Part One
We often label fear as an emotion. It isn’t as simple as that. It is a physical, mental, and emotional response. It occurs on a spectrum from a vague uneasiness to a full-blown panic. Scientists call it a survival instinct. It’s a good thing to have. But how is it helping us survive when fear is keeping us from creating stories?
What Is Fear, and Where Does It Come From?
The amygdala (uh-mig-duh-lah), also called the brain’s fear center, is two almond-shaped structures on the side of the brain just above each ear. It has many jobs (our brain is complex). Remember, learning about the “fight or flight” (or more recently (fight, flight, or freeze) mode when you were in school? That’s one job of the amygdala. It determines how we react to danger.
Fear is an emotion the amygdala detects and responds to. When the fear is overpowering, the amygdala releases biochemicals and can hijack the brain and fully engage us in either fight, flight, or freeze responses. In extreme cases, we cannot feel, act, or think logically when fear hijacks our brain. This is further complicated because the amygdala can be sneaky.
Fortunately, this response to fear is usually temporary.
Why Does This Matter for Writers?
Unfortunately, our amygdala cannot distinguish between something that is actually life-threatening and something we feel or think is life-threatening. The level or strength of our fear triggers the amygdala to react differently. So on the sliding scale of reactions: if our fear is mild (anxiety), we might feel uneasy. A stronger fear may make us so nervous that we avoid that thing that makes us so uncomfortable. If the fear is overwhelming, we simply cannot write or create.
The problem is that we can get stuck in a level of anxiety or fear. Particularly when we face frightening but non life-threatening situations every day. This can put us into a perpetual “survival” way of thinking and behaving. That makes it difficult, if not impossible, to focus on activities that connect with long-term goals or values or activities that support our sense of wellbeing, meaning, and purpose.
What Kind of Fears?
For writers, there are all the usual fears associated with being a human and a part of a society. But there are also fears about and around the act of writing itself.
A partial list of those fears includes:
- Fear of not being good enough
- Fear of criticism
- Fear of facing oneself in one’s writing
- Fear of marketing
- Fear of showing your work to anyone
- Fear of pushing the publish button
- Fear of Financial Failure
- Fear of Failure
- Fear of having only one book
- Fear of not having enough time
- Fear of starting to write a book
- Fear of not being able to finish a book
- Fear that this book won’t be as good as your previous book…
- And many more.
How to Vanquish Your Fear(s) About Writing
It doesn’t matter what your writing fear is. Fear makes us uncomfortable. Sometimes extremely uncomfortable. Some would say we must confront our fears. That is one way. Another way is to increase exposure to the feared object or activity. There are systematic approaches and the kind that throw you in the deep end and hope you float.
I believe the best way to mitigate the fear(s) writers struggle with is to expand our comfort zone. How do you do that? Examine and name your fear. Develop new skills. And increase your confidence.
The steps to increase our comfort zone are:
- Gain Clarity
- Take Ownership of Your Life
- Develop Systems
- Get Support
- Build Self-Trust
- Increase Confidence
- Adopt the Long View
- Embrace the Fear
- Present Your Best Work
I will discuss each of these in this and the next one or two writing blog posts.
The first step….
Gain Clarity
Before you can vanquish a fear, you need to have clarity. Understand that fear is neither bad nor good. It’s a signal. Your brain is trying to tell you something. It’s making you uncomfortable for a reason.
To truly clearly understand your fear, you need to know the answer to some questions beyond what is your fear.
So, put your thinking cap on. Record your thoughts in your words or drawings, quotes or pictures, handwritten, typed, or dictated. How you record your thoughts is up to you. But remember, you’re trying for clarity. Make certain that you will understand what you recorded when you look back at this five years from now.
This record is for no one but you, so be thorough and brutally honest.
Identify Your Fear
First, record any fears you know you have now. It’s okay if it’s a list. (For most of us, it is a long list.)
Now, answer each of the questions below. Highlight or otherwise mark any question or answer that makes you uncomfortable.
Why Do You Want to Write?
- Do you want fame? Fortune? Bragging rights? Do you have a message you want to share? What do you want to get back from this writing gig?
- Does writing stories fit with your core values? How?
- Do you have the time and space to write? Can you make that happen? Will you make that happen?
- Are you willing to give up time with friends and family, other hobbies, or something else to write? How much time?
- What won’t you give up in order to write?
What Do You Want to Write?
- Fiction? Nonfiction? Your life’s story? Someone else’s? A record of an important event or time?
- Short or long? One book or many books?
- One genre or many?
Who Do You Want to Write For?
Friends and Family? Fans of a specific genre? Your neighborhood, state, or country? The world?
What Does Being a Writer Look Like?
- Do you write every day?
- Write only when inspired?
- Are there rituals or routines you must follow?
- In an ideal world, what does your ideal writing life look like? How many hours a day do you write? How many hours do you spend on writing related stuff?
- Do you have a family?
- Cook or clean for yourself?
- How much sleep and exercise do you get?
What Does Writing Success Look Like?
- One published book? Many?
- A book that friends and family like?
- Getting a literary agent?
- Getting published by traditional publishers?
- Recognition by strangers?
- Long lines of people asking for your autograph?
- Paid public appearances?
- Money? Fame?
- Making enough profit to pay all publishing costs? To pay one of your bills? All your bills?
- Immortality?
Using Clarity to Identify Fears
You probably found some questions, or your answers, made you squirm a bit. Those were hints. Look back over your answers to the questions above and make a list of those things that made you uncomfortable.
Do those places of discomfort match any of the fears you identified? Are there some that don’t fit what you thought you feared? If you can, name the fears you did not already identify. Write them down.
Have more than one fear listed now? Rank them with one being the least or smallest fear. The highest number will be for your biggest, scariest fear.
Set this list aside. We’ll use it later.
Next Steps
To an outsider casually browsing how-to write articles on the web, we writers must seem a fragile bundle of fear. Truth be told, we suffer from a lot of different fears. Fears that can still our creative minds and silence us for good. The good news is that writers are a pretty hardy breed. We learn not only to face our fears but to use our fears in our writing. If fear has been holding you back, you can learn to use your fear, too.
At the end of next month, I’ll give you some skills and tools to develop ways to face, use, and overcome your fears. Until then, won’t you share your thoughts?
What fear(s) have you overcome? Which one(s) still troubles you?
DISCLAIMER: Neither I, nor this article, are qualified to diagnose any mental health disorders. If your emotions overwhelm you or you have thoughts of suicide, please seek professional help. In the US, you can call 988 for immediate help or they can help you find medical professionals in your area.
Reference
Image Credits
First image by Peretz Partensky from San Francisco, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Second image by memory loss on line, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Third and Final images purchased from DepositPhotos.com (final image modified by Lynette M. Burrows)