Is writing scary? Everything has potential to be scary, but it doesn’t have to be. For those of you who do feel fear, I’m betting it manifests itself something like . . .
‘What if they hate it?’
‘What if my work actually sucks?’
‘What if I can’t stop staring at this blank screen and spend the rest of my life resenting everyone who’s ever gotten published?’
Writing itself isn’t as scary as NOT writing. Not writing sends you into a dark dungeon full of tormented, frustrated artists and leaves you feeling like your throat is closing off. Do I exaggerate?
I think we’ve all been there at some point, but my best advice is simply to write – something. Maybe not a chapter in your novel, but something.
Journaling helps me. It’s one of the best conduits for creative energy. The act of putting pen to paper takes me out of the mechanical act of it all and puts me in a more cerebral state. I connect better to a physical page, and even if I’m writing about the frustration of not writing, I’m writing. Make sense?
To quote Charles Bukowski, “Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.”
Journaling can unravel that string of chatter in your mind by spitting it onto the page and leaving your mind with more freedom to create outside of the confines of frustration.
Try it. You can get yourself unstuck and stop berating yourself. You can simply write.