Writing Psychology Day Four: Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway

Writers are usually introverts. We don’t take well to thoughts of grandeur, but our vocation requires us to believe, even just a little bit, that we are worthy of being read. We must find self-confidence and self-belief in our poor, introvert hearts, so you’ll find entire gigabytes of writing in our files, but when a local writing event is looking for people to do readings, they’ll have one person on the list who’s been doing this all year and is really quite tired now.

Writing requires you to believe your thoughts are profound enough to be heard. This level of self-belief doesn’t come naturally to introverts. We’re all good at writing books. We’re all terrible at submitting them for publication. If you see an author published or doing a reading, it’s usually because they realised they could hit “send” despite the terror welling up in their poor, introvert hearts.

If you’re like most of us, this isn’t going to get easier anytime soon.

Your fear will only vanish once you’ve hit “send” enough times to vanquish your fear.

To make matters worse, the best writing is vulnerable. It requires you to share the scariest parts of your inner world with people you’ve never met. This, too, will only get easier once you’ve hit “post” enough times to obliterate fear. If you see writers sharing vulnerable parts of themselves, it’s because they hit “post” despite the terror welling up in their poor, introvert hearts.

Are you picking up a pattern yet?

Just because you can write, doesn’t mean you can publish or present. This will require some tough personal work. You’ve got to decide how many sacrifices you’re willing to make. The more you make, the higher your odds of success, but your odds of getting hurt rise in tandem.

You might get cancelled.

You might get hurt.

You might give a terrible reading.

All three of those things are an inherent part of being a writer.

Sorry.

In the inimitable words of Susan Jeffers, you’ve got to “feel the fear and do it anyway.”

Feel the fear and write about your vulnerability. Feel the fear and post that writing. Feel the fear and submit it for publication. Feel the fear and say “yes” when you’re asked to read. Some jobs are dangerous, and writing is one of them.

Sorry again.

You combat this terror by taking small risks until you can take bigger ones. You learn how trustworthy your readers are and how protected your heart is by posting a series of increasingly vulnerable posts. If your mental health is at stake, I’m not suggesting you risk it. If you do choose to risk it, though, you might be surprised at the love that sneaks through as a result.

It may, of course, also destroy you.

See? Dangerous, so I’m asking three things of you today:

Understand that writing is potentially hazardous (and helpful) to your mental health.

Work out how much risk you have the luxury to take.

Once you know how much risk is safe for you, feel the fear and click anyway.