What Risks Are There in Writing?

Risk is not the first thing we think of when we hear the word “writer.”  More likely, the vision of a person safely tucked away in an office somewhere, bent over a typewriter comes to mind.

There are risks within the writing life, though.

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 “If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” Jim Rohn

While writing, there may be the temptation to stick with what we know, or not to push past our boundaries of what is comfortable.  When we do so, we end up with the ordinary.  We must write “brave and free.”  We have to continually be on the lookout for the unusual, and sometimes the uncomfortable.

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Anais Nin

We risk exposing our inner selves to the world through our writing, thereby exposing ourselves to rejection.  We know that “it’s not personal,” but sometimes it is difficult to separate the person from the writer.  However, there can be greater pain in not finding our own voices, but in trying to play it safe, hiding our voice, and writing for other people’s approval.

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” TS Eliot.

We risk our sense of security every time we stretch ourselves and reach for our dreams.  When over seventy-five percent of the nation has stated they dream of being a writer, the odds can look pretty small that any one person will make it far enough to be called a success.

If we don’t stretch ourselves, though, we can never know if we could have been in the small percentage that did make it.  It would always be a question in the back of our minds, an itch we couldn't scrath.

While writing can be very risky to our stability and sense of self-worth, what are the risks of not being a writer?  Which risk do you choose?