# Fear
Are you getting intimidated by writing? Is the blank page overwhelming, or is it more specific? Something about your story not adding up? Maybe you feel unqualified to the task?
Lets talk about that.
## Don't worry about it being bad
Here's a secret: everyone's first drafts are bad. Yes, everyone. Even that guy. Sometimes they're so bad they need to be thrown out, yes, but more often they reveal something about the story that was impossible to see until it was all there on the page. Then it's just the matter of a great deal of hacking, tweaking, rewrites, and finesse before you have something solid.
Writing during nanowrimo isn't about writing a good book. It's about writing 50,000 words. If those words are crap it really doesn't matter. We all kind of assume they will be! Not just yours, I mean.
If you're writing on Cosmic you might not be treating this like a first draft of some longer work. That's also fine. This platform doesn't exist so we can all load up publishable quality content. It's an outlet for experimentation and expression. It's okay to put some bad stuff up there! I certainly have.
## Don't worry about having everything figured out
Are you a perfectionist? Do you have a story that's super duper important in your soul that needs to be conjured into reality it its truest form so you can be like Wyld Stallyns and bring peace to the earth? Yeah, that's also not a real thing. Let go! Even if you are the greatest planner in the world you're not going to plan a story into existence. Just write, and then write some more.
Here's another secret: you don't need to keep it! If you haven't figured out how the middle of your story is going to work then just write it and see what happens. If you don't like it, shove it in an archive folder and try it again a different way. (Don't delete anything! You might want to reference a really cool turn of phrase you had in the failed chapter later on.)
On Cosmic you might want to send a log message from one of your ships without really knowing where things are going. Normally in a novel or short story you'd want to pull out the bits that don't move the story along or lend themselves to the theme, world-building, or some-such. But here on Cosmic we all benefit from these little glimpses of your worlds, even if nothing much happens. You lend character and credibility to the entire site and help the other stories feel more legitimate.
So feel free to log your captain's critique of the jello in the mess, or duty log 302. It's fine. If nothing else it will give you a chance to speak as your characters and get to know them better.
## Don't worry about making a mistake
And finally, don't worry about screwing up. Did you say that Jim had blonde hair in chapter one and then decide he's a lizard man in chapter 8? Oops. In a novel that's all fixable stuff down the road. When you're sitting back with 50,000 words or more and re-reading you'll catch that stuff and you can flag it for revision. That's part of the process.
But what about on Cosmic Voyage? What if you declare there's nine people on the ship in one log and suddenly there's eleven? Well, you can either go back and tweak the old entry (yes, you can do that. It's okay. Just run "web" when you're done), or maybe roll with it. Why are there suddenly two more people on a ship halfway across the galaxy and nobody noticed? Maybe someone else on the QEC will point it out to your crew and then…DRAMA.
Even if you don't catch it, don't be afraid of it. There's too much going on in your story to keep it all straight in your head all the time. That's why editors exist! You're doing great.
Now, as Dory says, "Just keep swimming."