Fear to Write

I finally write after five valuable years, outshining all the other feats achieved by me since I unloaded my writing passion in a trunk labeled: "LATER.” I have become a procrastinator for my most beloved.

I loved writing. I still love writing. Even as a child, I would make sure there were rough scribbles of my writings living in my small, colorful playhouse. But I would never save my writing pieces—they had to fly free as more were to follow. Later, and as and when my words started growing with my age, I decided to sheath them with perfection. They had to live a professional and sociable life as well like their peers in the books of Stephen King, Agatha Christie, Danielle Steel etc. This inspired me to take a professional Comprehensive Writing. It stirred in me more confidence and lust to write and I couldn't be happier. But not being able to sit to write to offset other responsibilities, I developed a fear—a fear to write!

My fear made me run from my most desirable luxury of writing; it made it impossible for me to assemble the ever pouring gems of my mind. I found myself haunted from this newly conceived cell in one corner of my mind, and soon it took the monstrous form of graphophobia - a writer's analogical term for the fear of writing.

Graphophobia or scriptophobia stems from the fear of disbelief, overexcitement, fear of loneliness amongst other successful writers, fear of rejection and fear of ridicule. But the face of my fear displayed overexcitement towards writing.

We live in our minds and only we can control it. Similarly, the fear of writing or the graphophobia can be well controlled by our minds. And this is how my mind helped me outcast my graphophobia:

Write even if you are writing nothing. I discovered that when I would not write, I would be compelled constantly by an “inner voice” to write; I felt being pushed to write. It scared me and in order to stop all this inside havoc, I silenced my words near death.

No cheating! No cheating when it comes to forming a writing style. I got confused I guess in the difference between observing another writer’s work and trying to imitate his/her style. This confusion led me to lose my own identity and self belief!

Don't think too much when you have to write. Let your creativity flow. By constantly carrying with you the pressure to write something, you will lose yourself in the realm of that pressure. A proper writing schedule is all it takes.

Be proud of you. One’s self esteem is a cactus, but one’s self capability is a strawberry. Read all of your works repeatedly, to remind yourself of what you are capable of and how much more you can achieve.

Hesitation in writing is a friction between your imagination and your words. This friction has to be eliminated.