Fear that Kills Creativity

To contact us Click HERE

Fear That Kills Creativity
By Missy Tippens
Missy, here. And I, like many writers, battle fear—fear that can sometimes hamper my creativity.
A few months ago, my sister, an elementary art teacher, sentme a link to a video by Sir Ken Robinson that I found interesting andinspiring. In it, he asks AreSchools Killing Creativity? He contends that creativity is as important inschools as literacy.
He tells the story of a little girl who hardly ever paidattention in class. But during a drawing lesson, she did. The teacher asked herwhat she was drawing, and she said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” The teachersaid, “But nobody knows what God looks like.” And the little girl said, “Theywill in a minute.”
Don’t you love that certainty? Robinson says that kids takea chance. That if they don’t know something, they’ll have a go at it. They’renot afraid of being wrong.
Let me say that again, kidsare not afraid of being wrong.
That’s the creative spirit you and I had when we were kids,too.
Robinson says he doesn’t mean that being wrong is the samething as being creative. But he means that if we’re not prepared to be wrong,we won’t ever come up with anything original.
Let me say that again too! If we’re not prepared to be wrong, we won’t ever come up with anythingoriginal.
As we grow up, we become frightened of being wrong. Inschools and business, we learn to be frightened because being wrong is stigmatized.
Robinson quotes Picasso, who said that all children are bornartists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.


So as adults, we need to battle that fear of making mistakesor failing. I think the problem for us as writers (published and unpublished)is to keep our creativity when we face criticism, writing rules, deadlines,self-defeating thoughts, lack of support, money woes, days jobs, and the listcan go on and on.
We need to re-train ourselves to work on a different modelthan we learned in school or in the business world. Of course, most of us arein this as a business, so what I’m talking about here is re-training ourselvesfor the creating phase of writing—the putting down that first draft.
So I have an exercise for you to do today. Quick and easy!(So please don't run away.) :) I want you to think back to how it was when you firststarted writing. Before your teacher marked your paper with red ink. Before yourmother said she would read your story and promptly set it aside and forgot it.Before anyone critiqued your work. Before you took any writing classes andlearned all the “rules.” Before you entered contests.



Okay, so do you remember how it felt to write then? Backthen, I wrote a book in two months while nursing a baby (typing with onehand!). That story flew onto the paper. And it was FUN.
It was terrible! LOL But it was fun. And I didn’t worryabout every word I wrote. I didn’t worry about goal or conflict or story arc. Ididn’t worry about sympathetic characters or pacing or POV (heck, I didn’t evenknow what POV was!).
Of course, all the things we learn about good writing areimportant. We do have to write a good story and edit ourselves and get outsideedits. We do have to learn and improve and worry about the rules.
But sometimes when all that overwhelms us, we can lose ourcreativity. We feel stifled. We feel like the words we put down are boring andawful. We think our story is a pathetic.
If you ever hit that point, then I’d like to suggest you goback to the beginning. Think about writing as if you don’t know anything otherthan the feeling of a story that’s burning to be written down.
Let the passion return. Don’t fear failure. Don’t fearsaying the wrong thing or being “punished” for writing poorly.
What we have to do is learn to write first (some of usplanning at that time, some not doing any planning beforehand). Then go into adifferent mode for editing and polishing.
Here are some tips I’ve come up with to help:
--If you like to plan/plot beforehand, then do so! But whenyou first start, treat it more like brainstorming. Jot down every little ideathat comes to you. Don’t censor. Don’t make fun of yourself or criticizeanything.
--If staring at a blank screen is freaking you out, then gowork with a pen and paper. Jot notes until some idea hits you that will work.Then either go with it on paper or come back to the screen.
--If negative feedback (or any feedback) stops the flow,then set it aside and deal with it later during edits.
--If critique freezes you up, then don’t get critique untilyou’ve finished the whole manuscript. Or instead, get brainstorming help fromyour cp’s ahead of time.
--Same thing with contests. You know how much we lovecontests around here. But if they throw you off track, then don’t enter themuntil you have your book finished and where you love it.
--Feed your creative well. Do what works for you. Examples:Read, go to movies, do something else creative (I sometimes make jewelry),spend time with friends or your family, cook, take a class…
--Be aware of what you’re afraid of. Figure it out. And thenfight it.Fear of failure? Think about what’s the worst thing thatcould happen and tell yourself you’ll survive.
Fear of success? Then look at all the other people who’vehandled it, and know that you have others around you willing to help show theway.
Fear of embarrassment/humiliation? Then come up with agraceful way to handle it if it were to happen (most likely, it won’t!).
Fear of having those closest to you thinking success will goto your head? Then share with them all the struggles you’ve had along the way.
Fear of having to become an extrovert to promote yourselfand your books? Then figure out a plan that you can work with, doing only what’scomfortable for you, not what you think everyone is expecting of you.
Fear of your bad grammar or spelling? Then hire someone toproof it for you.
Fear of messing up that one big chance you have (editor oragent request, etc)? Then say to yourself: I may blow it, but if I don’t takethe chance, I’ll never know what could have happened.
Fear that you’re not qualified? Then remember that God willprovide and will equip you to do His work (studying the story of Moses is whatgot me over this hurdle).


Don’t let all the fears that we learn into adulthoodovercome our inborn creativity. Learn, through trial and error, what your self-defeatingpatterns are and come up with a plan to battle them.
Think back to when you were little, and the joy you had inwriting or telling a story. Try to recapture that feeling. And enjoy thiswriting journey!
I’d love to hear your remembrances of your first writingjoys that you came up with during your exercise!
********
Visit me at my website, www.missytippens.com.I’d love it if you’d sign up for my quarterly newsletter.
Please like my Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/missy.tippens.readers
Find me on Twitter: @MissyTippens
And, new! I’m now on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/missytippens/