Battling the barricade of Fear


In the comments on the last post, Michelle Teacress wrote: "Fear is my ever present writers block, my constant battle. Nasty thing, fear." And Debbie Maxwell Allen commented: “One of my biggest [contributors to writers' block] is fear of failure--and success. Weird, but there are many times that's the culprit.”

I understand this completely. I have a feeling that fear plays a role in our writing—or rather, our NOT writing, far too frequently. Here are a few ways it manifests its ugly little face in my life:

I become afraid that, despite how well I wrote yesterday, today I won't find the words and will end up wasting my time staring at a blank screen—so I don't turn on the computer at all, rather than be defeated. I need to remember at these times that one page is better than no page at all. Even if I have a week of such slow writing, I will also have seven pages at the end of that week. And often, forcing myself to write through that fear will result in renewing my energy and inspiration—sometimes I sit down and force myself to write one page...and end up with ten. The days I don't force myself, however, I end up with nothing—except the miserable feeling of failure.

“If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.”
-Neil Gaiman

Or, I begin to worry that my writing, even if flowing perfectly well, will be poor. What's the point of writing, if I can't write Harry Potter or Pride and Prejudice? The very simple answer is that I will never write anything like Pride and Prejudice if I don't WRITE. Even Sense and Sensibility, as wonderful as it is, is not Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen had to get there, too. J. K. Rowling took years to write the first Harry Potter book, and threw away (at least figuratively) a whole lot of pages. I shouldn't be afraid of doing that either.

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.”
-Michelangelo

Or, like Debbie mentioned, there can be a fear of success. For me, it becomes a fear that if I have success in some things, I'll always be held to that standard and be unable to meet it. Won't success in writing throw a wrench in my life? If I do find an editor, will I be able to handle the deadlines and pressure without losing the comfortable way writing fits into my life right now? Well, probably not completely. But that isn't something to be afraid of.

The truth is, there is never anything worth being afraid of. Life happens. Change happens. Writing should happen, too.

“Be not afraid.”
-Isaiah 43:1 (among hundreds of other verses, but that may be my favorite context)

Comments

  1. Wonderful post. Fear can be paralyzing; it takes practice and persistence to move through it, but it can be done! Having good writer buddies and other supportive people in your life is a big help in writing through fear.

    Michelangelo's quote is one of my favorites. It really puts things into perspective and motivates me!

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  2. The very first writing book I bought was Anne Lammott's Bird by Bird. I was still at Purdue at the time, a lab rat, but after recently having read A Fine Balance, I began to write. It was crapola. I needed some guidance and so picked up Bird. I laughed when I came across Shitty First Drafts. That pretty much cured all my love of beautiful sentences NOW. This is why revision rocks.

    And last year, I read the whole Bible, and one phrase leapt out at me over and over; Fear not.

    I'm still learning to write fearlessly. Good for you for writing through the fear, Faith.

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  3. Your comments make sense and are sensible. :) Really, you read my mind. I think a lot of us are in the same boat!

    ~Debbie

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  4. girl, you are SO encouraging! I am glad I stumbled upon your page here. just the inspiration I needed.

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  5. Amazing quotes. I think Neil G. is pretty awesome. But I do need some moral support now and then and those quotes should be plaster to my wall!

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  6. This is a fabulously inspirational post! You're right. There's never anything worth being afraid of!

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