How can I oppose the fear of writing bad?

[Writer’s_Magic]

I am not the girl who is as busy as a bee when I write. (However, I wanna this absolutely.) The problem’s just I have the idea and (more or less) the motivation. But I never do it, although I always think, “Oh man! Someone must write something like this.”. So, what are your best tips for this little, big problem?

 

[Orc Knight]

About all I can say on this is to write anyways. It's really the only way to improve. Though reading good writers can also help with it. Even as a native English speaker my writings had to make a long slow climb to simply be decent in the last decade. I also keep those examples around to look at and know where I started at. Poorly, very poorly. I doubt I will write professionally or even get published but I do like to write and just doing it can be enough to get out of the mire. Slowly, yes, but it can get better.

 

[goldhawk]

Ira Glass on Beginners:

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone has told me. All of us who are in creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is a gap. For the first couple of years you make stuff, it's just not that good. It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer.

"And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase; they quit. Most people I know who do something interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We all got through this.

"And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that it's normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you finish one piece.

"It's only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It's gonna take a while. It's normal to take a while. You just gotta fight your way through."

 

[skip.knox]

Just write.

There's no point in talking about writing, any more than there is in talking about dancing or talking about painting. Or talking about welding, for that matter. A dancer does not say, "oh, someone else has pirouetted before me, so how do I overcome my fear of dancing?" A painter does not say, "I fear to paint a mountain, lest it look like a hill."

I'm not sure anyone is afraid of writing. They're afraid of letting someone else see it and judge it. I get that. Pretty much everyone here has felt that, and some continue to feel it even as they press on. If that's the case, then just write and tell yourself you will not show it to anyone. Eventually, you'll work up the courage to show it, I promise.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I agree with everyone. You write. If you're a writer, you write. It's what we do. Yes, it's hard, and yes, sometimes it sucks. That's what revision is for. But the important thing is to turn those ideas into pages with characters and conflict. Keep your butt in the chair and write until not writing makes you nervous, to cobble together a couple of great quotes.

 

[Chessie2]

I agree with everyone. You write. If you're a writer, you write. It's what we do. Yes, it's hard, and yes, sometimes it sucks. That's what revision is for. But the important thing is to turn those ideas into pages with characters and conflict. Keep your butt in the chair and write until not writing makes you nervous, to cobble together a couple of great quotes.

Also, at some point, muscle memory of the imagination kicks in and suddenly you realize that you know more than before and some mechanical parts of writing become easier. However, it's always a struggle as you're reaching the next level in your craft.

 

[pmmg]

About all I can say on this is to write anyways.

Hard to improve upon that. As a general rule, being afraid of doing something you know you should not really be afraid of is to be overcome. Best is just to start, everything after that is a little easier and less scary.

 

[skip.knox]

You can't write right until you write. Right?

 

[Orc Knight]

Always pictographs and hieroglyphs to try.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Just like everyone else is saying, I'm going to quote from my mother who was quoting from a Canadian writer whom she met at university at the time: "Write. Keep writing, no matter how bad you think it is."
However, i will add an extra bit of advice from...me.
"Write for yourself, no one else. Also, don't read the reviews afterwards. Celebrate instead."