The Productive Writer by Sage Cohen

Author:Sage Cohen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: ebook, epub
Publisher: F+W Media, Inc.
Published: 2010-02-08T21:00:00+00:00

FEAR AS FUEL

I’ve been performing publicly since elementary school and reading my writing to live audiences since my early twenties, and I’m often still terrified when I get up in front of a group of people. Every now and then, I’m fairly certain that I will pass out before I speak my first sentence.

But because I have made a choice to be terrified and do it anyway — hundreds of times, now — I have improved. A lot. And what I have learned is that fear can be an edgy, valuable source of fuel. It offers a huge adrenaline push that typically helps me perform far better than I would in a less agitated state. Within a minute or two of standing in front of an audience, powered by fear, I generally land, connect with something authentic in me, and send that out to listeners. Then I start to relax.

Knowing you’ll be afraid and trusting that you’ll survive, and most likely even be successful, is a lesson that can only be learned the hard way: by doing what you fear and coming out the other side.

YOU ARE EXPERT ENOUGH TO TRY

I am a recovering perfectionist. My lifelong litany has been that I don’t know enough, am not talented enough or impressive enough to present myself as an expert on anything, ever. This kept me from doing much of anything with my writing life for years. Then I had a rather simple but significant “aha” moment. I started noticing that writers who didn’t seem to be any more perfect than I was were enjoying success.

It occurred to me then that maybe it wasn’t my job to decide whether or not I was good enough. Instead, I decided it was my job to write to the best of my ability, take the risk of sending it out for publication, and let the folks who make such decisions decide whether my stuff was any good. This entirely revolutionized my writing life.

I want to be clear that I did not stop that inner voice from judging me harshly. I simply decided to step aside and focus on something else. I opened up the question of the worthiness of my writing to a wider audience, taking the chance that someone, somewhere might not be as negative as my own inner editor. And I was right.

The fact of the matter is this: While you’re busy obsessing about not knowing enough about a particular topic or market (and therefore not taking the appropriate steps toward developing your expertise, understanding your market, and sending it out), some other writer is going to write down what he knows on that very topic and pitch it. This person is 100 percent more likely than you are to land the assignment, because he took the biggest step of all: Asking for it.

I’m not saying that you are guaranteed success in the form of publication, but you are guaranteed success in the form of evolution. Each time you set a goal and move toward it, you learn.

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