Fear Management ~ Write When You're Bravest

"Identifying the time of day when you feel bravest and trying to write to then is an essential aspect of fear management. For some, that's in the afternoon or at night. But most of us are more confident at dawn than at dusk."

'In the night I am constantly haunted by what I am trying to realize. I rise broken with fatigue each morning. But the coming of the Dawn gives me courage.'                                                  --- Claude Monet

From The Courage to Write, by Ralph Keyes

The Courage to Write

A few excerpts from The Courage to Write, by Ralph Keyes (Henry Holt and Company, 1995):

A state of anxiety is the writer's natural habitat. Yet those who live there are seldom bold. . . . This leads to the psychic conundrum that writers often note in themselves; 'a combination of an almost obscene self-confidence and an ongoing terror,' John Barth called it.

And:

Identify the time of day when you feel bravest and trying to write then is an essential aspect of fear management. . . . 'In the night I am constantly haunted by what I am trying to realize,' said Monet. 'I rise broken with fatigue each morning. But the coming of the dawn gives me courage.'

5 Ways Not to Sabotage Your Writing

1) In the process of writing don't read and re-read what you've just written on the page. Simply write. The reading can come later--(see step 5)--assuming you've saved your work on a flash drive in the unlikely but altogether possible event your computer crashes.

2) Save your work on flash drive or back-up system every writing day. 

3) Don't read your work to other people (or give it to them to read) during the early stages. It's none of their business and they probably don't want to hear it anyway. It's your piece -- your voice. Write until you're convinced it is where it needs to be, then hand it over to a trusted reader and brace yourself.

4) Interject an element of hilarity into your mindset. The sun will come up tomorrow, even if you don't get that troublesome sentence just the way you want it. Throw anything out there. You can always reign in your over-the-top sentimentality during the later stages.

5. If you don't feel like writing, read what you've already written. Then, soon, you'll find yourself writing again.