10 Ways to Harness Fear and Fuel Your Writing | WritersDigest.com

Forms of Fear by Diana Ong

10 Ways to Harness Fear and Fuel Your Writing | WritersDigest.com:

'via Blog this'

It's that time of year again, when setting goals for the coming year is uppermost and many minds.  For me one of the major themes of those goals each year relate to my writing.  And one of the issues I always have to face regarding my writing is the fear.  I've long known that fear is at the root of both my biggest bugaboos: procrastination and perfectionism.  Both being ways of avoiding putting my work or myself out there to encounter judgment.

In this article, I learned nothing I'd never learned before but yet it was a good refresher on the theme, reminding me that fear of fear or avoiding that dreadful feeling of fear is often at the root of our behaviors that sabotage our dreams and goals.

But most importantly I was reminded that fear is itself not the enemy.  Fear is just intent on keeping us safe and with a healthy respect for it we can harness its energy while refusing it the driver's seat.  Feeling the fear and doing it anyway is courage and when we tackle those things we fear the most and succeed the least little bit we grow in confidence.