These are scary times. But writers are very familiar with fear – it’s what blocks our creative aliveness. We’re constantly grappling with our fears of creating.
I may not be able to do anything about the widespread panic about the collapse of the global financial system, but I can help with writer’s block. I’m posting a series this month on busting through common writing fears. Check back every Monday for more solutions to common writing fears. Better yet, make it easy on yourself and subscribe to this blog. It’s easy – just use the subscribe button to the right.
Does the thought of writing make you quake in your slippers? You are not alone. Read on and see if you share some of the most common writing fears – and what you can do about them.
You won’t have anything to say. You do have something to say. Think about the last conversation you had. Did you put forth an opinion? Sure you did. If you are living and breathing, then you have something unique to say.
Solution:
Think about the things that make you say to yourself, “I should write about that.” Start gathering a list of these ticklers that prompt you to want to write. Use them to leap into the writing. Then, do the writing. You will soon see that you have plenty to say.
What will other people think? This is one of the biggest blocks to writing. You may want to write the stories from your past, and by doing so, you may experience catharsis and growth. But what about the other people in the story? You worry that you will hurt your friends or offend your families.
Solution:
My advice is to write the story anyway. Don’t even think about it being in print until you have a completed manuscript and are shopping for an editor or a magazine to publish it. If you don’t start, you will never know. You may decide after you have written it that you don’t want to seek publication. So take the handcuffs off and write the story first. Then worry about what others will think.
Afraid you don’t know how to write? Writing is a tricky art because we were all taught to write in school. We should know what we are doing when we try to craft a story, right? Wrong. The art of writing takes more than what we learned in seventh grade grammar.
Solution:
This is one of the easiest fears to tackle. You can take writing workshops. You can brush up on grammar and editing. You can use spell check or ask a writing buddy to read your work over for errors.
Assignment:
Take moment now to jot down some of your writing fears. Notice what happens when you write them. Do they appear to be more or less true now? What antidote pops up for you? Write your own antidote.
Have a writing fear that you want me to provide a solution for? Drop me a comment below.
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