My greatest fear, as a writer, is that I am the David Spade of writing. David Spade is a talented actor who is really great at a specific type of acting/comedy. Unfortunately for him, it is not a very popular form. That is my fear, that I will be the best at writing a style which no one likes.
My greatest fear is never submitting my novel for submission. I fear that I will be remembered as one who had great potential and never saw any of it through.
I have a client...a wonderful mother of three little ones, who suffered a severe brain bleed that left her totally disabled. She can't talk, control any of her extremities or communicate. She is alert and her eyes track properly but that is the limit of her function. When she first got sick, she worked with care-givers to devise a very slow means to communicate, but frustration must have overwhelmed her because she stopped trying. It's been 8 years now and she still lives that way. The only time she is even remotely responsive is when her kids drop in to see her. Her life, such as it is, is my greatest fear...the complete inability to communicate while still being alert. As a writer, my greatest fear is running out of time on this Earth before I've written all the things I want.
Spiders and dentists. As a writer, though, my biggest fear is easily becoming that insane hermit who sits in his house and does nothing but write and edit. Food? Pfft, I don't need food. Bathrooms? Bah, they're for losers. All I need is my typewriter, because I will in fact buy one just to take full advantage of the motif, and a lot of popular drugs from 1860's London.
Needles. I used to not have this fear, but after my accident it became clear. Thirty shots of Lydicane into open wounds on my face, in succession, will do that to you. Now I have that memory as my own personal hell. And as a writer, my worst fear would be having my slight ADD getting the best of me; never finishing the novels I want to.
My fear is life after I go blind, and losing the ones I love. As a writer, I guess my fear would be that I will never be able to truly write something well enough to where others can get the same emotion and joy out of it I do.
I like you, OP for making this thread. I'll have a lot of "greatest fears" to post. (1)= That I may not be the next J.K. Rowling. I know, selfish and somewhat immature, but still, every author hopes to be like her, right? (2)= My writing skills are on par with Dan Brown. My family even TOLD me my writing style was like Dan Brown's style. Worst still, I could easily see it when I read his books. Very sluggish and bland. *and now for some non-writing Greatest Fears* (3)= That I'm living by myself in a home. One night, as I am stone-cold asleep, my house catches on fire for some reason and the smoke alarm is going off. I'm worried that because I'm deaf, I won't be able to hear it and wake up in time. (4)= This is going to sound morbid. I feared once that one day, when I'm an old man living alone, I'd die in my sleep and no one would notice I was gone, so my body would just lay there in bed for days on end. (5)= I'm in a foreign country and I break some law of which I am unaware of and get thrown into a dirty, dank, windowless prison and spend years there while my lawyers try unsuccessfully to get me out. (6)= My obsessive-compulsive nature will soon take over my life. (7)= I may have anxiety issues. Um...that's all I can think up of for the moment.
I am a severe arachnophobe--every time I see a spi......one of those things my back instantly arches (it's doing it right now, I can't even type or say the word, I'm so horribly scared of them) and I start getting incredibly jumpy. My back stays arched for forever, and my head tilts back and I clench my teeth and my shoulders go up and I just stay there until I can control myself again and think of something else. I also run my hands up and down my back and in my hood (if I have one) because I'm so paranoid that one may be crawling on me..... Gahh, I can barely type this. My back was arched the whole time, especially at the last sentence. God. *shudder*
My greatest fear is that I will never accomplish anything, just waste my life and my talents. Relatedly, that I'll never touch anyone, never affect anyone. In regards to writing, my fear is that I'll just one day give it up and stop trying.
my greatest writing fear is I'll never write again. It's hard to find time. But at the moment, my greatest fear of all is hearing back from Australian Immigration and being told that Daniel isn't allowed to stay and has to go back home.
My greatest fear is rejection. As far as writing is concerned, it's kept me from submitting stories for publication and even from writing some things. For all others, it's kept me from applying for certain positions. It's kept me from trying new things. It's kept me from pursuing subjects I am truly interested in. It's kept me from applying to some schools. It's kept me from making friends. It's kept me from living; it's keeping me paralyzed.
Eowyn in the LotR movies said it best "(I fear) a cage. To stay behind bars until old age take me and all honor and courage goes beyond desire or recall." Or something like that. Suffice to say I fear nothing so much as not having opportunities or options or freedom in life. In a similar but more direct vein, I fear being in a relationship where I feel there is no way out. That I am a slave and must stay with that person or myself or others will be harmed or killed. And having actually been in that situation once, I am doing everything in my power to ensure I don't end up there again.
I fear that my laziness will eventually ruin my life. I don't aspire to try new things. I'm good with what I'm doing now, yet in the grand scheme of things, it's gotten me nowhere.
I'm afraid of many little things, such as spiders and heights. Bugs in general also creep me out, and my eye starts blinking insanely fast when something goes near it. But I've got two big fears: one, is I won't be happy. I'll be starting college in about a month, and I'm not even sure what I want to study... I have some clear ideas in mind, but still haven't decided. I like too many things and careers, and I'm afraid I won't have the time to do everything or I'll end up choosing the wrong job. Also afraid not to find a decent guy who I actually like and who likes me. But my greatest fear of all, is fear. It's like Roosevelt said, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." It paralyzes me, it makes me feel sick... literally sick. When I get really scared about something, being so freaked out scared me even more and I throw up. I need a shrink. Fast, LOL.
My greatest fear... making the wrong decisions, and thinking they're right when I make them. And that's something that's very good possible. Having people hating me. Oh, and drowning. I don't have very good experiences with that.
Being buried alive used to scare the crap out of me. It still does scare me, but I actually was so terrified of it I threw up. Only time I have ever done that out of fear.
I think there are different kinds of fears. Visceral fears, abstract fears, etc. My abstract fear is that I would die alone and no one would know. My visceral fear is centipedes. If you wanna see me run like the gazelle with a cheetah on its ass, just show me a centipede.
On a physical level, I am absolutely afraid of needles because they make me get panic attacks and freak out. Even though I know they don't hurt. It's really annoying and it makes me feel very guilty that I don't give blood because of it. As far as real, deep fears go though I am afraid of dying slowly or painfully. Death doesn't scare me much, since I believe when we die we don't know we died, since our brains just shut down and we cease to exist. But the pain and fear associated with death from bleeding out, or drowning or suffocating or being burned alive. That really scares me. Basically dying in a way that isn't quick or painless. That scares me.
I'm deathly afraid of any bugs with more than six legs. Under six I can handle. Any more than six legs and I run under the nearest blanket and wrap myself up, screaming, until it goes away.
Mine is weird. I have a horrible fear of having my fingernails ripped out or cut off. Seriously. It's AWFUL.
