Writing can be a very scary process. But something I’ve learned from experience is that if a project scares you, it’s probably good.
This doesn’t make working through the fear easier. One of the hardest things to do is nailing yourself to the chair and writing in spite of the fear. And on the flip side, just because something makes you laugh out loud, energizes you, makes you sniffle or is the most fun you can imagine to write doesn’t mean it’s no good because it wasn’t hard or scary.
Fear just happens in the writing process. Like the bogeyman, it pops out unexpectedly. It’s actually often worst for me AFTER I’ve written, rather than during. During I’m pretty good at tying the inner critic up, gagging it and stuffing it in a locked trunk. After, the critic pops out and screams all the things I didn’t let it say during writing. Which makes finishing something really fun.
My coping mechanism for this kind of post-project meltdown is pretty much to shut my mind off by focusing on something I really love, a book I’ve been looking forward to from a favorite author, episodes of Firefly, something that will capture my attention and give me a positive experience. And then I throw myself into writing something else, because writing is much more fun than angsting over what I’ve written.
But sometimes the act of writing is scary because you’ve hit on something important. Something about that scene really matters on a deep level. You’re revealing a truth that’s uncomfortable and the fear wells up. How to get past it and write anyway?
You can start by separating yourself from what you write. What your characters say and do are not reflections of you. (This is assuming we’re talking about fiction.) If it’s true for Character X, that’s all it has to be. But for the story to work you need all of X’s truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, no matter how much it may personally squick you out or how much you may disagree. So your characters may do things that are Not Nice. This is a big one, I think especially for women, because that whole Be A Nice Girl thing is so drilled into us.
Nice, to be blunt, is boring. Nice characters who only say and do nice things do not create compelling conflict on the page. Bring on the Not Nice. Welcome it. It’s a good sign.
But if you write about a topic or a character who isn’t nice, won’t somebody think YOU are Not Nice? Maybe. It’s a risk. At which point you have to ask yourself what’s more important. That everybody think of you as a Nice Girl, or to be the best writer you can be?
Nice is a straitjacket. Don’t worry about being nice. Worry about being good. It’s more important. Fear tends to evaporate when confronted, so recognize the fear and then write anyway. Everybody experiences fear at some point in the writing life, the trick is to not let it stop you.
Charlene Teglia is the author of multiple romances for multiple publishers. Her most recent release, Claimed by the Wolf (Dec. 09 St. Martin’s) is in stores now.
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Nice, to be blunt, is boring.
Thank you, thank you, and thank you, lol!
But sometimes the act of writing is scary because you’ve hit on something important.
Thanks for touching on this, it’s been a big problem in the latest wip. There’s the fear inspired by the ‘villain’, because I tried so hard to make him 3-dimensional, to make his pov understandable that it’s almost creepy how acceptable it is.
And the fear that the ‘hero’ has to choose the lesser of two evils, but they’re both still evil which tarnishes his image.
And, of course, the fear that I can’t do it all justice.
Good post.
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Fear of not doing it justice happens to me all the time. All you can do is the best you can do, right now.
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This is so timely for me today. There’s a story I’ve started and stopped many times because I’m scared I can’t do it justice. Not facing that fear has only made it grow.
Thanks! Awesome post, as always.
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Cari, the only way to get better is to over-reach yourself. Bite off more than you can chew. You’ll build up the fiction muscles you need to be able to do justice to that story.