Do you ever have writing fears and anxiety? I found this exercise in Page after Page by Heather Sellers and wanted to try it.
Writing Exercise Part 1: Number your paper 1-15. In only three minutes (write fast), list 15 of your fears about writing. Share some of them in Comment Section. My response is below.
My Writing Fears:
1. Won't be good.
2. I'll make grammatical mistakes.
3. I won't be able to revise.
4. It will never get published.
5. I'm wasting time and not writing.
6. Afraid I don't know enough.
7. Taking time away from family.
8. Afraid I'll lose my electronic writing (crashed system, lost thumb drive, etc.).
9. Writer's block.
10. No ideas will come.
11. I'll give up on my book b/c revision is too hard.
12. A new book project is too hard.
13. Blogging and internet will capture my time instead of novel writing.
14. My characters are too flat and boring.
15. My story is not interesting enough.
As I was doing this exercise I was sinking lower and lower in a pit. Evil was creeping in. I was wondering why in the world I would do an exercise like this. It is not in my nature. I am a happy, Christ-seeking woman who stays positive. So, I opened Page after Page back up to see the reason behind the exercise.
As I was doing this exercise I was sinking lower and lower in a pit. Evil was creeping in. I was wondering why in the world I would do an exercise like this. It is not in my nature. I am a happy, Christ-seeking woman who stays positive. So, I opened Page after Page back up to see the reason behind the exercise.
Heather Sellers has students do this so they can recognize their fears, get used to them, and then send them packing. See tomorrow's post (Part 2) for an exercise on how to get rid of the fears.
Side note: I am not promoting Heather Seller's book, but I did buy it and I want to see what I can learn from it.
I have had to skip over much colorful language and topics that are offensive to me.
