. Except now, you’ll know what to do.

Shut up, sit down and write.

Do not wait to gather your courage first, then write. Write first to make the fear go away. Until it returns again. Then, you write through it once more.

The cycle repeats itself endlessly.

Why do we torture ourselves like this?

For that, we return to the Rolling Stone article: The interviewer asked King about retirement, if he saw himself still writing into his eighties and beyond.

King’s response was perfect.

“It (writing) fulfills me. There are two things about it I like: It makes me happy, and it makes other people happy.”

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Anita Cooper

Thanks, Marcy for the great article. Who knew King faces these fears. Maybe that’s why he’s such a master craftsman at horror!

One reason I love watching movies made from his book is that I’m always looking for him to play bit parts in them. Kind of like “Where’s Waldo” only scarier! 😉

Marcy Mason McKay

HA! I love Stephen King being a horrific “Where’s Waldo?! And I felt EXACTLY the same way about SK fearing failure. It comforted me, somehow. Thanks for stopping by and making me smile.

Krithika Rangarajan

Marcy

It’s wonderful to find your articles all across the WWW! #HUGSSSSS

I can relate to being a whiny procrastinator who always talks about writing for herself, but never does, because she is too afraid to start and believes she has no creative ideas either.

However, last night, I could sense myself getting tired of my excuses. So maybe, very soon, I will stop complaining and just write for myself – hey, why not today…or at the most tomorrow! (OOPS – was that an excuse yet again? See how my brain functions)

Thanks again for your fantabulously inspirational post #HUGS

Thank you, Stephen King, for making millions happy with your words. I am about to start reading On Writing, your memoir. The first page has already drawn me into your often-whimsical and always-exciting world.

LOVEE you, Marcy
Kitto

Marcy Mason McKay

Hi Kitto. You’re going to LOVE On Writing. I keep it on my desk for inspiration. I hope you do write FOR YOURSELF today. You’ll be happier, healthier and more productive overall, and that doesn’t suck.

Shirley Hershey Showalter

Thanks for helping your writer-readers take heart, Marcy. Isn’t it amazing that we can know that fear is part of the process in our heads, but that doesn’t make it easier to believe that this isn’t the end of our ability to create. Fear lives in the heart and the gut much more than in the mind. One thing should get better over time. We should take courage from the fact that we felt just like this the last time we wrote.

But often, we’ve forgotten. Maybe it’s like the pain of childbirth? If we didn’t forget it, there would be fewer people in the world. 🙂

Marcy Mason McKay

Great insights, Shirley. Even though, I know intellectually when fear tries to shutdown my writing, it doesn’t MATTER that I’ve overcome it before. This time feels so much bigger, hairier, uglier than ever before. It’s interesting the mind games we play.

christinakatz

I read the whole interview last night. And I love his conclusion about writing and personal and shared satisfaction. It’s exactly the conclusion I came to while writing my third book for Writer’s Digest, The Writer’s Workout. I felt that personal satisfaction in writing was so important that I made the premise the central point of the whole book. Satisfaction and ego are not the same thing. We have to get beyond the neurotic striving that writers have suffered from historically, where we are allowed to thrive with the blessing of others but we might shrivel and die without being discovered. With all of the instruction, support, and resources available to writers today, there is no reason why we all can’t simply give ourselves over happily to the writing and publishing process and ignore the temptations to become just another suffering writer. I also identified with King’s recurring dream of being in a play and not knowing the lines. I have that dream too! But not nearly as often as I once did.

Marcy Mason McKay

Fascinating perspectives, Christina. Congrats on your Writer’s Digest book. I agree with you about wanting to move on from the suffering writer syndrome. It’s almost a socially-acceptable form of self-sabotage. Thanks for stopping by.

Lorena Swift

King is one of my favorites. I have the same fears…What if I fail to show up on paper? Well, his book, On Writing is the best to address nuts & bolts…figuring out the basics helps find the way to the page…:)

Marcy Mason McKay

On Writing is one of my favorite writing books, too, Lorena. That and Steven Pressfield’s, The War of Art. Really great information how to continually show up to the page. Best of luck to you!

Carol Coven Grannick

I set aside the longing for publication – and for me, that removed the fear of failure. My focus and my writing flourished.

Marcy Mason McKay

Congrats, Carol that you conquered your fear. Writing for the pure joy of it is so much more important than chasing fame and fortune. I hope your focus and writing continue to go gangbusters!

Wendy Percival

The greatest comfort is to know that even The Greats feel the same way as the rest of us lesser mortals! Then it’s a case of keeping going until we emerge on the other side of the fear barrier. I was like a headless chicken with Second Novel Syndrome but I finally cracked it (after lots of work, re-writes etc. until it felt “right”) so I know if I believe, it will eventually come right the next time. Thanks for reminding us that all writers go through the same trauma! 🙂

Marcy Mason McKay

Beautifully said, Wendy. I think the key is stick-to-itiveness. That separates the wanna be writers from the successes. Here’s to keeping going until we emerge on the other side!

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Sharon Greene

Just the message I needed to hear today!

Marcy Mason McKay

I’m so glad my post encouraged you, Sharon. Thanks for taking time to say so.

SandyW

Thank you for this. It’s both encouraging and a bit scary I think.

Marcy Mason McKay

Hi Sandy. Great seeing you here, too. You’re right it is both encouraging and scary, but I was so comforted to know that even prolific writers like Stephen King still worry about the same thing!