What Does It Mean to Have Courage as a Writer?
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Have you ever had good intentions to sit down with extra free time only to find yourself doing everything but actually writing? It’s as if the laundry, cleaning, errands, or TV watching need urgent attention. That’s resistance taking shape. If you’ve read The War of Art, author Steven Pressfield writes, “The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.” Ugh, right?!
Procrastination is one way in which resistance can manifest. The root cause? Fear. It is often so scary to put our ideas on paper or to write a story for the world to read. When we experience fear, the oldest part of our brain that is used to protect us from lions and bears, hits the panic button. Whatever the cause of the fear is now seen as a threat. Since our brains have been slower to evolve than modern-day life, we have to give ourselves some grace and learn the tools to help our brains chill out.
That’s why resistance can feel so strong. Our brains are causing us to pause to assess the danger and if it's really worth doing what we are about to do.
But here is the thing, what we resist will persist.
So how do we use resistance as fuel for writing momentum?
It starts with the courage to feel the fear and still take a series of small steps towards our goal. This allows our brains to see each action as less threatening than say a lion running out of the bushes. With each micro-step, our fear-or-flight response can adjust to each small change instead of trying to sit down and write a whole novel over the weekend. Yikes, scary!
What Is the Meaning of Courage?
I spent decades ignoring my soul’s calling to write. Mustering the writing courage took time. When I was able to acknowledge the resistance as a guidance system and not a reason to opt out of what I love, I was able to ease into owning that writing is the true expression of my soul.
When it comes to defining courage, I love to turn to these courage quotes:
“Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” ~ Brené Brown
“Life shrinks and expands in proportion to one’s courage.” ~ Anais Nin
Building courage is like training a muscle to get stronger. It takes time and repetition. The first step as Brené Brown mentions is to show up. As a writer, opening our laptop or notebook and putting words on the page is the first step. The more often we commit time to writing, the more we are developing our courage muscles. Even this step can feel scary which is why creating a writing process can support you in building a nurturing environment to encourage you to show up, consistently.
As you start to develop your courage muscle, you will start to feel as if you are expanding. You may feel as if you are expanding as a writer and expanding into the written expression of your soul’s work. This allows your brain to feel more at ease each time you sit down to write. The resistance will soften and inspiration will start to fuel your creative process a little more loudly than the fear. As this takes place, you may also start to feel more comfortable sharing your writing with the world. You may have the courage to hit “publish” on a blog post or show up to a writing group to share the first chapter of your novel.
Courage is about illuminating your voice to tell the story you desire to tell. How you do that is by creating a nurturing environment to allow yourself to define your voice followed by a commitment to write your story. It’s showing up and allowing others to see you.
Courage Writing Prompts
The exciting thing about courage is that it looks a little different for everyone. We get to define how it looks and feels for us. As you’re reading this you may have had some ideas or maybe you’re feeling even more resistance. Either way, I encourage you to take a few moments to journal responses to the following questions to help you get clear on what your courage meaning is so that you have the courage to change:
Can you think of a time in your life when you felt courageous? How did it feel?
If fear and resistance weren’t present, what would it look and feel like to be courageous in your writing?
How do you want to define being a courageous writer?
What does being a courageous writer mean to you?
What is one step you can take today that will help you feel courageous?
Keep the answers to these writing prompts close to where you like to write. This could be stored on your computer or on your desk. Any time you start to feel resistance to writing, read through your answers as writing encouragement to remind yourself WHY you are showing up to write in the first place.
The next time you feel resistance flare up, take a breath, and remember your brain is doing exactly what it is designed to do to keep you safe. You are not a professional procrastinator, you’re a human being here to tell a story and that can be scary. With the right tools, support, and courage to change, you can accomplish all of your writing dreams.
