I usually don’t update this blog as much as I should or as much as I want. I’d like to say, “Well, it’s because I’m so busy churning out brilliant tales of mystery and intrigue!” And that’s partly the case (backdoor brag alert!), but the biggest, fattest reason this blog often goes through long, dry spells is fear. Fear of writing.
Why, oh, why would I be afraid of writing on my own blog, of all places? In the thrilling tax guidance books I work on at my day job, we often break information down into bulleted lists to make groups of related items easier to digest. So, let’s take a look at the reasons, CPA style:
• Fear of sucking.
• Fear that my musings will be pointless or incoherent.
• Fear that I have nothing worthwhile to say.
• Fear that no one’s reading this silly blog anyway.
• Fear of judgement.
The fact that I’m a generally anxiety-addled individual doesn’t help matters. And I think these are fears a lot of writers (and wannabe writers) have. Some of the fears are justified, and some are silly. The first fear, fear of sucking, is understandable, but sucking is an unavoidable hazard of being a writing (or doing anything, really). When you first vomit an idea onto paper (or pixels) it’s going to be rough, but if you never get that rough idea out there, you’ll never have anything to work with. So I need to learn to accept my sucktitude, then revise my sucky musings into something readable. My writing’s never going to be perfect, but an idea on paper is always worth more than an idea that never leaves your head (thus becoming brain crack).
On to the next fear. Of being incoherent. Like suckage, incoherence can be taken care of with a little revision. On to the next item . . .
Fear that I have nothing worthwhile to say. Well, there’s no judge of worthwhile-itude, so I shouldn’t worry about it. What’s worthwhile to some people, doesn’t mean jack to others. And there are so many weird, random people roaming the internet, I’m sure my dribble is worthwhile (or at least entertaining or informative) to someone out there. If there’s an audience for LOLcats, websites with pictures of people who shop at Wal-Mart, and this, there’s probably an audience (however small) for my blog.
Next fear—no one reads this silly blog. Well, I know a few people do, mostly fellow Wrinkers (yay!) so there. That fear is now sufficiently zapped. I’m sure if I update more regularly, more readers will stop by.
And now the final fear . . . the biggest fear . . . fear of judgement. As writers, we face judgement often—every time you submit a story, every time a story is published, every time you post something on your blog—there’s probably going to be someone out there who doesn’t like it, but who cares? There are people who love LOLcats, and people who despise them . . . same goes for Twilight (*cringes*), green vegetables, and Ghostbusters 2 . . . you can’t win them all.
This post has mostly been a pep-talk for myself. Hopefully it has either helped you overcome some of your writing fears as well or satiated your voyeuristic urges. There’s plenty to be afraid of when it comes to writing. The trick is to tell those fears to suck it and write away. Then, revise.
