Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead~ Gene Fowler
If only it were that easy.
Oh, so finding the words might not be so hard, but getting beyond the very start, getting to a point where you’re willing to:
- Share
- Submit
- Publish
- Send
- Put on a website
- Read out loud
Well… that can mean getting past a whole lot of demons. The voices of the inner critic. The doubters inside us and about us. A wild, ridiculous host of fears:
- Fear of failure
- Fear of success
- Fear of not being published
- Fear of (the attention from) being published
- Fear of criticism
- Fear of embarassment
- Fear of being noticed
- Fear that no-one will notice
- Fear of false starts
- Fear of getting stuck
- Fear of losing the plot
- Fear of the time it’ll take
- Fear of not being able to do it
I’m sure you’ve more of your own 
Sometimes writing them down makes them seem smaller, more foolish, more like grumbling gremlins that we can easily skip on past.
But sometimes it still takes courage to keep on walking, keep on writing, keep on sharing.
To paraphrase… to feel the fear and write it anyway 
Here’s to writing superheroes everywhere. Have a great weekend.
~~~
After I’d drafted this I kept on stumbling other posts on resistance, fear, the inner critic, and getting past it… here’s some of them:
When Your Inner Critic is on Steroids: Betsy Wuebker at Passing Thru
Something About Tension and Vision: Janice Cartier
The Tale of the Bird, the Boy and the Big Brave Steps: by Emma Newman at Post Apocalyptic Publishing
Work with Joanna and learn to express yourself with confidence. Online classes to free the inner writer. Get help writing the pages that you need for an effective presence on the web.
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Hi Joanna – Thank you for the mention! You’re right, acknowledging fear in some way is basically all it wants. Once we recognize it and keep moving, it has a tendency to diminish rather quickly. Have a wonderful weekend!
Betsy Wuebker´s last blog ..When Your Inner Critic is on Steroids
Grabbing cape, picking up pen and preparing to soar! Thank you Joanna for that super heroic Friday boost! Have a great weekend! xo
Karen Swim´s last blog ..Why?
Joanna,
Scary birds, inner critics and anxiety are a lot like lions, tigers, and bears, oh my…. the odd cast of characters that show up along our paths of discovery. It’s as if someone says, “cue music” and they gleefully jump into the fray of creative effort.
Thank you for including me in such good, good company. I loved Em’s moment on the walk home with her son, his scary bird. Truly a wonderful lesson there and such a visual picture she has painted. And I look forward to more from Betsy and those responses. It’s how we answer the critic after all, isn’t it?
Janice Cartier´s last blog ..Ink, Paper, Scissors
Gosh, I’m honoured to be mentioned here, thank you! Thank heavens for superheroes, eh? Those lego ones in your picture made me all warm inside!
That’s a lot of fears you listed there. What never fails to amaze me is how seemingly contradictory fears can sit together side by side very happily. Strength in numbers for them too it seems…
Emma Newman´s last blog ..Friday Flash: Sale or return
Up, up, and away! Thank you for a post that encouraged me in the right way at just the right time! I’m so glad you mentioned the fear of success, as well as the fear of failure. All those fears have hit me at some time or another, and I agree that it takes some courage to get back up again and write. I am so thankful for your encouragement and your wisdom.
Tyrean´s last blog ..writing time lost
YAY! Superhero Friday! What a great fun (inspired… heehee) way to conquer our fears. Yes, let’s send our own inner SuperHeros at them and watch while our inner Super Hero kicks some fear behind!
So…now, we all know that Karen Swim is Wonder Woman…so who does that make the rest of us? Can I be a good version of Cat Woman?
Wendi Kelly~Life’s Little Inspirations´s last blog ..Clearing the Mental Soil
On the point of sharing, I think it has to be a matter of timing and inidivual working style as well. Criticism and feedback are great to have, but I prefer to wait til my work is finished or it clogs things up with doubt and second guessing.
I LOVE the idea that writers are super heroes. You better believe it! I call the “grumbling gremlins” writing monsters in my ebook. And I gave them silly names to take away some of their power — the Writers Block Beastie, the Mind Control Monster, the English Language Nazi, etc. And of course there’s the Writing Monster himself who easily morphs into the Muse with a little persuasion from the Writer’s Fairy Godmother. (In case you can’t tell, I had a lot of fun writing the book and even more fun finding visuals for each for each of my monster friends.)http://bit.ly/5ewWlt
Joanna:
Well, don’t we all have limitations? And insecurities? And we fear, yes.
Do you have a writing ritual? How about rituals, in general?
I think rituals can help; it is like a catharsis for some writers.
Some creative people need rituals to smooth over the transition between normal life and the writer’s life. Rituals can help you get into the groove even if you don’t feel like writing.
Rituals can even help to improve your mood. Some writers, for example, love to go outside for a leisurely stroll, take a shower, enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee, eat breakfast and then they get to work. Such rituals can help to send a signal to your mind that play is over and it is about time to get back to work. And taking frequent breaks can help too. Again, this may not work for every artist, but hope it helps you.
Hi Joanna .. yes we all have fears don’t we – funny how they dissapate as we progress with our project.
We can gain confidence by starting locally, volunteering our writings to an appropriate group, perhaps doing local newsletters, local radio .. Super heroes just don’t appear .. they too need to grow ..
Good luck – we’ll all be superheroes
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories
Hilary´s last blog ..A bet on the Eleven Cities Tour or the Winter Olympics being held?
I just wrote a post on fear myself! It can be such a sneaky demon, sometimes stopping us from putting words on the page for reasons we don’t recognize, all of which go back to fear. And it needs to be faced over and over again….
Hi Joanna. Yes I’ve found that writing them down helps to diminish those fears. But unless I keep writing, they grow back. Sometimes it’s like an obstacle course or a maze to keep going despite those inner ramblings.
Davina´s last blog ..I Find Stillness
Fear can be so debilitating to a writer. Thanks for sharing this, Joanna! Love the concept of the writer as a superhero! Sometimes it seems to take that kind of strength and courage to write, doesn’t it?
Thanks for shining the light on those fears–which we’ve all experienced at one time or another–so we can see them for what they are, put them to rest, and move on.
It takes a certain amount of courage to keep writing, but then it takes a certain amount of courage to live fully each day. We humans are creatures that so hate change, but change brings out the good things. So challenging…
@ Betsy, so true. I’m also trying to get better at asking it (and / or the critic) what it’s trying to protect me from… that often helps us both work out a way forward
Good luck for next week and the launch – the book looks amazing
@ Karen, you know you are one of my all time writing superheroes
@ Janice, it’s good to share the weird and wonderful cast of characters isn’t it?
@ Em, I know, and yet inside us the apparently contradictory fears make perfect sense. Seth Godin’s been writing a lot this week about resistance and the lizard brain – have you seen any of it? I have a feeling that’s a large part of it
@ Tyrean – thank you so much for those words. Your feedback means a great deal to me
@ Wendi: yes you can
@ J A good point about the timing… do you think it’s a question of trusting your instinct till you ‘know’ it’s the time to share?
@ Carol – thanks for letting us know about the book, sounds like a great resource
@ Archan interesting point about using rituals to signal the transitions. For me this post was more about the non-writing side of the work – the decisions to share, promote, seek feedback, get readers, look for ways to get published, hold your book in your hands… it’s what writers want but is also utterly terrifying. (And yes, all too human.)
@ Hilary – I like that! Heroes don’t just appear… we learn how to grow into them
@ Charlotte – sometimes I get weary with the repetition of the cycle… but maybe that’s what being a superhero means, keeping going even when you feel afraid
@ Davina – an obstacle course indeed… but then as we look back… we can see how far we’ve come… maybe it’s the expectations that keep growing each time we stretch out of our comfort zones?
@ Jeanne – it does. I hope we can all encourage each other to be kind to ourselves… I think that’s part of the key to writing super heroism
@ Bo – what a wonderful thought, so simple and powerful. Thanks for reminding me of the bigger picture – the courage to live out loud, each and every day
I think you’re right, Joanna. Being kind to ourselves can help nurture the courage we need to become the writers we were meant to be. And the encouragement and support of our fellow writers can provide the gentle yet persistent reminder we need to do just that.
Hi Joanna.
Your list of fears really hit me. These are all easy for me to hide behind and use as excuses for myself. But when I do, I don’t like me very much. (A gumbling gremlin for sure!)
So I work on changing. Daily. And doing it anyway — whatever it is that day.
I love what Bo Mackison wrote above…
Barb
Barb I think we get kind of used to these fears being around, and even though we don’t like the feelings they generate over time it also becomes a kind of comfort blanket, becaue it’s familiar. ‘doing it anyway’ is definitely a good way through… PS I love what Bo wrote too