Fear and abundant life.

You fear your story not coming out the way you want it to, so you play around with fan fiction instead.

You fear that all the hard work of writing a complete book won't ever pay off, so continue to play around with the idea. You brainstorm, you make maps, you hunt Pinterest for pictures. But you rarely write.

You fear what people will think about That Hard Topic you're itching to write about. So you write a different book instead.

You fear the rejection and the waiting that inevitably come with looking for a literary agent. So you don't query.

You fear that it'll never happen for you, that no publisher will ever say, "We want you," so you choose to self-publish instead.

There's nothing wrong with writing fan fiction, making maps, considering a reader's feelings, holding off on querying, or self-publishing. But don't make those choices out of fear or impatience. Not when doing so means you risk losing the reward that comes from buckling down to do the hard work of writing.