How to Face Your Creative Fears š»

A newsletter about writing, art and living more creatively
Hi friend,
How do we approach the blank page when we're afraid what we write might not be good enough? How do we start that first sketch when we're not sure if what's in our mind will match the final artwork we make?
Spooky season seems like a good time to talk about creative fears. One of my most recent BIG ones was this: What if the book I write isn't good?Ā
Eventually, I answered that question with another question: How will you ever know, if you don't even give yourself a chance?
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In her book Make Your Art No Matter What, Beth Pickens writes that it's not about conquering our fears, but rather accepting them. And then taking counter-actions against them ā AKA doing the creative task anyway.Ā
Here's a great suggestion she gives the reader. She writes:
"When you are taking a contrary action, doing something that you're afraid to do but proceeding anyway, it helps to simply tell a friend what you are going to do. This can be a brief phone call, text, or verbal check-in."
Telling a friend can "be incentive enough to complete it."Ā
I wanted to ask the advice of a writer I admire ā fiction writer Kat Lewis. We both contributed to KhĆ“ra earlier this year and I was blown away by her work.
Here's a fear sheĀ shared with me:Ā
"I have a strange paranoia that I am going to āloseā a project. Iām always afraid that work will get in the way of my writing, and Iāll spend so much time away from my novel that Iāll lose my momentum and excitement about the story and never finish it."
So how does she handle the fear?
"I have a three-step process to quelling my creative fears: (1) pick an achievable long-term goal; (2) set a deadline for that goal; (3) make concrete weekly and daily writing goals based on that deadline. I know deadlines can give a lot of people anxiety, but they're the only way for me to manage my anxiety."
The virgo rising in me AGREES.
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Kat also adds:Ā
"I have a fear of not finishing a project, and the only way to overcome that fear (and honestly most writing fears) is to just write. My fear has actually made me a really effective project manager in both my writing and professional life."
So fear can be a motivator sometimes, too. Kat offered an acronym that I think is super helpful for us ALL:
"Iāll say what my mother always told me when I was anxious about something as a kid: JFDI. Just fucking do it. Thatās literally what my mother said to me growing up, and sheās right. You just have to fucking do it. The first fifteen minutes of any task, creative or otherwise, are always the hardest. But after that you settle into the work."
Thank you Kat! Go read some of her work, yes?
How do you talk back to your creative fears? Hit that REPLY button if you have any thoughts.Ā
In my own work:
Repose Home interviewed me about my work and my home space!
I interviewed curator Taylor Renee AldridgeĀ and ceramicist Viviana Matsuda.Ā
Your favorite small but feisty writer,
Eva
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