Writing Thoughts: The Fear of Fear
We've all heard the quote: "The greatest fear is fear itself." And if you haven't until now, then welcome to the club of knowing its simple yet profound existence.
Being put in situations that could make me not seem or be fearless was one of the toughest fears for me to admit that I had, because I was afraid of not being fearless. Now during the day of age in my career, I've noticed that this resonates with me in a way that may be even more familiar with you than the fear quote: “writer's block”.
Now, the best way that has helped me solve any issue, or fear, was to face it head on. But sometimes that sounds easier said than done, no? By considering myself in my mind someone who is familiar with the creative process, or quite actually, "processes", I've created an expectation, a stigma of some sort, that somewhat states that my thoughts are so collective, that I "don't have the time". While I have been "not finding the time" to write more, I've simply just been making an excuse to avoid it. It's funny how simple it seems when it's put into plain text, but if it was so simple, then why does it happen to all of us so often?
Putting things into practice is always a wise idea, as creative processes are verrry conceptual, and can only be as creative as they are "unlimited." Writing anything, even if it's "bloop blop bleep" several times in a row, has always proven to me to be a better approach to curing writer's block, rather than writing nothing at all. "Bloop blop bleep"... Well, I hope you get what I mean.
This is because that's what writing actually is: A way of describing your thoughts. And if you realize what your thoughts AREN'T focused on, then it will help you describe what your thoughts actually are. And then, you can analyze them, thus the glorious classification of “editing” is born.
So in a way, writer's block is like a lid on a jar, blocking your thoughts from releasing out of the jar. So how do you remove the lid: taking it off directly, or letting those words get so bottled up that they eventually explode the lid off, and even the jar too?
Well the way I like to see it is this: If you see the lid, the jar, and the words all as the same thing, then the lid was never a lid at all.
- G













