I’m everything all at once. Rushed, focused, engaged – even as I’m also – slow, preoccupied, disengaged. Uncertainty is part of everything in our lives right now. Pandemic. Protests. Staying home. Election. Debates. And now, my dear doggie is sick. And in the midst of this, we want to write.

What the heck, we have more time, right? We should be writing that great American novel we’ve envisioned.

How do you deal with uncertainty? Angst, coupled with fear, bundled in despair, wrapped in anger. How do we soothe ourselves, so we can write?

First, it is critical that we recognize uncertainty for what it is. This new life is hard. People with kids schooling remotely have to set like 20 alarms a day – for each kid to get them to their required class times, for meetings with their bosses and clients, for brownies in the oven, and for a time to write. Alarms go off all day. Is there any better metaphor for the lives we’re living? Alarms go off all day.

Giving in to fear is not conducive to great creating. Creating – writing – holds us in a state of uncertainty. And it brings fear into our lives.

  • Can I do this?
  • Will I be able to finish this?
  • Will my fears keep me from doing good work?

Sometimes we run from fear – using tv, food, alcohol, online shopping. Remember, you didn’t invent that and you’re not a terrible person for fearing fear. But to write, you have to accept fear as part of the process.

As Elizabeth Gilbert says of fear – fear comes along for the ride, EVERY TIME YOU’RE CREATING. It is like a conjoined twin with creativity. “So,” says Gilbert, “here’s my magical thinking — I decide every day that I love Creativity enough to accept that Fear will always come along with it. And I talk to Fear all the time, speaking to it with respect, saying to it: ‘I understand that you are Fear, and that your job is to be afraid. And you do your job really well! I will never ask you to go away or to be silent… But I need you to understand that I will always choose’s Creativity’s ideas over yours. You may join us on this journey — and I know that you will — but you do not get to choose the direction in which we will walk.'”

There is no such thing as a fearless writer – just a writer who has found a way to allow fear to coexist with creativity.

So creating is adding to our fears, when we’re already bogged down with unprecedented challenges and obligations. Is there a way forward that somehow magically includes writing? Quells fear?

Ground yourself.

Fear is here. But so are you. You are here. Ground yourself. Put your feet squarely on the floor, with a paper and pencil in front of you, so you can write and draw.  (From Lynda Barry’s great book, What it is, p. 145.)

  • What’s in front of you? (take notes)
  • What’s to your left? (what’s there?)
  • What’s to your right? (write it down)
  • What’s behind you? (small details are good)
  • What’s above your head? (you see more when you write it down)
  • What’s below your feet? (little things add up)

Move Your Hand

If you’re too crazed to write, take a minute at your desk, before you give up, and write the alphabet.

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Do it more than once. Focus on your spacing, your lettering style. The letters. The thoughts that bubble up when you do this task you probably haven’t done since childhood. Once you come off this alphabet meditation, write about a child or a childhood memory of your own, or in the voice of a character you’re writing.

We are stirred up. But there is no creativity without the accompanying fear. We have real things to fear in the real world, can we use the gravity of our current lives to put the irrational fears in to context? Let that fear come along for the ride, but calm yourself, and create.

We are all in the same boat. Share your ways to quell or quiet your fears and uncertainties in the FB Group – Write Without the Fight. Come join us, if you haven’t already.