Writing Fears

I get ground down quite a bit. In my life, I fear a lot of things. A lot of those fears relate to depression and the fear that I’m not living up to some impossible, societal norm. It sounds silly, boiling it down like that, but it really was at the root of my depression for many years.

Oddly, though, I don’t fear writing about depression. I could write quite a bit on the subject. But the fears that cause dealt primarily in causing that depression in the first place? For depression, the fears are rooted in the idea of inadequacy.

Source.

 

Fear in writing is essential. If there is no risk, there is no art. If there is no struggle, there is no art. If there is no vulnerability, your art is missing something that could have made it more.

Fearing writing, writing fears, or writing what you fear come down to a few subsets of inadequacy.

Artistic Inadequacy. You know, the fear that what you write on a subject will be entirely too basic, juvenile, ill-concieved, weak, shallow.
Craft Inadequacy. That you won’t have the right words, the right materials, the perfect medium for the manifestation of your soul’s story.
Self Inadequacy. The fear that you aren’t the right person to be expressing some aspect of your fear.

In the end, fear and writing, together, make something intangible and illogical into something that can be communicated, shared, and felt by others.. There is no wrong way to write. There is nothing wrong with you for wanting to write it, for wanting to express it. There is nothing wrong with letting those feelings out and letting them seep onto the page. They might be embarrassing. They might touch taboos that your family, society won’t let you express without resistance.

The more fear you have in you stories, the more you wonder if you will be judged for letting a person make the choice they want to make, do what they want to do, the more resonant your writing will be.

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