This morning, I read a blog post “Good Advice For Writers” posted on the website “Writing Time” about breaking through fear. The advice in the blog not only applies to writers, but life in general. Based on how we deal with it, fear can either eventually destroy or empower us.
The number one cause of writer’s block is fear: fear of failure, fear of success, fear of not being good enough, fear of being ridiculed for writing “badly”, and so forth.
As is the case with the advice below, the best way to break through that fear is to face it. How? One way is to write what’s on your mind. Seriously. Even if it’s the grocery list or your reason for the writer’s block. Don’t worry if it probably rambles; at least you’re writing.
As Jim Morrison, the Doors frontman, once said, “Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
From Writing Time:
Good Advice for Writers
Phyllis Theroux, my favorite pen pal, sent me this wonderful quote from The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer last week. It rings especially true for writers:“‘You must do everything that frightens you, JR. Everything. I’m not talking about risking your life, but everything else. Think about fear, decide right now how you’re going to deal with fear, because fear is going to be the great issue of your life, I promise you. Fear will be the fuel for all your success, and the root cause of all your failures, and the underlying dilemma in every story you tell yourself about yourself. And the only chance you’ll have against fear? Follow it. Steer by it. Don’t think of fear as the villain. Think of fear as your guide, your pathfinder – your Natty Bumpo.'”*I hate to admit this but I had to look up Natty Bumppo:Nathaniel “Natty” Bumppo is the protagonist of James Fenimore Cooper‘s pentalogy of novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
