Today, I finally began reading and working on the book “The Way Of The Fearless Writer “ by Beth Kempton.
If you have read my last blog post, “Fear & Ego” you’ll know that I was too scared to start reading this book. I was afraid it would make me face some unpleasant truths about myself and push me to write when I was not ready.
As soon as I started reading, my first thoughts were, “Get out! This is too much of a coincidence!” It was as if the author had taken my thoughts and put them down in her book. All my doubts, my fears, my resistance.
According to Kempton, “ To write is to pay attention to your life and to open up the channel for magic and mystery to flow through you.” And then she goes on to say that writing cannot do any of this “if fear gets in the way and the writer does not write.”
“Being a fearless writer has little to do with validation and acolades…. rather it is about ritual, dedication …listening to the world outside yourself and going deep within.”
Kempton says that before she became a fearless writer she
- Was focussed on her own desire to impress people ; to further her career as a writer
- Was obsessed with form. The book had to be perfect
- She thought of everyone else as judge, critic or competition.
It was only when she let go of these limiting beliefs and ideas and started to focus on the practice of writing that she was liberated from her fear. She gave up any expectations of her writing and wrote what wanted to be written instead; not what she thought had to be written. She realised there was value in formlessness as well as form. She stopped seeing other writers as judge or critic or competition and proactively started building a network of supportive writers and mentors.
This helped her to find the courage to share her words and get to know herself better.
As I embark of this journey of reading this book and putting the thoughts she shares in it , into practice, I look forward to becoming a fearless writer as well.
P.S. Before publishing this post, I have already started doing the exercises she has shared in the book. I am not only having fun doing them, but they are giving me pause, making me ruminate and remember the girl I used to be, the girl who was not afraid of tilting at windmills! I highly recommend this book to anyone to wants to find the writer within themselves again!
Ah! When you spoke of this yesterday, I was confused. Realized I hadn’t read this one.
I love this part – to write is to pay attention to your life – what better reason to right then?