Writing Is A Hazardous Job

How to find the courage to hit publish

You can get hurt writing.

You might laugh when you hear that. Who could possibly get hurt while writing?

Do you fall off a chair and hurt your back? Do you hurt your wrist while typing? Do you sprain your neck looking down at your laptop?

Not at all. It may not be the most physically dangerous job but being a writer is perilous in its own way.

When you sit down to write, your mind messes with you. You think about all the things that could go wrong with your writing. These mental blocks and obstacles mess with you to the point you don’t feel like writing at all.

As a writer and someone who writes online, I’ve gone through several spurts of these mental and emotional blocks. Before writing on Medium, I wrote an entire blog about breakup and heartache.

I was a very private person before writing this blog but this blog made me test every one of my beliefs and assumptions about myself. I would go weeks and months of non-writing because of some of these obstacles that I faced.

Let me share with you the 5 things that prevent one from writing and also share how to overcome these obstacles and hit publish.

5 things that are preventing you from writing

What will people think of this?

Being a writer is to think about this question all the time. You’re wondering what people are going to think of you. Is your story too personal, is your information too much, is your point too trivial.

You do not know. Most times, people can’t read your thoughts or know what you’re thinking. Unless you’re a writer, of course. You’re putting yourself completely out there: vulnerable, honest, naked to the world.

You do not know what people are going to think of you or what their opinion of you is going to be. Will they think you’re smart or silly? Will they think you’re wise or foolish?

What if they reject me for this?

We hate being rejected by our friend circle. We hate even being rejected by strangers so imagine what it’s like to publish a piece not knowing the response.

As you share work online, you wonder if there will be people rejecting you for sharing your thoughts. Will they feel you violated their values? Won’t they want to be your friend anymore? Won’t they read you anymore? Will they unsubscribe? Will they tell their friends that this was the worst article they’ve read?

What if no one reads this?

The one thing worse than offending people or being rejected is crickets. With every post, you feel the wrath of silence and crickets. You are terrified of an article with few people reading.

You not only feel rejected, but you feel demoralized. You feel like your writing doesn’t matter. You feel like your thoughts don’t matter. Ultimately, you feel you yourself don’t matter. If you’re ignored, you wonder what the point of writing is?

Readers have absolutely nothing to say with what you thought was interesting enough or worth writing about.

What if they laugh when they read this?

You worry you wrote something that is trivial and laughable. Maybe you made an unintended point. Maybe you made light of something. Maybe you got something completely wrong.

You fear people are laughing out loud at out. They are judging you for being childlike or immature in your thinking. They are laughing at you for the mistakes that you made or the conclusions that you drew.

They can’t take you seriously because of this sophomoric piece of writing.

What if they attacked me for this?

We are regularly watching how the internet goes after someone for doing something stupid in the real world. We also notice how opinion pieces and editorials are ridiculed and attacked.

Sometimes, your ideas or your views are hated by the majority population so they’re going to be coming after you with knives sharpened. How dare you violate someone’s opinion, belief, or values?

Not only do they vehemently disagree but they are going to insult and attack you. You are going to be called offensive, hurtful, or tone-deaf. You fear people are going to silence you with their anger and arrogance.

Finding the courage to hit publish

You may have felt each of these things at some level. Some of these fears may have crossed your mind and some of these fears may influence you from writing.

They may prevent you from hitting the publish button.

I want to remind you that being a writer, an online one especially, requires us to walk through these fears.

99.9% percent of the time none of these fears materialize.

When one of these situations does become true and you become the most hated person on the internet, congratulations — you would have stood up for something.

“Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.” Rosa Parks

Your idea was provocative enough, controversial enough, and challenging enough for people to react to it.

This is an extreme scenario. The rest of us need to cultivate the courage to put our work out there, to put our stories out there, and put our points of view out there.

To be a writer is to write, yes, but also to take a stand up and say something.

It’s sharing ideas, to challenge conventional wisdom, to shine the path forward.

Cultivating courage as a writer

This process takes small steps and regular publishing.

Share something about yourself today. Assert your opinion tomorrow. Put more of yourself into your writing with your next post.

This does not have to happen overnight. You can do more of this in each and every piece.

When I first started writing, I didn’t even write with my actual name. I was an anonymous blog for some time. Then I started writing about my work. Then I wrote about my life. Then, I wrote about my relationships.

My writing about my relationships resonated. It was uncomfortable and hard to talk about this, but people appreciated it, encouraged it, and wanted more of it.

They told me that reading my experience helped them. They told me they could relate and resonate with what I had gone through. They asked me to do more of it, so I did.

I built up my tribe of readers and supporters. Over time, I could share more of my life, but more of my thoughts out there and show up more in my writing.

You can do the same.

• Find the courage to show up for your writing
• Face your fears and obstacles of what people will think
• Practice putting more of yourself out there with each piece
• Know that every piece you publish will make the next piece easier to publish
• Build a community of writers and a tribe of readers who will support you
• Know that your courage in overcoming your fears can improve and transform people’s lives
• Repeat this process over and over until you become the writer you want to be.

Writers are inundated with fears and worries about their writing.

Every piece you hit publish on is an opportunity for you to face your fears and exercise your courage.

Every time you write and publish, you get closer to becoming the bravest writer you know.

Need more writing tips and inspiration? Join my tribe of writers here.