A Sense of Doubt blog post #3739 - Writing Wednesday: On Writing: Be Fearless

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3739 - Writing Wednesday: On Writing: Be Fearless

It came to me just before sleep one night last week.

I had done some writing earlier in the day, and I was reviewing that writing and more writing that I wanted to do. Then the idea just hit me.

BE FEARLESS.

I have spent many years second-guessing myself, worrying too much about other people's writing and measuring myself against it.

Time to let that go because that thinking leads to paralysis.

Yes, I am performing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on myself. Reframing negative thought patterns.

Time to just plunge ahead, full steam to the engines, WARP POWER.

What's the harm?

I am not on a deadline. I have no agent. I am not planning to share the writing with anyone an time soon. And after all, writing is rewriting, but I cannot rewrite if I do not first WRITE things.

A couple of years ago I went on a writer's retreat, and I came away with some lessons for myself that I recapped here:

Friday, December 29, 2023

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3237 - Some Thoughts on Writing at the End of the Year

In sum, the lessons are:

1. Stop second guessing.

2. Any progress is good progress

3. I don't have to "show" everything

4. I am writing all the time even when it's just in my head

5. If I want to log significant time, make an appointment with myself; put it on the calendar

6. Be less hard on myself

I would add a seven and an eight.

SEVEN is BE FEARLESS

and EIGHT is 

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1912 - How to KILL our darlings

Being fearless is an extension of NUMBER ONE - Stop second guessing.

Too much worry about the market place, what other writers are doing, second guessing my choices and not listening to my instincts is all a pathway to IMPOSTER SYNDROME and paralysis.

I do not believe in Writer's Block. But I do believe in paralysis born from Imposter Syndrome, too much second guessing, too much fear.

I also believe in loss of momentum.

Writing is an exercise. It's a discipline. Like exercise, if you do it on a regular basis, you develop the habit, you build momentum, and you really want to get back on the horse if you get thrown off.

Loss of momentum is what kills the forward progress of writing.

Second guessing, fear, anxiety disorder, feeling like an imposter all lead to losing that momentum, falling off the horse, and becoming afraid to get back on.

It's not being blocked. Writers can always write. It's not an immovable block of stone.

But writers can choose not to write, try to re-do things that may not need re-doing, pause before acting with fear and second guesses.

Recently, in watching the documentary 20,000 Days on Earth about Nick Cave, he said that there's too little time on this earth to be idle. He said that we must act, even on the bad ideas, because an idea is neither good nor bad until you act on it. That's when you find out if it's a good or bad idea. But doing nothing is always pointless. There's nothing to be gained in the pursuit of art by doing nothing. In other areas of life, doing nothing has value. Not in making art.

And so, I am resolved to plunge ahead without fear or at least trying to control and dismiss my fears as much as possible.

I just need to write.

After all, really, writing is rewriting. The initial drafting is not supposed to be perfect or even good. It's just content, clay, waiting to be shaped. The shaping is the real work. But if you don't get your hands dirty in the clay, you will have nothing to shape.

That's all.

Time to write.

Thanks for tuning in.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2505.14 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3604 days ago & DAD = 259 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.