The Fabry Family

Connect with Me

Connect with Chris on Facebook Follow Chris on Twitter Watch Chris on YouTube

Featured Books

Featured Books
New Release!

Personal Stuff

My Photo
Chris Fabry
Married to Andrea since 1982. We have 9 children together and none apart. Our dog's name is Tebow.
View my complete profile

Where We Are Now

After finding and remediating mold twice in our Colorado home, we abandoned ship in October 2008. Because of the high levels of exposure, our entire family was affected. After months of seeing different specialists for all of the problems, we came to Arizona to begin comprehensive treatment to rid our bodies of the toxic buildup. In August 2009 we moved into a larger home, four bedrooms, south of Tucson, north of Mexico. I am doing my daily radio program/ writing from that location. Thanks for praying for us. We really feel it.

Search This Blog

Saturday, February 16, 2013

It is the fear of writing.

First you fear you have nothing to say.

Then you fear that what you have to say is not worth saying.

Then you fear you won’t be able to say what you want to say, even though there’s really no point in saying it.

Then you fear you’ve said nothing and said it poorly, but you take solace in the fact that no one is going to see this drivel.

Then you fear no one will care about what you have said poorly because you really do want someone else to see it.

Then you fear someone will criticize what you have said.

Then you fear no one will criticize what you have said and that everyone will like it and lap it up like thirsty dogs, but someday someone will see the truth and point it out to the rest and everyone will laugh and things will be even worse than if you had never tried to say anything in the first place.

Then you fear you don't have the right equipment and you need a new desk and a leather chair and a cat like Hemingway, and then more cats and you start looking at other writers and where they write and it makes you want to move to Havana.

Then you fear you won’t be able to say anything profound ever again.

Then you fear you've offended someone, which is probably true, and it makes you want to quit.

Then you fear you've offended no one and there's really no reason for you to be on the planet because writing is conflict and you have none, except all that boiling cauldron inside your head.

Then you fear you've missed a deadline.

Then you wake up and sit down and stare at the page and start writing again because there’s really nothing better to do than this even if you do it poorly. Because if you don’t, you’ll never really know.

And this is the breakthrough, when you reach the fear of not writing.

5 comments:

Nicole said...

Pretty much.

LouAnn Miller said...

That about covers it.

Leslie Leyland Fields said...

Chris! This is brilliant! Of course you're simply reporting on others' fears . ... You did miss a few phobias, though, like the fear of of opening your veins and everyone politely yawning and tossing you a hankie while they turning back to their reality show . ... Here's my equivalent: the 9 Woes of the Writing Life:http://pinterest.com/pin/17381148534123322/

Sheri Masters said...

I've been fighting this now for years. I'm winning a little bit more these days, but am still fighting.

Betsy said...

and I, for one, am SO glad you overcome your fears every time you write a new book -- and then -- I get the thrill of reading it!