As a writer, you often get asked, “What is the one piece of advice you would offer new writers?”
The answer to this could be a very, very long list, and some of those answers are shared by many of us—write what you love, just write, write for yourself. All of which are spot on, but I’ve recently changed my answer.
Brace yourself. You ready? Okay, here it is:
Write through your fear.
I’m currently working on my fourteenth (I know, can you believe it? Double digits) book, and as with every book I write, there is a familiar cycle I must endure as a writer.
In the beginning, I’m excited about the story, I love the concept, this will be AWESOME! Then I start getting into the book, the Excitement starts to fade and get bored, which give Doubt and Worry a way in. They come in and set up shop so that right around the mid-point, without fail, I find myself face-planting on the writing path thanks to that nasty stumbling block, Fear. Then it’s teeth-gritting endurance and pure stubbornness that pulls me through towards the end when Excitement decides to rejoin the party and shove me across the finish line.
This time when Fear has left me with skinned knees, scraped palms and a bloodied lip, I decided to confront the arrogant little bugger.
Here’s the deal with Fear. It’s not a complete Negative Nelly, in fact, I’ve come to believe as a writer, it’s something I actually need.
Fear, for me, happens when that initial excitement steps back and I’m left swimming in the murky waters of the creation process. It’s bad enough that typical self-doubts can issue an invitation to the writing party, but it’s a major kick in the butt when it’s things outside of your control that all but opens the door.
Maybe life decided it was time to toss you a few bumps. You know the kind that nudge you off your writing routine and through you over the cliff straight into the waters of chaos? Or maybe it’s a review—neither good nor bad—where an off-hand comment makes you wonder why you do this in the first place. It could even be the paralysis that comes when you finally surface from your writing cave and peer around WriterLand and eavesdrop on the variety of author-centric conversations and find yourself wondering how come you can’t make that much/write that much/ be that creative? Or maybe it’s that moment when your characters decide to imitate Flat Stanley and you just want to toss them into the fiery pit you built specifically to toss them into. Whatever it is, it’s the trigger that allows Fear to stand back and laugh its ass off as you struggle to get back up.
Write through the fear.
That is the most difficult time to sit back down and keep writing. I know, because fourteen books in, I trip over that same stumbling block with annoying regularity. Yet, the one thing I’ve learned through all those books is that I have to get back up and keep setting those words to the page. Hence my advice—
You know that old adage that you can’t edit an empty page? Well, you can’t fix what isn’t there. Maybe while you’re getting through this stage, your writing isn’t where you want it to be, but get it down anyway. You can fix it later, but for now, keep moving forward.
Like I said before, Fear isn’t all bad, in fact I’ve found it tends to force me outside my comfy little box and into brilliant new arenas. It pushes me to go out and learn new approaches and techniques. It shoves my face into new approaches that don’t fit with the norm. Maybe it’ll work, maybe not, but to help hone the writer I want to be, I have to take those risks, risks I wouldn’t take if Fear wasn’t the one threatening to face-plant me once more.
So the next time you find yourself examine the word-strewn path up close and personal, get back up, keep going. No one ever finished by staying in place.