“Fear is the most common emotion in my life. I’ve been afraid for so long — well, honestly, I can’t ever remember not being afraid. It’s what you choose to do with that fear that makes all the difference.”

What does this have to do with writing or the creative spirit?

It has to do with life.

The sooner you can embrace the concept of getting comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable, the more you’ll do.

They used to call it embracing the fear.

I would calling it something simpler: Do the thing.

You’re afraid of it until you do it, then you’ll wonder what all the tension was.

Now go do something you’re uncomfortable with, and fire it up.

J

it’s the illusion of knowledge.

Said another way by the ever eloquent Mark Twain:

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

We don’t know.  Some of us know we don’t know.  William Goldman in his book about screenwriting and Hollywood said something to the effect that nobody knows.  And he was  talking about mega producers that were throwing big movie budgets into something that in the end was just a throw of a dart.

If the smart guys that are spending hundreds of millions of dollars don’t know – your job just got a lot easier.  It’s not brains that gets it done, it’s the persistent attitude in a forward direction that accomplishes things.

Be persistent, sure in your course, adaptable, and realize even they don’t have the crystal ball… nobody does, so stop looking for it.

The best crystal ball is in your head using your actions as the guiding force.

Now go fire it up.

 

J

…while the wiser ones are so full of doubts.

The louder they talk the less I hear.  If you are pounding the table with certainty I doubt you even more.  It’s the guy over there in the corner, quietly taking it all in, that’s who I want to hear.

Just one problem.

He’s keeping his mouth shut, he knows he doesn’t know.  And therein lies his strength.

It’s like the old saw when asked about the direction of something unpredictable like the stock market or interest rates or what have you:

“Those that know ain’t saying, and those that are saying don’t know.”

The great thing about this is that you don’t need to know to make it work, you just need to do.

So go fire it up, regardless of what you know.  It will work, just not how you think it will.

 

J