A to Z Challenge: Fear

We all have it. That niggling feeling in the back of our minds. 

I can't do this. How will I ever be able to do the story justice? There's just too much... 

It usually starts as doubt, or we think it is doubt, that small question in our mind asking us how we think we'll get this done. Not particularly damaging in itself, but it grows into those thoughts above, spinning and whirling them in our heads until those fears are the only things that we can hear. 

It drowns out everything as we write. The voice, the story, the characters... Everything. And we are left panicking even more because now we are left without the thing that gives us our identity as writers. We can't create. 

And so the fear grows as we splash against a growing vortex that has us firmly in its grip. 

But there is a saving grace: We have a life line that prevents us from getting sucked in. We're tied to safety by our belief in ourselves.

Deep down we know that we are better than the things we fear. That we can overcome every one of those obstacles. Go look for it. Maybe it's far away, but it will be there. 

Don't you doubt that knowledge. Because that's what makes it possible for you to swim away from the vortex. 

But for it to work, you have to swim. If you stop swimming, you get sucked closer again. 

And that's where writing comes in. 

If you were waiting for me to tell you how to make the fear go away, sorry, I can't. Because you can't. 

You must write through it. The more you write, the fainter that fear becomes. But give that fear too much credence, and it will suck you back. 

So... to beat that fear. Sing with me: 

Just keep writing 

Just keep writing 

Just keep writing writing writing...

 

I want to know from you: What do you fear most when you write? (Have a sneaking suspicion I know what 90% of you are going to say... But still want to know out of interest.)