A slim bottle of ice wine stands tall next to a baseball cap on my coffee table. It’s like the CN Tower and SkyDome have plopped themselves right in my living room, calling me out, luring me downtown. Surrounding them are piles of crumpled papers—the snow in the city streets, maybe. And buried in the snow lies the third Harry Potter novel. That must be….the Eaton’s Centre. I could really use some new mittens.
No. No. No. No more dreaming. They’re not snow mounds—they’re failed attempts at brainstorming for blogs. And the wine and the book—well, they are last night’s distractions. It’s all a mess in need of cleaning, but not before I’ve de-cluttered my mind.
It’s really crappy, being mentally constipated. Some crafty little thing snacks on my creativity and leaves concrete. Some call it writer’s block; I call it apprehension. Seeming to agree, Seth Godin, a marketing guru, says, “The only thing that prevents your creativity from showing up is fear. Fear of being laughed at, fear of being wrong, fear of seeming uninformed. (Source)
These insecurities can be difficult to overcome, especially when writing for the World Wide Web and the millions it connects to. Yes, a public blog is open to be attacked by thousands of faceless critics; it is also just as open to support. Potshots or praise, we do not know until we post.
More focused, I am reminded by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban of a speech J.K. Rowling gave at the 2008 Havard commencement, "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination." She admits that her fear of failure landed her in a dark place during her youth and it was only the experience of failure that guided her to success. In her words, “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.” She continues, “Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive." (Source)
The fear of failure, the creativity-sucker, the blocker of writers, the apprehension only cripples us. A bit of backward movement can motivate us to push forward, but we definitely won’t go anywhere if we don’t make a move.
In terms of writing, when we’re stuck, we need a good flush. We need to free ourselves of fear and follow the flow. Only then can we transform a weekend’s garbage into Toronto’s skyline—or at least find a topic to blog on.
That’s it! I’ll write about writing.
Writing Rule:
Don’t let the white screen mock you. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Post fearlessly.
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