From Edie: Struggling with fear or self-doubt as a writer? Sarah Sally Hamer Shares how to turn fear into a creative companion and use it to fuel stronger, more meaningful writing.
How Writers Can Overcome Fear and Self-Doubt: Turning Fear Into a Creative Companion
by Sarah Sally Hamer @SarahSallyHamer
The Presence Beside You
Every writer possesses a quiet companion, a presence that settles beside them before a single word appears. This creature lingers at the edge of thought, breathing softly against the back of your mind. It leans close when you hesitate, asking questions that can tighten your chest and thin your breath. Are you sure? Will they like you? What if they turn away? What if you’re not good enough?
We call this presence fear, but the word is really too small for something so intimate. Fear is not a passing emotion. It is a living awareness that moves with you, shaping choices long before you notice its influence. It is the shadow that sits beside your imagination, the echo that rises when you dare to reveal something true.
Most writers try to outthink fear, as if logic could tame something made of instinct and memories of childhood trauma. But fear does not yield to argument. It responds to your attention and imagination. Just like with a small child or a feral animal, your energy drives the narrative. You do not banish fear by hiding or running away or pretending it doesn’t exist. You transform it by standing still, quiet and strong, and letting it speak, by rewriting the relationship you have with it.
Fear is not truly a barricade. It’s the threshold of the doorway that appears when you approach something meaningful. It is the sign that you are stepping into territory that matters.
So the question remains: What are you afraid of?
Fear as a Creative Companion
Writers often treat fear as a flaw, a sign that something is wrong. We try to convince ourselves that we don’t have time to write or that we need to do more research or that we have writer’s block. We procrastinate and make excuses. But, ultimately, we’re more afraid of the feeling of fear than we are of the situation. After all, we are creative people. The ability to write amazing things is a God-given gift that only a few humans are blessed with. So, what is in your way?
Fear is not weakness. Fear is evidence that you are reaching toward something that lives inside you. Writing asks us to cross into the unknown, revealing the inner landscape we usually keep hidden. It asks you to imagine worlds that have never existed and to trust that someone will follow you into them. Fear arrives when we doubt ourselves.
When we write fiction, we create characters who have a goal, with strong motivation behind it. Conflict begins when the character begins to doubt themselves and have to prove they’re worthy. We have the same experience. Why don’t we allow ourselves the same courage we give our characters? It’s just the Hero’s Journey in real life instead of on the page.
Fear is instinct, yes, but it is also imagination. It creates vivid scenes of what might go wrong. It invents entire narratives in a single breath. In its own way, fear is already telling stories. You simply have not yet learned how to guide its talent in your own life.
Giving Fear a Shape
Use that amazing creativity you have to personify the emotion. It could be a huge, fire-breathing dragon guarding a gate. Maybe it’s the child inside being intimidated and living in the past fears. Maybe it’s the blank paper or computer screen. But, once it has shape, it becomes something you can negotiate with, question, and eventually transform.
A New Relationship with Fear
When you play with fear, you reclaim authorship. Fear doesn’t disappear. It softens. It becomes part of your creative landscape, not an adversary but a compass. Fear points toward the places where the writing is alive. If a scene unsettles you, that is often the clearest sign that it holds truth. And that shows you how important it is.
When you embody fear, stop trying to eliminate it and begin listening for what it wants you to understand. Don’t try to conquer fear. Collaborate with it. You don’t need to silence it. You need to hear the wisdom beneath its trembling.
What is in your creative mind? Is it possible you don’t think what you have to say is important? Is it? I believe everyone has a story that needs to be told. Even if you haven’t lived a “huge” life, it doesn’t mean that something you write won’t help someone to change their life for the better. We may never know who benefits from our words. And, not saying them because we’re afraid, is a crying shame. So write the scene that stirs your pulse. Write the truth you have avoided. Write the story that feels too large or too tender. Fear is not your enemy. Fear is your invitation.
What shape does your fear take? What story will you write with fear as the helpmate instead of the monster?
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