Three Tips to Facing Your Writing Fears

This past weekend was sort of scary. Carrie's worst case scenario of presenting happened. She was scheduled to give a four-hour seminar on public image, but when she arrived the place wasn't unlocked, there was no water, but worse- there was no A/V. It was not pretty. And then... We went to a party, a SNL-themed party, and because our friends are good at peer pressure and we were dressed as Spartan cheerleaders, we stunted and Carrie had to jump on Shaun's back in a short skirt (with modesty shorts!) and she was so nervous that she actually got sweaty. So, it turns out that Carrie was totally afraid to do a cheering stunt. Carrie: This is because I am old and have broken knees. And Shaun had to face his fear by actually performing the cheer. Writing (like living) can be full of fear. Over on The Write Practice, Jeff Elkins tells of "Three Tricks to Overcome Your Fear of Writing." How does he deal with the fear? HIS THREE TIPS FOR OVERCOMING THAT FEAR OF WRITING ARE: He names it. He leans into it. Meditates through it. And he also has this awesome idea for desensitizing yourself from fear, which is our ..... WRITING TIP OF THE POD! "Take fifteen minutes to write something that scares you. Maybe it’s a scene you’ve been avoiding in your work in progress, maybe it’s a story you’ve been nervous to start, or maybe it’s a letter you’re scared to write. As you work, if fear raises its head, try one of the techniques above to work through it." - Jeff Elkins DOG TIP FOR LIFE: Dogs have all kinds of fears just like people do. When dogs have fears, we use treats to encourage them for brave behavior, we don't force them out of their safe places, and we don't shove their fear in their face and shout "GET OVER IT, BUDDY." Because that's not cool. We deserve to give ourselves the same respect. Reward yourself for being brave, don't insist on pushing yourself into your fear too hard and too fast. Don't push yourself, man. SHOUT OUT The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.