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The Fear of Writing and Why You Need to Get Over It
For the longest time, I have resisted putting anything out into the world under my real name. Allowing myself to be vulnerable, subject to critique, or heard was a fear that kept me from being able to realize my potential. The fear was so debilitating that I even avoided writing simple Facebook posts.
My fear stemmed from an extremely misguided understanding of what writing is about… I believed there was a spectrum of different kinds of writing. At one end of the spectrum was writing to put words on paper, and at the other was writing as exhibitionism. Like writing an instructional manual, writing for the sake of writing can be completed without passion. Sure, you can be creative and you might enjoy writing, but, you can do all of that without revealing anything about who you are as a human being.
At the other extreme was a form of writing where you expose your most inner self to the world. Like an exhibitionist, you seek attention and reveal yourself entirely for all to see.
I was trapped by my own fear of being inauthentic to myself… I didn’t want to write for the sake of writing, and I did not want to reveal my most inner self in some mystical and sensationalized fantasy, but I wanted my writing to be thought-provoking. I wanted my writing to make readers question their own assumptions, and I wanted my…
