I still have a hard time taking creative risks even though I know it’s an important part of the process I get into creative ruts and get burned out on writing I never feel capable of writing the book I’m writing For some reason I do it anyway Even after reaching some success I still fear rejection I often feel like I have no idea what I’m doing I think more than I want to about other people’s opinion of me Despite all these things I can overcome my fears self-doubt envy burnout and procrastination to work on being the writer I want to be Another thing I’ve learned after meeting dozens and dozens of other artists is that these thoughts and feelings are very common It doesn’t matter if a person has won awards made Hollywood movies with multimillion dollar budgets had a best seller or received thousands of five star reviews on Amazon There’s something about creative work that can make you feel exposed and vulnerable No matter how much experience or talent you might have you can still feel uncertain You can still lie awake and wonder Am I okay You can still feel embarrassment or even shame that you even tried to make something 8 Part 1 You Are Here
I don’t know exactly why this is but it is And if you feel any of the things in my list you are far from alone and experiencing these fears does not mean you aren’t or can’t be creative That’s what this book is about the practical and emotional speed bumps and challenges I’ve experienced and have learned to work with and through and my hope is that I can share that experience with you I hope I can be a friend or sort of a big sister in these pages to encourage you in whatever you’re doing and to offer advice and company along the way Though a lot of what I’ve written in this book is meant to apply to all sorts of creative endeavors writing fiction is the thing I know the most about Therefore when I use examples from my own life and experience with the creative process they will be about writing But you can usually apply them to any kind of creative project you’re doing because this book is less about what kind of art and how much of it we produce and more about what’s inside of us that can hinder our courage and steal away the joy of creating which is not only an ability we all have but an essential part of being human HOW TO USE THIS BOOK This book is written both in a kind of order and in a loose shape Therefore if you read it in order especially the first time through it will probably make more sense That said you don’t have to read it in order No one is watching grading or judging you so skip around if you want Introduction 9
Why We Become Afraid To begin let’s break down the words in the title of this book Courageous Creativity The word courageous means brave bold daring It also implies that there’s something to be afraid of and that in the face of that thing we need courage How about the word creativity Imagination inventiveness originality resourcefulness thinking outside the box problem-solving those are things that can be encompassed by creativity What about the word creative as a way to describe people like when we say Sara is so creative or I am not creative How have you heard it used What is creative about Being good at writing or drawing Having a vivid imagination Getting A’s on your creative writing assignments or in art class Winning a prize for a poem or a song you wrote Having what people call talent The opposite of the word athletic 10
Or sometimes does You’re so creative mean something else altogether Maybe sometimes it’s what people say when they really mean You’re lying You made that up Nice try Weird You did it wrong The word means a lot of different things both to people who say it and to people who hear it It can be a compliment or a masked insult An identity or a label An accomplishment or a failure My take is that creativity is both so much more common and so much more mysterious than any of our definitions can capture Think about little kids Put just about any little kid in a room with some art supplies some musical instruments and room to play and that kid will create A scribble a sound a movement Even babies who aren’t walking yet if given a couple of containers to keep them busy will delight in realizing they can create a noise if they bash the two containers together As kids get older you can ask them to imagine what’s behind a closed door or inside a box and that kid will create a story Why We Become Afraid 11
