These days I’m spending time with my young grandson as he
recovers from leg surgery. The first couple of weeks, he stoically endured the
painful steps he had to take to begin the process of putting weight back on his
leg, but by week three, he’d start to panic at the mere mention that we’d be
doing it soon.
The fear of the pending pain became more debilitating than
the pain itself.
As I started praying against that, I realized such fear
hinders us from doing a lot of things.
Have you ever thought about how many times fear is at the
root of procrastination?
Think about it. We know we have to get something done and it
should only take a finite amount of time to do and once it’s done we’ll likely
be hugely relieved it can be scratched off the to-do list. So why put off doing
it?
Why play that game of FreeCell instead? Or check those
emails? Or Facebook?
Yes, I’ve come to the conclusion fear is what keeps me from
sitting down at the computer and writing the next chapter, especially when I
know something in the story isn’t working, and, as much as I’ve been praying
for guidance and inspiration, I’m not feeling
it.
So I decided to think about what exactly I might be afraid of and came up with a few ideas:
-
I’ll waste hours writing scenes I ultimately
won’t be able to
-
I’ll spend hours at the keyboard and make too
little progress to show for it
-
What I write will be boring, uninspiring and
useless
All three have happened time and again, so the fear is
totally justified. But . . .
I also realized that unless I’m going to procrastinate by
doing something else practical that needs doing, the reality is writing something gets me a whole lot closer to
figuring out how to make the story shine than a game of Free Cell.
So I’ve made myself a two-part reminder note for whenever
I’m dogging it:
You won’t finish the story unless you write it.
And…
Every little effort makes the story stronger.
It’s true, too. Just as my grandson’s micro-inch steps make
his leg stronger, so do my feeble writing attempts. When I write scenes that
don’t work, they help steer me toward what will, and they usually help me to
understand my characters better or to see what I haven’t figured out about them
yet.
That said, I’ve also learned that it’s a good idea to quit
for the day while the ideas are still flowing. I jot a few notes to remind me
how to carry on the next time I sit down and then I’m far more eager to get
back to it the next day, than if I’d written until my ideas ran dry.
Gotta run now. I have a story to write!
Your Turn: Have
you experienced victory over a fear? Did your fear turn out to be worse than what
you’d been fearing?
Sandra Orchard—winner of the RT
Reviewers’ Choice Award, the National Readers’ Choice Award, and the Daphne du
Maurier Award of Excellence, among others—leaps off the garden trails of her
herbal-medicine-researcher-turned-amateur-sleuth (Port Aster Secrets) series,
to the museum corridors of her plucky FBI art crime agent Serena Jones,
in A Fool and His Monet, Another Day Another Dali and Over
Maya Dead Body. When not plotting crimes, Sandra plays
make-believe with her young grandchildren or hikes with her hubby and husky
near their home in Ontario, Canada. Connect at: http://www.Facebook.com/SandraOrchard
Be the first to know
when Sandra Orchard’s next book is available! Follow her at http://bookbub.com/authors/sandra-orchard to receive new release and discount alerts and/or
subscribe to her newsletter at http://bit.ly/OrchardNews
Distress Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
