Keeping Your Writing Fears on a Leash -- Guest Blog by Helena Smole

Keeping Your Writing Fears on a Leash
Guest Blog by Helena Smole

    I have so many fears associated with writing that it would be really difficult for me to pick just one. Thus I decided to shortly depict each and every one of them. Writing is my greatest passion in life, although it had taken me a while to write my first book. It was at the age of 36 that I became a published author. I had felt the passion before, but had found every excuse not to write. Considering all the fears in my heart it was easy to find excuses.

   My first book ‘Balancing the Beast. A Bright View of Schizoaffective Disorder – Bipolar or Manic-Depressive Type’ is a first person account of my struggle with mental illness. The greatest fear while writing it was the fear of coming out of the closet with a stigmatized illness. I overcame this fear by meditation and great emotional support from my husband.

   When I started to write my first fiction book ‘Vivvy and Izzy the Dwarf: A series about relationships. Book 1: Out of the Forest and into the City. A Fantasy Novel’, I first thought it would be easy. On the contrary, there were new fears popping up. Firstly, I was afraid of writing something unlikely. While writing a fantasy novel one could easily be tricked into thinking that one can write anything, since it is fantasy anyway. Yet, in my opinion, one can quickly lose readers, if the plot is too illogical. I am trying to solve this problem by balancing the every-day reality with the careful inclusion of supernatural phenomena like wizards and dwarfs.

   Secondly, I am always afraid of disrupting the time sequence, like for example writing about the spring first and shortly after about the winter, while it should be the other way around. I worry a lot about it while writing, but I also dedicate one reading of the finished text solely to the time sequence.

   The worst fear, of course, is the fear of being uninteresting, or generally inadequate. It is the fear of having no readers. This can escalate into a paranoia, so for me the only way to keep it down is to meditate.

   One has to know something about fears though. If they are kept on a leash, they can be very useful, because they force us to try harder.

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Author Bio:

Helena Smole

    Helena Smole abandoned her career as a scientific researcher and decided to dedicate her life to writing. In her first book, Balancing the Beast, she describes how she learned to maintain her mental health. She is a 40-year-old language specialist who managed to learn to live with schizoaffective disorder. She decided to write about mental illness because she believes that the most dangerous stigma is the one mental health consumers carry in their heads. Her mission is to make mental illness casual and thus help her co-patients rebuild their self-esteem. 

   After her first book, she continued by writing novels. In her novels she writes about relationships and, being aware of the hectic world we live in, she lets supernatural beings help couples make it through the rough patches. In a way, she is reviving the old tradition of fairy tales, only this time they are intended for grown-ups. She has also authored over 170 analytical blogs on maintaining one’s emotional and mental balance, which can be read at www.helenasmole.com 

   Readers can contact Helena at her website, on Facebook, or on Twitter. She also has some questions for you. Would you be interested in a fantasy novel with romance, where wizards and dwarfs help a couple make it through the rough patches? See more information. Readers can also contact her: info@helenasmole.com

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Book Blurb:

Vivvy and Izzy the Dwarf:

Out of the Forest into the City 

 

   Izzy the dwarf comes out of the forest and into the city to befriend Vivvy. Izzy proves to be a true friend and source of wisdom throughout the story, also by consulting Wizards. Later, they both move to Pond Town, where Vivvy meets Felix. What follows is a story of a couple who love each other truly, but face many obstacles in their relationship, just like any other couple. The difference is that in addition to couples therapy, they can also rely on dwarfs and fairies in a pinch. This fantasy novel about relationships will enrich you with human emotion viewed under a microscope.

         Readers can buy Vivvy and Izzy the Dwarf on  Amazon USA and Amazon UK.