Wow! I watched the Oprah show with Tony Robbins yesterday and had the very same takeaway: what story do I tell myself about my writing? I think for me it’s “This is a lot of work and nobody really cares anyway.”

Writing – and especially developing a writing habit – takes effort. And yet, when I thought more about it I realized that no one told it would be easy. (Or difficult for that matter.) The second part of my reaction that “nobody really cares” is that fear of not being good enough. But I know I care about writing, or I wouldn’t show up to do it! And as it happens, I recently asked a friend to “hold” my novel, chapter after chapter. I know they care about my writing too. I think I’m on the path to rewriting my writing story.

Thanks,
Rachel

I have two recommendations for you: build a habit of showing up for Product Time if you don’t have one already. See my posts about Product Time (or read my book when it comes out in August, but you don’t want to wait that long). Habits do a lot to help you respond effectively to fear. It’s easier to do something that scares you if you have a habit in place.

Second, because you might not be ready to start drafting, get ready to draft by reading about “dreamstorming” in Robert Olen Butler’s book From Where You Dream. It sounds like you’re already doing part of this. Now you need to start recording the “sensory hook” for each scene on an index card (scene cards). When you have cards for all or nearly all the scenes (and some cards may be contradictory: e.g. Joe runs away, Joe stays and fights, Joe stays and talks his way out of the situation), you start laying out the scene cards to see what the structure of the novel is. When you know that (or at least get a good start on that), then you start drafting from the scene cards. This is a gross simplification – read Butler’s book (or take my online Enter the Flow class at the Loft) for more details. Using this dreamstorming method, I completed a novella, several students drafted novels and one of my coaching clients is using it right now and very excited about how it’s working for her.

Please keep me posted!

Thanks for the reply. I write fiction.

I’m obsessed (no other word for it) with my characters and their stories. The story/novel I’m currently “working on” I “conceived” probably 4 years ago. (Came to me in a dream). I know it inside and out. There hasn’t been a day since (except maybe during a family illness and death) where I haven’t thought about it or its characters. Where I haven’t researched something, written a scene in my head, heard an exchange of dialogue, outlined something, sketched floorplans for, picked out furniture or clothing and so on and so on.

Yet I can’t seem to get the thing on paper. And I have no explanation for that other than fear (of what I don’t really know) and resistance (I thank you for introducing me to that term.)

“Writing in my head” and research are my greatest tools for procrastination (and/or resistance).

Though, luckily, right now I am currently putting things on paper. Hopefully, that will last for me to make some real progress.