Jan 7, 2011 / General Advice & Pro Tips

Have fears? Overcome them now

I’ve been reading all the comments here, and many of your posts. I’ve seen some of the same fears and concerns come up. Here are some answers.

  • I’m afraid to publish: Most bloggers quickly discover the opposite feeling: they desire to have more people reading what they’re writing. For most bloggers, there aren’t that many people reading what they publish. It’s not like the entire web is sitting around, waiting for you to push the button, just so they can criticize. Publishing is the easiest way to get useful feedback and to get used to managing your own fears, something every writer and creator has to do.  If you find a typo (oh the horror) you can easily go back in and edit to fix. If it’s a new blog, keep your first few posts short until you gain some momentum. No one will mind, we promise.
  • But how can I be creative every single day? You don’t have to be super creative. Often being honest, observant, generous and concise makes for the best writing (and photography). And the topics we post here should give you a boost of energy: they’re often questions, and all you have to do is respond. If once a day is too much, go for once a week. If once a week is too much, go for 3 or 4 times a month (you won’t be part of our official challenges, but that’s cool – we’re happy to have you here and following along).
  • I want to go for quality, not quantity.  That’s noble of you, but the only way a writer or creator finds their way to quality is by writing – a lot of writing. Some say 10,000 hours of it. Certainly you don’t have to publish your writing to get better at it, but publishing creates the opportunity for feedback, which can only accelerate your progress. No matter how you slice it, you only get better at something by doing it more often.
  • I’m not sure I can keep up. There are many tricks to this, and we’re sharing them all here. A good one is to have a surplus of draft posts. On days you have the energy, start a few different posts. Then on a low morale day, you can finish an existing post off. You can also schedule posts in advance, post by voice or break longer ideas into multiple posts.

Hope that helps.

What are other fears or concerns you have? Challenges you didn’t expect? Speak up in the comments – I’m sure some of your comrades might have good advice to help you out (right guys? :).

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  3. I just love this challenge more and more, and with all the good blogging advice we get, it’s like a writing or blogging class. What I appreciate the most, it that this is a collective effort. I don’t write just for myself. It’s like an assignment we get everyday. Every day it gets easier to write, and my usual resistance is almost gone. How can we have an urge to write and be reluctant to write at the same time?
    http://zolh2011.wordpress.com/

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  4. Me and Kate are going for the postaweek2011. :). We decided we’ll help motivate each other and we started up different blogs side/by/side. ^.^ We also bought domains for our blogs as an extra motivation and paid that hefty WordPress charge of 12.00 to keep us wanting to use WordPress. So now we have http://starsinsilence.com as me and http://kateolmstead.com as Kate.

    We are doing our posts Friday. I think Kate is doing prompts, I’m doing fiction writing.

    Both of us said we wanted to write more this year, hence the blogs. And WordPress made this a great opportunity to get started! Even if we don’t get featured or anything, at least we’d be able to tell each other ‘we did it!’ at the end of this year.

    As a kid I used to be afraid of speeches. Now everyone says I’m a natural. My English teacher made me give more speeches then anyone else and I became very good at it. 🙂

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  5. My biggest fear is that I may be jeopardizing my current job by writing about my dream job. My goal is that by sharing my thoughts about where my career is going, I will keep myself better focused. I know that my boss is supportive of my goals, but I’ve been very careful about which co-workers I share my blog with as I don’t want to start the rumor mill.
    Before I publish any post I let it sit for a while and think about whether it is going to do any damage to my current job or my chances of actually gettting the dream job, and several times I’ve actually removed posts days or weeks after publishing.

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  6. I agree with the point you made about scheduling posts. I have found this very useful.

    A tip for the second point you made about how to be creative every single day. Try and think of an ongoing topic you can write about every week or so. For example, every Friday I feature a song on my blog. I include a link to the song and write a bit (not much) about why I chose it. Perfect… one day down, six to go.

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  7. Hi,
    My questions are a little different more general rather than motivational
    Q1
    I am always worried about copyright issues on pictures. Hence I take my own. Sometimes a cartoon type picture would be more suitable to a post than a photo. Does anyone have any ideas where I can source free cartoon type pictures.
    Q2
    Can I add close up pictures taken from Google earth?
    Q2
    Can I use Google earth maps on my blog. IF so how do I add?

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  8. Fears? I remember there was a time when I was afraid of everything, people, bosses/supervisors, etc. I’m not talking about when I was a kid, I’m in my 50’s and I was afraid to stand up for anything, then began to realize the only thing standing in my way was ME. It wasn’t easy to overcome, in some areas I”m still working on it, others, well lets say I don’t let people walk all over me anymore. I strive to not be rude to people, however I truly started living by one of my late moms favorite sayings: “If it looks like BS, smells like BS, I’m not going to call it rose fertilizer”. I cleaned it up, my mom was rather blunt when she said things.
    Overcoming fears is not an easy process, and some fear is a good thing, yet it’s not when it stops your progression in life.

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  9. I used to worry about the publish button but over this week I have given in caring. Doesn’t matter if the post is shorter than I would like or I haven’t got a picture to put in it.

    I’m blogging about my passion and I don’t need it to be literary genius, in the end so long as it’s not utter gibberish it’s there for me and anyone that cares to take an interest and read it is quite welcome (comments are lovely too.)

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    1. I was like you, hesitant on clicking the publish button, but not anymore. With each new posting it feels better and better.

      Comments are nice aren’t they? 😉

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  10. Great comments, and I am having fun checking out other folks blogs. Thanks.
    I have been blogging for almost a year, and never, ever thought I could do it. I try to post three times a week M/W/F. About every fifth or sixth post I still feel total panic as I hit the “publish” button, but I used to feel that way with every post, so I figure that’s progress. I love that it’s getting easier, and I hope better. I even posted about my “Courage Diet”, which I used in the beginning (and with other plenty of other stuff) to help me overcome my fears.

    My Courage Diet

    The biggest surprise to me is that I keep finding new topics to write about – and 1/3 of the time I change my post at the last minute because something new happened or the post I was planning on publishing just doesn’t seem right for that day. I noticed early on, that the more I read in my field, the easier it gets (true in any job), and the more attention I pay to my daily life, the more interesting the process is to me, and I hope by extension to my readers.

    My three humble tips:
    1. Make sure you are passionate about your overall blog concept. Passion can go a long way on a bad or lazy day.
    2.Prepared to be scared, just don’t let that stop you.
    3.Seek support – thanks again Scott & WordPress for this new campaign.

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  11. I realized very early on when I started my blog a year ago that I wanted to build community. So I publish lots of other work besides my own–poets, fiction writers, friends, relatives, students. In fact, I nag a lot. I didn’t want the blog to be a literary magazine, although the software is fine for that. Sometimes I blog for a week or more alone–usually on a trip or project. But I have themes, and add to them. This has been an incredible creative process–and the community is now international. Twenty something bloggers I know seem to often blog in pairs or teams–or invite guests. If you can combine curating, collaboration, and blogging, it is very dynamic.

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  13. One of the best aspects of blogging is the interaction it allows between writers. Also, Scott’s daily postings have created a vibrant community full of great folks offering up some great ideas of their own… Simply awe-inspiring !

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