How To Write What Scares You
Creativity is inherently terrifying. It takes bold souls to be able to create, to pull emotion from viewers, readers, and listeners. Creativity demands a certain amount of bravery, especially when that creative chooses to share their work with the world – or even part of the world. So knowing how scary it is, why then, would anyone choose to push that further, and write about things that scare them?
What Does It Even Mean?
To write what scares you doesn’t necessarily mean writing something controversial or a horror scene – though those can apply. Writing what scares you means to step outside your comfort zone, to write your truth, and to tackle subjects that may not be your strong suit. Let’s break these down a little further.
Writing Your Truth
Writing your truth means to speak your soul to the page. This in itself is inherently terrifying, especially if you worry that doing so may cause unwanted attention. For instance, I will use an example from my own recent writings: many of you may have noticed the inherent queerness of my writing pieces lately, as I have been embracing that part of my identity and expressing it more and more on the page. After growing up in a traditional, conservative religion, this act is terrifying because I do not know how those closest to me may react if or when they discover these pieces. Not only that, the act of acceptance of oneself is scary. It’s been a long path to get me where I am today, and reflecting that on the page is liberating and horrifying at the same time.
So why do I do it? Because I know there are people like my younger self out there, young LGBTQIA+ kids, who need more representation to look towards, who need to know that there is nothing wrong with them. I know I would’ve loved to have more books and more resources when I was younger that I could get my hands on, and I would love to provide that as I continue to write. (Granted, most of what I write is tailored more towards adults, it took me 27 years of my life to get where I am today, so adults need representation, too. But as more adults come to accept us LGBTQIA+ folk, slowly, it will become accepted more widely and integrate into kids’ media. Just look at Steven Universe, OK KO, Adventure Time, and more!)
Writing Outside Your Strengths
Tackling scenes outside of your skill set is definitely nerve-wracking. I have been pushing myself by writing more romance sequences, writing more fight scenes, and attempting to have better, stronger descriptions of scenes. My strengths have fallen more-so towards dialogue and character development, but that alone is not strong enough to hold a novel. As we grow as creators, it’s important to continually keep learning, keep striving to be better, and to exercise the areas where we’re not as strong. Some of you may have seen my recent small writing pieces on different characters outside my books. I use these moments to work on various aspects I’m weaker in, and experiment with different methods of writing. For instance: the piece Alex x Cenwynn is a piece where I worked on character descriptions where I challenged myself not to use words like “tawny” or “sandy” or similar descriptors. I wanted to evoke more of the characters by diving further into their descriptions.
These are never incredibly easy, nor are they consistently good writing pieces, but I think the important thing is to keep practicing, experimenting, and getting feedback. Playing to our strengths is good, and we should always be pushing our strengths to be even stronger – but we should not neglect the areas we aren’t as skilled at. Working on those, bettering those abilities, will make us stronger creators, no matter how scary it is. I know I fear failure as much as the next creative, but the more we work at it, the stronger and more confident we will become.
How It Helps
Writing outside your comfort zone can come with the fear of ridicule if it isn’t perfected or done right, it can come with the terror of fumbling a scene or dropping the ball. But the important thing is that you tried, and that you continue to try. Failure helps us learn. Failure helps us become stronger. The more we push ourselves to share our truths, to write outside our comfort zone, the better our craft will be.