This Is How You Get Over Your Fear Of Writing

Everyone fears the blank page. Anyone who says otherwise is either lying or drunk.

Julia Cameron created her morning pages in The Artist’s Way to help scared artists dump their creative urges onto the page before the voice of fear takes hold.

Steven Pressfield has written entire books about the resistence that holds us back from writing.

The fear is so strong, it can keep us distracted and not writing for years, a lifetime even.

But what are you afraid of really?

The following is a a list of the top fears people have about their writing.

I’m afraid I’m not a good writer.
I’m afraid my story isn’t good enough.
I’m afraid I don’t have enough creativity.
What if no one cares?
What if my story isn’t important?
What if I don’t matter?

But what if you never write? What if you never tell the story that’s been pricking at you for as long as you can remember?

To quote the lovely Mary Oliver, “The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

If you write you can be sure someone out there will hate it, but there also exists a host of people in this world who really need to hear what you have to say.

You write for you and you write for them.

Still, it’s not easy to leap that awful block of taking the words in your head and transposing them to the page. Too often, what starts as a gorgeous image in your brain becomes mishappen and ugly when it takes form on paper.

How can you surmount that fear and write anyone?

Recognize that fear is simply part of the writing process, and do it anyway.

Tell yourself just ten minutes.

Sit down each morning or evening or whenever you can and set your timer for ten minutes. You don’t have to do any more than that. Then just write.

Write about your day. Write about your to do list. Write about the fact that this is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done and you have nothing to say. Keep putting pen to paper, let the words in your head take written form.

At the end of ten minutes, remind yoruself that whatever you have written is enough. It is just as it should be because it exists.

Then do the same the next day and the next.

Eschew perfection.

Not a single part of nature reflects perfection. If you take one half of a human face and copy that half with it’s mirror image to make a whole face, you will see something strange and unsettling.  The human being is always meant to be a bit off center, not quite right, never perfect.

And that is why you must write your imperfect story and share your imperfections with others. You are not alone. There are others out there who are imperfect in the same way as you, and by telling your story, you have made someone else less alone, too.

Writing is a practice not a product

Writing a whole book feels huge. Sitting down to write the first paragraph that’s been running through your head is doable. Do just a little bit.

Every day is another opportunity to write and to do just a little bit. Little bits add up. Instead of focusing on the future and what is hard to see or control, find ways to move yourself forward a little bit at a time, every day.

Don’t judge yourself (especially in the process of writing)

Be as gentle with yourself as you would a child learning to walk. Would you tell that child her steps are too wobbly? Would you wonder what’s wrong with her? Would you criticize each move then force her to go back and do it again the right way?

Allow the movement to happen as it happens. Don’t judge, correct or berate. There’s plenty time to edit later. Let the first flow of words cascade on the page. There’s magic in them. Don’t quell your magic.

Here’s the real secret of fear and writing.

You never fully write without fear, not if you’re creating something new. You will always have that apprehension that maybe it won’t work out. Maybe it will suck. Maybe your story won’t matter.

Writing is a joy. It’s a pain. it’s a series of inspirational bursts coupled with blinding resistence and fear. If this is you, you’re not alone. If you’re fighting to make the fear disappear completely, you’re pushing Sisyphus’ rock up a never ending hill.

Let go of the rock. It’s only weighs you down. Instead, free yourself to the wings of imperfection, to daily practice and to the possibility that lies beyond your fear.

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Leigh Shulman is a writing mentor with twenty years teaching experience under her belt, teaching at universities and writing programs worldwide. She currently teaches at The Workshop, her online writing community. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, New York Times, and Vox among others, and her book The Writer’s Roadmap: Paving the Way To Your Ideal Writing Life has helped hundreds of writers find their way in the writing world.

She currently lives in Argentina with her family where she writes and wonders if she’s the only person on earth who doesn’t like dulce de leche.

About The Writer’s Roadmap: Paving the Way to Your Ideal Writing Life

Have you always dreamed of making a living from writing? Or even just a way to fit writing into your everyday life? But fear and doubt get in the way…

“What if I’m not good enough? What if nobody wants to read what I have to say? Where do I even start?” Your writing dream can seem impossibly hard to reach.

Writing teacher and author, Leigh Shulman, has helped hundreds of students overcome these blocks. Now in The Writer’s Roadmap she shares her twenty years experience of helping others to write and publish their way to their ideal writing lives.

In this essential writing guide, Leigh takes you through a combination of practical steps and mindset work to show you that achieving your writing aspirations is not only possible but joyful (and profitable.) Over the course of a weekend you can work through her hands-on writing exercises, real-life case studies from her students and stories from her own personal writing journey. The Writer’s Roadmap not only shows you how to decide what you want in your writing life but how to get there, too.

If you want to avoid the number one reason why most people never write, learn how to deal with rejection and believe you can earn money from your writing, then The Writer’s Roadmap will signpost the way to take that big scary writing dream and break it down into manageable steps.

Writing is a journey, but you’ll never reach your destination if you don’t take that first step. If you’re ready to stop dreaming and start writing then adventure awaits…

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips