Welcome to How to Keep Writing Wednesdays, where you'll find a boost of encouragement to help you keep the words flowing.
Writing Scared
We’ve all stared at that blank page or the blinking cursor on our computer screen. The problem isn’t that we don’t know how to write. It’s not that we don’t know what to write about. The difficulty isn’t even about lack of skill or lack of time.
The problem is that we’re all a little scared.
By “we” I mean beginning and advanced writers alike. Young and old, published and unpublished. A business letter, an English paper, a short story, a novel or memoir. Your first book or your fifth. We’re all writing scared. Fear spares no one, and there’s nothing like committing a few words to paper to make you want to up and run.
The easiest thing to do is to put it off or, if you’re like many writers starting out, just plain give up when it gets too hard or complicated. You can’t fail if you don’t try, after all. I’d like to say that this fear (which sometimes looks like dread, but it’s fear just the same) goes away after you’ve written a lot, but it doesn’t. I’ve written millions of words, with some of those words in print in the US and overseas. And while I have moments where I’m in the zone and writing nonstop, I also have moments where my brain is frozen and I don’t even want to try (confession: I’m experiencing this right now for my next book).
The one advantage to having written as much as I have is that I know I’ll push through. And I know you can push through your fear, too.
Writing isn’t just about telling good stories or communicating a great idea, but it’s an act of self-expression. Writing is a unique reflection of your creativity, of your ability to create something from, well, nothing. It’s not a mindless task you do in school or at the office. It’s about taking what you know or have experienced, letting it bump around in that wonderful brain of yours, and getting it down in a way that only you can do. If done well, it may resonate beyond your desk and out into the world
What are you waiting for? It’s time to commit. You decide the parameters — I always advise setting the bar low to start. Ten minutes a day, for example. Go beyond a daily journal entry and have an intention in mind. Scenes for a potential novel? Early pages for your memoir? Maybe writing the backstory of a character for a short short. Fear may be there (or even dread!), but have the courage to write scared. Be willing to put a few words down and see what happens.