What empowers someone to think, “I can handle this?” The question came to me listening to the news, where a celebrity talked about her diagnosis with an autoimmune disease, Hashimoto’s disease. She openly discussed how scary it was until she learned more about it and felt like, “I can handle this.”
The question or the idea that humans need to feel like “I can handle this” hit me hard. As a former nurse, I’ve seen it on the faces of patients, as a mother and teacher’s aid I’ve seen it on first graders learning to read, and as a writer I’ve seen it on the faces of creatives who made some kind of breakthrough. Almost immediately I knew this was something I wanted to talk about on my blog. But, it’s too big a topic for me to discuss in a way that encompasses all creatives. I don’t know enough about creative pursuits I have not attempted. So, for this post, I’m addressing how writers need that skill. But I honestly believe that other creatives need this skill too. Use this post as a launching point to consider the particular things you can use in your art.
The Scary Unknown
Smooth sailing never made a skilled sailor.” -FDR
The life of a writer is much like the growth of a human from baby to aged adult. We start off each with our own personalities: the timid, the adventurer, and the thoughtful, to name a few. But your experiences shape your personalities and how you perceive things, how you learn, and how you approach challenges. It shapes what things you fear and how paralyzing your fears are. No matter what your fears are, learning to acknowledge and create despite them is possible with a few tools. The first step is to acknowledge and label your fear.
Common Fears
There are parts of the creative process and the business side of being a creative that to you are anxiety producing or a flat out “I don’t want to do that.” Even the number of fears you can have or read about is intimidating. Creatives fear rejection, failure, imposter syndrome, success/exposure, and vulnerability. Writers deal with the blank page, the “hairy middle of the book,” and writer’s block.
These fears are part of creativity that gets written about as if each part is some stand-alone malady. In a way, they are, but they are also a symptom of something we don’t talk about. Something you either identify and build the skills to handle or you try to ignore and give up or fail in your endeavors.
But you are here. That means you choose to learn to make the scary parts less scary. In order to get to the “I can handle this” learning about what uncertainty and fear do to you is helpful.
Uncertainty Amplifies Fear
Your brain is a wonderful and complex part of you. Acting as a kind of control center, it signals your vital organs (heart, lungs, blood, nerves, hormones, etc.) what to do to help you survive. It interprets information from your five senses and as an overseer for how your limbs move. It also scans your world for uncertainty. And get this: your brain operates 24/7 and nearly instantly most of the time. This is necessary if you are going to survive. So it’s no wonder that your brain interprets nearly everything you see, touch, hear, smell, and taste in terms of what might be dangerous. This used to be a tremendous advantage in the pre-industrialized world, where dangerous animals and plants and neighbors threatened men and women more than once every single day.
Your Modern Brain’s Response to Danger
When In modern times, your brain fills in any knowledge gaps as a potential death threat. Literally. But when actual danger isn’t there or the threat is unknown, your brain makes up a story. It tells you if you do that, a terrible thing will happen. Or if you don’t do that, you’ll be safer. But the same brain that creates fear—also creates your stories. It’s incredibly powerful. So powerful, you can retrain it!
Uncertainty makes you avoid things “I don’t know how.” Fear makes you put off doing new or scary things…”I’m too busy.” “I’m too tired.” “It’s dumb.” “It won’t work for me.” Even if your world presents unknowns that aren’t a genuine threat, your brain will create a story intended to provoke a reaction ranging from mild anxiety to paralyzing fear. The first step in short-circuiting that anxiety or fear response is to identify your fears.
Identify Your Fears
The creative process is an emotional rollercoaster. Don’t let that rollercoaster be slowed or dip further down than neccessary. Identify your fears.
Imposter Syndrome
You persistently feel like a fraud, that any success you have is because of luck instead of talent, and fear public exposure or ridicule. Symptoms include chronic self-doubt, fear of exposure, difficulty accepting praise, perfectionism, and avoidance of new creative opportunities. Imposter syndrome might actually hide most of the fears listed below.
Quick Win
Create an “I am a writer” folder or notebook. In it keep any positive compliments and words of encouragement, and make a milestones list (met my word count, or hour spent on the manuscript, started or finished a chapter, etc.). Next to each milestone, identify a small reward for your accomplishment. (For example: met my word count—1 hour of television, or a 20-minute romp with your pet, etc.) Celebrate your wins on good days and when you’re feeling more like an imposter, review your I am a writer documents.
Vulnerability
Putting yourself on the written page can be scary. Sharing even parts of our emotions, personal experiences, thoughts, and fears hidden in the guise of the characters you are writing, often makes you feel naked.
Quick Win
Set a timer for five to ten minutes. Treat your writing like a private journal. Focus on what you want to say as if no one else in the world will ever read it.
Fear of Judgment
You fear that readers, loved ones, or the broader community will ridicule you, judge and criticize you, see you as incompetent, or as a fraud and compare you to other writers unfavorably.
Quick Win
Diminish the power of judgment. Look up three books you admire or love on Amazon or Goodreads or other review sites. Read the one-star reviews aloud. Some will strike you as ridiculous.
Fear of I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know”
The paralyzing effect of this fear is a combination of imposter syndrome and a wider anxiety about lacking an essential, unknown skill or knowledge, and exposure of your lack will cause ridicule or harsh judgments.
Quick Win
Set a timer for five to ten minutes. List the things you don’t know and break them down into small parts. For example, if your fear is that you don’t know how to write a story, you might need to learn story structure. Break that down into you want to read a how-to book. Break that down to read a book about plotting. Break that down to read a blog post or watch a video about plotting, etc.
Fear of Success and/or Failure
These two fears are similar and can cause self-sabotaging behavior.
Fear of success
-is the anxiety that your achievements will bring negative consequences such as being “outed” as a fraud (imposter), bad reviews, public scrutiny, increased expectations, etc.
Fear of failure
-is anxiety that your work will be inadequate, or rejected, or unsuccessful (whatever that means to you). It can lead to procrastination or abandoning projects.
Both fears can grow to the point of a temporary or permanent inability to write (writer’s block).
Quick Wins
Fear of success—Set a timer for ten to fifteen minutes. Create a character profile, description, and/or a short scene introducing that character.
Fear of failure—do a brain dump or free write for ten minutes. Don’t stop to correct or edit, not even for misspelled words, typos, or for coherence.
Writer’s Block
Writer’s block is a non-medical condition. It is the inability to produce new written work for reasons other than lack of basic skills or commitment. It can present as feeling unmotivated or stuck or burnout. One of the many root causes is fear, but there are a lot of things that can lead to an inability to write. It can also masquerade as fear of the blank page, fear of the “hairy middle of the book,” or the fear of story structure destroying your ability to write.
Quick Win
Set a timer and write for two minutes. Write to yourself or your characters about your story, or some other element of your story. If after two minutes you still feel stuck, give yourself permission to take a break.
Fear of Being Outside Your Comfort Zone
If new or challenging situations outside your routine fill you with anxiety and apprehension, you have this fear. Remember that this is natural. Your brain is trying to protect you even if you don’t need protection. If you need more armor against this fear, consider the results of scientific research that’s been done.
Unpredictable = Healthy Brain?
Research by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson developed the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which states that performance increases as stress increases, and performance decreases as stress decreases. This is the root of what we now call comfort zones.
Yale neuroscientists found it may be healthy for your brain. In a predictable situation, your brain knows what to expect. It is comfortable there and doesn’t have to do much. In an unpredictable situation, your brain absorbs more information. This research seems to say that you will learn more when you are uncomfortable or outside your comfort zone.
Quick Win
Try a low stakes or small change. For example, write a scene without using any adverb or adjectives.
Neuroplasticity
Your brain can absorb information and new challenges, allowing you to develop as a person and adapt to our ever-changing world. These new experiences and information actually physically change your brain. You can re-wire your brain!
Types of Neuroplasticity
There are two types of neuroplasticity. Structural plasticity refers to the idea that experiences create pathways to solidify learned information. Functional plasticity is the way a damaged brain (for example, after a stroke) can construct a way to work around an injury or weakness. It also is what happens when you do physical therapy after an injury or surgical procedure.
Improve Your Neuroplasticity
You can improve your neuroplasticity by creating a break from your routine. Examples of simple breaks from your routine include things like taking a new route to work or school, listening to a new song, and making a new recipe for dinner.
Quick Wins Using Neuroplasticity Against Your Fears
1. Try a quick win that addresses one of your fears.
2. Rephrase your fear as a positive. For example: reframe your imposter syndrome as a sign you are retraining your brain by moving out of your comfort zone.
What’s Next?
Now you know the thing(s) that scare you, watch for the next article in this series (October 20th) for more than the quick wins. Learn to Build Your “I Can Handle This” Toolkit.
If you could conquer one writing related fear in the next 30 days, which one would transform your creative life the most?
If you found value in this post, you might also like “How to Vanquish the Fear that Silences Your Stories.”
References
“Why Uncertainty Freaks You Out,” Psychology Today
“The Benefits of Leaving Your Comfort Zone,” Harvard
“The Terror of the Empty Page,” Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers
“Brainwork: The Power of Neuroplasticity,”Cleveland Clinic
Images Credits
All images from Pixabay with color changes by Lynette M. Burrows