Fear Factor

As I write this month’s post, I am waiting to hear back from agents and publishers to whom I sent book proposals. While I am playing the waiting game, I cannot help but notice how my writer friends post about how busy they are.

  ”A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” 

Thomas Mann

It seems there are three seasons in a writer’s life: writing, waiting, and all hands on deck busy. While waiting, we can write, build our platform, and follow up on proposals sent out. To be honest, I’ve procrastinated on writing and sending my follow-ups. In a way I felt safe not knowing, I didn’t want to have to face my writing fears.

• Fear of rejection
• Fear of being too overbearing and unprofessional
• Fear of waiting

Living with a brain injury, I already have enough things I need to focus on daily. I pay close attention to my health for changes in my mental and physical health. Depression isn’t the only side effect of brain injuries.

Survivors also deal with an inability to focus or OCD tendencies, and physical limitations.  We also have irrational and uncontrollable emotions that can come from nowhere. To be transparent, I have to work on these things daily.

In addition to not being able to control my thoughts and emotions, my biggest fear is having a seizure and losing control of my body. Fortunately, I have learned what can trigger seizures for me and can avoid them to lower my seizure threshold. It has been over a decade since I had my last seizure, but the fear is still very real today as it was then. Fear can help us or hinder us.

Fear Factor

Fear is a common reality everyone must deal with at some point in life. But instead of avoiding fear, we can learn from it. Fear is an emotional or mental response to anything that may harm us.

Fear begins in the amygdala; this small organ in the center of your brain goes to work warning your nervous system.

“This leads to bodily changes that prepare us to be more efficient in dangerous situations: The brain becomes hyper-alert, pupils dilate, the bronchi dilate and breathing accelerates. Heart rate and blood pressure rise. Blood flow and stream of glucose to the skeletal muscles increase. Organs not vital in survival such as the gastrointestinal system slow down.”

Arash Javanbakht and Linda Saab, Smithsonian Magazine

So fear is our mind and body’s attempt to protect us, don’t be ashamed of having fears. We each have different triggers and must learn from them.

In school I had a friend who had a seizure while she was in the shower; I remember listening to her about how scared she was. She learned that she’d developed type I diabetes which caused her seizure.  She learned about managing her diabetes and hasn’t had any more seizures.

When we learn about what scares us, our fear can prepare us to take precautions to keep us safe. Life can be scary for us all at times regardless of being disabled or not. Writers also have fears since the writing life isn’t an easy career path. Below are some of the most common fears writers have:

1. Fear of rejection
2. Fear of not being good enough
3. Fear of criticism
4. Fear of Success
5. Fear of inadequacy

What we can control is how we are going to deal with our fears. I could let my fear of seizures scare me to the point where I remain stationary and never drive or do anything productive.

Instead, I chose to learn more about brain injuries and seizures and then make the necessary changes in my life. I chose to be proactive, instead of reactive, to deal with my fears.

Deal with It

Fear can be dealt with in one of two ways, by avoiding it or attacking it. At the beginning of the pandemic, the popular cliché was, “Faith over fear,” the whole concept was confusing for me, why is faith necessary, if we don’t have any fears? Instead of dealing with fear many used faith as a means to avoid it. The absence of fear isn’t faith, it’s denial!

I learned from my neuropsychologist that it is better to deal with my fears than to deny them. Again, fear begins in the brain and it can raise our stress levels, neither of which is good for a person with a brain injury.

Instead, I learned to study and pay attention to the things that scare me, in the process making them less frightening, and learned how to appreciate the small victories. I can use my faith to help me handle and live with my fears, but not avoid them. That is not beneficial for me. Writers too can learn how to deal with the fears of the writing life. Below are a few tips from The Write Practice on how writers can overcome their fears of writing.

• Do what scares you
• Stop procrastinating
• Learn from criticism
• Embrace the fear of writing

I highly encourage you to go to The Write Practice and read the full list to help you deal with your writing fears. Remember it is healthy to have fears, as long as we learn how to deal with them productively.

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

Ernest Hemmingway

 I have learned to deal with many fears by living with a disability for over 25 years. Every writer will have to face their unique fears at some point. I want to close by encouraging you to leave a comment for this post about some of your writing fears and how you have overcome them in your life. Hopefully, this will help others deal with their fear factors!

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.