There are times when fear can be difficult to deal with, especially when it concerns wanting to share your writing. It can hold you back from submitting, hold you back from taking chances that are necessary.
Here’s 5 key things to remember
1. Fear isn’t all bad
We tend to think of it as the enemy but it does have a purpose. It warns you when you think something might be too good to be true or might have negative consequences. It’s only a problem when it becomes too great and out of proportion.
2. You can master your fear.
The problem with dealing with fear is that it can quickly overwhelm all thoughts and senses but you have the ability to say no to it. You can be determined to rein it in, to carry on despite it.
3. Sometimes you can’t think ahead.
Thinking ahead can be great but it can be detrimental when you become overly concerned with the outcomes of what you are doing. Be focussed but not excessively preoccupied.
4. Above all, have faith.
Even when you’re faith it failing you and you can’t see where you are going, hold onto faith. Keep believing in yourself.
Lastly…
5. Beware of extremes.
Even when it appears positive, it’s never good to get overly caught up in things. Too much advice may be wrong for you. Too little watching TV could be wrong for you.
Fear (Photo credit: Rainbowfly)
Find your path and follow it, not the one that others tell you to follow. This is harder than it sounds but it’s worse to realize one day that you are not doing what you wanted with your life because you have listened to others before yourself.
Related articles
- Inner Critics (lebyron.wordpress.com)
- Peeking Out, Being Brave {5 Minute} (juliesunne.com)
- Discovering the Strength in Myself (sunnythinks.com)
bardicblogger 
Excellent advice. Thanks!
No problem. Thanks for stopping by!
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I went to school in the 1940s and 1950s. I remember every so often we were given a certain subject to write about. This was called ‘composition’. The teacher wanted you to write about this one particular subject. The fear was always that if you strayed away for a bit from this subject you’d get bad marks. So this was how ‘fear’ was instilled in a lot of students. But as you say fear can be good. I think it teaches you some discipline. If you are supposed to write about just one subject I guess it’s better if you stick to it.
Maybe sometimes easier said then done! But you also learn by your mistakes, don’t you? As I remember it, mistakes were always seen as something very bad during my school-time. I think this is wrong. People should be encouraged to learn by their mistakes. Then they won’t need to fear so much of making these mistakes.
If you do writing just for the love of it and maybe do a lot of it and one day you think, oh, somebody might like to read it. So you send it in for publishing. Then it turns out your writing isn’t good enough for publishing. You might want to try improving it with some editing and send it off to other publishers. Or you might try to write something new and completely different.
You may end up with sending your stuff to many, many different publishers and get only rejections. But for as long as there’s hope that some day you might find a publisher who likes your writing, you keep going. It’s all relative. Sure, you may become fearful at times. But as long as the fear doesn’t become excessive, you’re right.
I wonder if there are a lot of people who would like to write but are fearful that it isn’t good enough?
Your post made me want to think about what makes us want to write and what makes us fearful. I may ‘fear’ now that you’ll find my comment excessive. But in any case I want to thank you for your very stimulating blog.
I think you’re right, that we should keep believing in ourselves. To me this means that we ought to believe that our writing has some value.
I think there’s a lot more people wish to write but fear putting it out there than I can imagine. I do write for love of writing and always have done. I want to publish but I also have a fear of turning it into a business venture or profit because I know that may change my view of it. Whichever way it works out I always try to keep it balanced. I know fear can be helpful but also hindering. Thanks for your comment. I don’t mind long comments when they’re full of insight like yours was. Thanks very much for sharing your views and experiences.