Conquer Writing Fears (with a Little Help)
Fear keeps us safe. That’s what evolutionary biology tells us. Fear once used to signal the possibility of being hurt, maimed, or killed, and fear would keep us from doing dangerous things.
In contemporary life, we seem to have a lot of fear to go around and not very many actual lions, tigers, and bears to avoid. Sure: cancer, heart problems, car accidents. But we do a reasonable amount of stuff to avoid those things, and we’re still left with this daily, nagging, aching, show-stopping fear. Fear keeps us from doing things that we perceive may cause us harm, maybe even in ways that aren’t physical. In writing, we fear failure, rejection, never finishing, never getting it right. There are so many ways writers can and do fail. Success is rare, and even worse, subjective. In writing, fear is important; it means you’re challenging yourself. But it can be self-defeating. Few writers are destroyed by trying and failing, many by never trying at all.
In a Friday writing reflection, a staple of the OneRoom coaching program, Tonya, a member of the Novel Writing group, reported that she’d found herself avoiding writing, using chores and work and all the usual distractions to keep herself from working on her novel. She deduced that fear was driving her writing-avoidance, and she hoped that her self-awareness would eventually help her overcome fear and get back to writing her book.
On Monday, as the Novel Writing group coach, I sent out a weekly progress update for each member to the entire group. And this is where the magic happened. Laura, another member of the group, read that Tonya was having a bit of trouble sitting down to work because of fear. No stranger to writing-fear, Laura sent along a list of suggestions for Tonya. Here’s a sneak peek.
Don’t write at the desk. Write in a notepad in bed, get a big sketch pad and coloured pens and write in the park, do anything BUT write at the desk.
A lot of fear comes from doubt, as I know only too well. There’s a lot of pressure to be a Great Writer. To avoid the pressure, forget you are a writer. Write poems, doodle, write anything, but don’t judge it. Judgement comes at the editing stage anyway.
Fear can also come from the backlog of stuff you want to write. So just write down everything that’s on your mind. Download your brain onto the page. And then have fun circling ideas and words and repeating images. You can’t write the story ‘properly’ until your brain is empty. (That’s a big problem for me right now!)
Tonya responded that it was helpful to know she was not alone in her struggles. In the weeks since, she’s put thousands of words on the page.
Usually, when writers kick around ideas with one another — strategies and publications to submit to and even unsolicited plot advice — only a few of the many suggestions actually work for the writer receiving them. But knowing that another person has experienced similar fears and, maybe more importantly, knows the effect of fear on her writing, can help to push through the fear. Maybe the writer sees that another person has lived through the rough patches. Maybe it’s seeing that Laura, who has finished a few novels, had to find her way through her fear in order to finish her books.
We model our ways of living by observing one another. When you hit a rough patch, if you can react thoughtfully to that challenge, you’ll model your actions after someone you trust or admire. Writers benefit from talking about their strengths and struggles with other writers. And often our perceived threats and dangers — including every possible failure that sets off inertia-inducing fear — exist mostly in our heads. Together, we beat back the fear of failure and give ourselves the chance to try.
If you’ve ever struggled with fear as a writer, we invite you to apply for a OneRoom writing group.
Laura Scott’s writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Okey-Panky, No Tokens, Tin House’s Flash Friday, Monkeybicycle, and other publications. She serves as managing editor for Lavil: Life, Love, and Death in Port-au-Prince (McSweeney’s/Verso 2017), and is OneRoom’s novel writing and short story writing coach. See the group here↓
