How writers build courage
It takes courage and character to be a writer. It means accepting the risk of revealing yourself and overcoming fears of putting your honest feelings and dangerous ideas right there on the page.
Facing that blank page in the privacy of your own mind and stripping away your defenses to confront hard truths requires an act of courage that no one else can see.
Then, to go public with your work, you put those most intimate emotions out for all to consider. You may be advocating untested ideas, or pushing the envelope in ways that require at least the posture of courage and often a thick skin.
The most successful authors I know summon up enormous courage and fortitude when they begin to plow through the long process of writing and promoting a new book. As a developmental editor working closely with writers for more than 40 years, I’ve learned what helps sustain such a Herculean effort.
11 suggestions for writers
• Do other stuff that takes courage
Appreciate the difficult things you already know how to do, like teaching a class of unruly teenagers, climbing a tricky trail, or writing a letter to someone who owes you money. Or skydiving, for the adrenalin junkies out there! That mythic, over-the-edge leap into the abyss.
This accomplishes two things: If you pick the toughest thing you’re able to do that isn’t working on your book, it’s relatively easier to sit alone in a room and move your fingers over the keyboard. And it can poke up the can-do confidence and bravery thermometer in your head. That may stimulate some wild new idea to escape your unconscious.
• Show your writing to someone you trust
Not family or friends, but someone objective with whom you’ve worked before on a tough job, physical or intellectual. What you’re after is a gut-level reaction. So ask: “Make sense? Want to read more?”
• Take advice
Get help. Consult a professional, experienced developmental book editor. A good editor can help a writer overcome existential dread by providing specific places in the text with suggested language of what to write.
That’s part of a developmental editor’s job, to help authors revive the creative flow with restored courage.
• Write on a schedule
Devote a block of time to writing every working day. Consider it something like a spiritual practice.
You’ll strengthen the habit, build discipline, and ultimately produce better results.
• Talk to yourself
Close the door. Go where no one else can hear, speak out loud, take a first stab at whatever you’re trying to pull together. One sentence. Two sentences. Speak into the mirror.
• Write to yourself
I know a writer who’s already written 200 pages of notes to himself about his next book, answering questions like “What would she do now? How about this? Should he call her back?” He’s nearly confident enough now to start the actual outline and write a first draft.
Try a voice journal. That can help get the juices flowing.
• Start over
It’s like clearing your throat. Pause a moment after wiping the slate clean and come back to it in a few moments. Write something, even if it isn’t great yet, for your eyes only.
Then make it better, clearer, closer to what you wanted to say. Keep doing that until you have a paragraph that works.
• Let it simmer
Sometimes a so-called writer’s block is a necessary pause in the creative act. The ideas and feelings need to bake a little before being ready to test.
• Take no prisoners
Dig deeper for insights or ideas. Be hard on yourself when you reread the latest draft, even if it’s the fourth or fifth time around.
• Get silly
Hula-hoop with the kids. Or some equivalent playfulness.
• Face the music and dance
Literally. Your favorite music can get your foot tapping, your body moving around the room, and your creative soul back into the cosmic dance of life.
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How do you sustain your courage?
We all need more courage in our writing once in a while. Instead of worrying, churning and ruminating, stop and try something new. Hope these ideas help.
So writers, how do you find and sustain courage? I’d love to hear your stories.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:20 am
I don’t find it, it finds me. When I feel low, something happens or comes along that sparks my will to continue on this journey.
April 19th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
I always start with the idea that what I write is just for me to see. Then once it’s written I feel like I’ve “given birth” to it, and so I need to nurture it to life!
Also, like Candyland, at times when I’ve wondered if I should just quit, I get handed a breakthrough, e.g. someone wants to publish an short story, etc., and it gives me a boost that pushed me onwards.
But you are so right – now that I think of it the whole process is terrifying! Well done, us writers, we should be proud of ourselves.
April 19th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
As a scientist, I feel like I’m pretty inured to the idea of failure. Since the majority of my experiments fail, I’m open to the idea of spending years on a manuscript that might never get published. I also keep myself going by remembering that while I can’t control whether I’m successful or not, I can at least look back and know for certain that I gave it my best shot.
Oh, and lots of backup plans in case things don’t work out…
April 19th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Like Livia said, once you accept the fact that most of your projects are going to fail and that you have to “power through” them to get to the one that will succeed, it makes it a whole lot easier.
April 19th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
I consider myself blessed to have an Internal Voice that gives me directions on what to write and how to write it. If her directions scare me, well, so what. They are still the best way to get the thoughts and characters and processes the work needs down on paper.
How do I find the courage? I experience the pain of lacking it until that’s worse than the scared of doing it. Simple (sure…).
As for failure, eh. I still have to write to be myself, so I do that, and let other people sort out what their reactions are going to be.
April 20th, 2010 at 4:40 am
I find comfort in knowing that most first drafts are bad. There’s nothing wrong with bad writing, as long as it is good by the time it leaves our computers. Thanks for the post.
April 20th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Courage to write? Chutzpah (as in, who do I think I am to write a novel?) is more like it! Good post, as usual. Thanks.
April 21st, 2010 at 11:37 am
It’s similar to the second bullet point. I often write with a specific reader, usually a very close (& forgiving) friend/fellow writer in mind who’s typically receptive to nuttier ideas.
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:02 am
How do I sit down and write? By being a little delusional of course, and believing, NO, KNOWING that my story MUST be told. I also get encouragement by reading and rereading books that I love and have inspired me – knowing that my favorite authors also sat down and wrote, keeps me motivated.
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:33 am
There’s nothing like an unloved day job to help one find the courage to write.
April 24th, 2010 at 11:42 am
I don’t think I’m the only writer that has some internal “knowing” that tells us we are meant to write, to share our thoughts, ideas and experiences with those who care to listen. It is this deeply felt sense that this is my purpose or path in life that drives me beyond the fear of exposure. Of course, when it comes to how to treat a sensitive or personal issue in my writing, I pretend that my parents and anyone else who might be shocked, dismayed or outraged are DEAD (thank you Anne Lamott for this sage advice handed down in your book “Bird by Bird.”)
April 24th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Oh! I forgot that keeping a REALLY BADLY WRITTEN book that managed to get published near at hand doesn’t hurt either.
April 24th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
I’ll confess—I have less courage than I have commitment. Every time I go to God and say I don’t know if I should be writing or not, He sends just enough encouragement to keep me going. The whole thing makes me suspicious that He uses the whole process to keep me on my knees …
April 26th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
I find courage by not confusing it with fearlessness.
April 28th, 2010 at 3:26 am
This is a helpful list, especially the part about doing things that take courage outside of the classroom. In the last couple of years I’ve been engaging in activities out of my comfort zone (taking martial arts and substitute teaching), which has helped me grow as a writer. An added bonus, listening to teenagers is great for helping me with authentic dialogue.
On the writing front, I put myself out there. Often. I engage in manuscript swaps, enter contests, submit to agents and publishers. it gets a little easier each time.
I came over from Sarahjayne’s blog.
April 28th, 2010 at 10:16 am
I try to take my project LESS seriously. If I don’t feel like I have to produce the next great American novel, but treat it more like a newsroom assignment, then I’m much more likely to finish the project and not get hung up on perfection (or the lack thereof).
April 29th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
I just found your site. I love it! Thanks for taking the time.
Stepping out of my office and getting around people is what helps/inspires me to write.
Author Becky Due
April 30th, 2010 at 6:28 am
Your suggestions are really helpful. I will definitely follow all these. Thanks for sharing.
May 1st, 2010 at 8:26 am
How true… I find myself considering how much of myself to reveal. Likewise, friends who have read my book ask me if my characters are based on real people. One person, who shared the same name as one of my more shady characters, even went as far as to think if she had done something to upset me. It was rather funny!
May 4th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
I have written short stories based on incidents in my family’s past. I hesitate sharing them for fear of hurting a family member’s feelings. I get past this fear by changing the incidents and characters enough to still tell the story, but it not be so recognizable to the truth that I alienate my family. I allow the family member(s)involved to read the work, and if they cannot tell the story is based on them or an incident involving them, then I feel I am ready to share it with the world.
May 7th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Every ten years, if not every five years, I reread Rollo May’s THE COURAGE TO CREATE.
Being a regular part of a committed critique group helps too. It reminds me that helpful feedback makes me a better writer, not one who should just stay in the closet. It lets me know when my work affects people. (I get high on that!) It gives me an opportunity to critique others’ work too so that it can also be the best it can be – which helps me to get more objective.
I don’t show WIPs to nay-sayers.
May 18th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Yoga. I look foolish falling over when trying to balance on one foot, holding the other stretched out beside me. I’m constantly shown up by the more advanced practice of those around me. I get sweaty and slip on my mat. I have to give up from time to time and drop out of a pose, but it forces me to do something silly looking on a daily basis, and it help me remember that their practice is not mine. I’m where I’m at in the practice, and that’s something I have to constantly relate back to my writing. I can’t compare myself to others. I just have to grow and learn regardless of my age or current lack of publication. I write the best I can and strive to get better at it every day, even though I still fall over sometimes.
May 25th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
It’s all in the music.
When I cannot or do not have the guts to write, I simply turn on the music (usually classical or relaxation songs) and let it take me on a journey. I imagine myself within a forest, or I feel my feet sinking in the sand, or I smell the wet grass… Whatever!
After I am back from my personal trip, my story flows to the tune of the music until my mind is unable to hold all those ideas in the air and I start writing again.
February 28th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
[...] finally — and definitely inspiring — is this blog from Alan Rinzler on finding courage as a writer, with such advice as not being afraid to talk to yourself, to let things simmer, and to [...]