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Getting Started

 


Writing can change the world, but it is not easy. The hardest part of writing (for me) is getting started. So many times, I have tried to get motivated to write and the mojo just isn’t flowing. Or, I will have an idea, but be uncertain what to do with it. Do I proceed down path A, or path B, or path C? Or is there another even better path that I haven’t considered yet? There is a certain amount of fear of wasting my time, writing 10,000 words that wind up not going anywhere. Writer’s block is not always about difficulty in coming up with ideas. Sometimes it is about what to do with those ideas.

The thing is, once I get started, I usually can keep the fingers flying. It is just getting over that initial hurdle that’s the problem. I know this about myself. You would think that would make it easy to push through the uncertainty blockage, and just launch into my next project. But no. Knowing about it does not make it easier.

It’s not just me. Many writers have this problem or some variant of it. And it is not just writers. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, stops people from trying anything new. Growth or advancement requires change, change in yourself, change in your world view, change in your comfortable life. We all want growth, either physical, spiritual, professional, or intellectual growth. We all instinctively know that we can’t attain that without change. But change is hard. Change is risky. Change is the unknown. It might be as uncomfortable as walking down the street naked while singing at the top of your lungs. Getting out of your comfort zone is what it takes to get anywhere in life. But you have to accept it. You can’t change the world without changing your world.

Aversion to change is part of the human makeup. Most of us don’t like change. We like to be comfortable. Comfort: that is the root of the problem. Wanting to stay comfortable in our own routine is what keeps us from advancing, keeps us stuck. Some people are less averse to change than others and those people are doers. Doers don’t necessarily like change, but they have found a way to push through their resistance.

I have basically two creative outlets in my life: Writing and theater. Stepping out onto a stage for the first time in front of hundreds of people is daunting. Your desire to achieve something has to overcome your fear of all the ways it could go wrong. And there are so many ways it can go wrong. If you dwell on them, you would never go on stage.

Writing is more private than stepping on stage. If you write into a dead end, no one has to know. But what you have written is still your baby. If it is bad, you have to let it go, and that can be demoralizing. It can make you question yourself. “Maybe I am no good at this writing thing.” It is a confidence killer. Confidence is what makes you get on stage. It is what makes you push through a writing blockage. Believing that you really are good at this, you can do this, makes the barriers fall.

Go out and change the world. You can do it.


(My science fiction novel Star Liner, is now available in paperback or as an e-book through Amazon and other online sources).

Star Liner


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