How I Overcome Fear in Writing
I am writing my first book.
I want to crank out a few thousand words, but I couldn’t get started. In fact, I bought writing courses, and books to help me move on to the process. But, I couldn’t go on.
Sometimes, more hazy but stubbornly unceasing feelings of worry won’t just go away.
My conscious mental reaction keeps telling me something’s extremely bad when I logically know there’s nothing to overthink about.
Oh, it’s fear!
As if fear is some big mystifying, creepy awful thing, when mostly it’s not.
It’s the voice of the inner critic that roars loudly in my ears every time I try and step out of my comfort zone.
I read about an article of this book, The Courage to Write by Ralph Keyes. The author said,
If you’re not scared, you’re not writing. Everyone is afraid to write. They should be. Writing is dangerous. Talent helps you undertake this task. Bravery helps even more.
There’s a huge chunks of writing fears petrifying just about every writer.
As I write my manuscript, I’m worried that critics will hate it, that nobody will buy my book, or even if they buy my book they might not like what they read.
Although I’m scared, I found the courage to put words into writing. If other successful writers are as scared as I am, and they made it, I know I can, too.
Getting scared to write is part of the investment a writer makes. Fortunately, you can moderate fear. It is something not to be afraid of.
Through research, reading, and watching videos from other successful authors, I’ve learned how to break free from unforced limitations and write words as stimulated as I’d love.
In psychology, there’s called confidence-competence loop. The more you understand something, the more confidence you have in that area. When you enter your loop of confidence you find success, persistence, self-awareness, trust and belief in self, and positive thinking.
With this in mind, I need to know my fear and trust my gut.
My fears
First, fear of judgment, and criticism
I assume much about the reaction of others. I fear them — their opinion about me. For this reason, I procrastinate.
To put it in another way, my fear turns out actually about my own reaction to myself because fear of my inner world tends to be subjugated.
Fear of them, and their opinion of me is actually my own opinion of myself that I’m worried about.
I am convinced that other top authors have their fair share of 1-star reviews on Amazon. When you go to Amazon and read the reviews of your favorite bestselling authors, which I did, you can find some who had a 1-star review.
It’s part of the journey.
Henceforth, my real courage come into play. I placed my whole poke on the table to have something to say on every page I am into.
Next, fear of failure
I fear I won’t get my book done.
I fear I may not be able to achieve my goals and aspirations.
I fear of not being able to publish my book, and instead kept my manuscript on a desk drawer.
As a result of this, I was reluctant to try new things. I became the tyrant and my target was myself. I put off doing writing. I had a low self-esteem or self confidence. I refused to accept any standard short of perfection.
To point out, there’s a bright side of being fearful to failure. Instead of focusing to negativism, I visualize to things that are more powerful, and fulfilling.
Then, fear of being exposed as a “fraud”
This fear tells me I am not skillful. I’m an impostor who says I could write a book but I just couldn’t. It’s strange to feel like you’ve been lying to yourself, or that you never could write. This is called “impostor syndrome.”
Whenever someone asks me what I do, I use descriptive verbs not nouns. I’ll say “I write,” instead of “I’m a writer.” Addressing the “writer” noun can be difficult.
It nags me sometimes because I feel like a fraud, even though I’ve got an A flat grade with my effective writing way back my college days.
Impostor syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon, impostorism, fraud syndrome or the impostor experience) is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.
Impostor syndrome is a mental pattern of self-doubt. There’s an awful perception that you’re not a true writer unless you’re a published one.
Thus, I felt I’d exposed myself to excessive self-editing. My inner voice was attacking me that I wouldn’t be a true writer.
Author Maya Angelou once said,
Each time I write a book, every time I face that yellow pad, the challenge is so great. I have written eleven books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody and they’re going to find me out.
I’ve read in some of the ‘about section’ in blogs that goes, “aspiring writer.”
My lips twitch and my eyelids flutter.
In other words, it’s time to get rid of ‘aspiring writer’ from your perception.
Published or not, you can think of yourself as writer if you write.
Calm down fear through meditation
Generally speaking, I have to pull fear into the light. I don’t need an external validation of who I am.
Writing on a new creative project is overwhelming. I forgive myself when I struggle to start.
As has been noted, fear is trying to sabotage my aspirations for success. My mind is wandering too hard to think of anything. My fingers sweat too strenuous to type anything.
Well that’s not helping any, now is it?
If you also have this feeling, I would like you to try something:
Close your eyes and make use of your creative power to imagine the flow of air coming in and coming out of your respiratory system. Pay close attention of every sensation. Breath naturally and calmly.
I want you to refocus your thoughts on your breath whenever you catch your mind wandering off.
Notice the light as it glides through the window, acknowledge the sounds you hear, the noise of the people around you, and the other things that surround you.
Be mindful of everything.
Do this exercise right now for 5 minutes. After practicing this, let me know.
You done?
If you did it right, you allow your parasympathetic nervous system become active. You will notice a natural calmness in your mind.
In the light of this, you should have felt that a particular, negative emotion was not present: fear.
Furthermore, breathing exercise is one of the best tool you can use for calming down your fear.
Recall the exercise you’d tried. That exercise is called meditation.
Based from study, meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique, such as focusing their mind on a particular object, thought or activity, to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm state.
Meditation helps you:
- calm down your fear
- control your stress
- decrease your anxiety
- relieve the “fight-or-flight” response
For the most part, there’s no need to push yourself or infer yourself. The idea is simply to be quiet for a short time and notice your breath.
“Are you telling me that the only thing I have to do to control my writing fears is to breathe in and breathe out?”
Yes. You need to stop depending on your mind to defeat your fears.
If you want to get to know more about the specific effects of meditation on the human brain. This read is for you: Brain Activity and Meditation.
Conclusion
Writing fear is normal. Don’t hang on anything to defeat your fears. Meditate.
Over to you! How do you overcome fear in writing?
All the best!
Christina
