The dark heart of writing

In my previous entry I wondered what writing meant to others and Erica responded with a wonderful, candid comment, touching on issues like refusing to dumb down for others and standing up to be heard.

She also exposed the dark heart of writing:

Fear.

There’s a lot of fear involved in writing. Fear of not being good enough, not finishing, not being able to capture and do justice to the images dancing in your head. Fear of failure. Sometimes, fear of success.

Yes, you need to shake off that fear if you want to write, but it isn’t always that simple. Fear is elusive and persistent, a master at masquerading as something else. Something else that seems a legitimate reason for not writing. Family. Work. Fatigue. Waiting for the stars to be in alignment.

I think many of us who write struggle beneath some burden of fear; it’s just some days we cope better with it than others.

The audience yet to come

Hi there.

I'm new to blogging so I hope you'll bear with me. Of course, that presumes there's actually someone out there reading this. Someone interested in what I have to say.

As a writer I operate on that assumption all the time; I'm usually writing for the ghost of the audience yet to come.

One of the reasons I've never blogged: I wasn't sure I'd have anything to blog about. In hindsight, that seems ridiculous. If I didn't have anything to say, I wouldn't be a writer.

Being a writer is about communicating. Communicating hopes. Fears. Dreams. Raising your voice. At least, that's what it means to me. I'd love to hear what it means to you.