![[VIDEO] How to quickly get past the three phases of fear every writer goes through.](https://www.dawnmontefusco.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/three-phases-of-fear-video-screen-shot-186x186.png)
In this July video series I’m going to take you from fear to fierce!
Show Notes From Video:
2020 has been one of the strangest years in all of human history. The entire world has been gripped with fear and it’s hard to reprogram ourselves to feel safe. Many writers are falling into the rut of watching too much news, drinking too much, eating poorly to sooth and falling out of a healthy routine.
The good news is if you shift your perspective, 2020 is actually one of the best years for many creatives and writers! I like to think of it as the “great reset year.” You can use this time as a writer to write like you’ve never written before, but the catch is that you still have to get through the three phases of fear every writer must go through and those are: fight flight and freeze. These phases come in handy when you’re getting chased by a tiger, but they are not useful when you are trying to write a book or a blog!
In this live video I help you become aware of these three phases of fear so it gets easier and easier to get through them until you barely notice them anymore!
Fight Phase
The fight phase looks like this: you are about to sit down to write and your inner critic attacks you with negative thoughts. You begin fighting with yourself as your critic starts to get louder and louder. Maybe you think, “Oh God, I suck.” Then you start future tripping about what your mother’s, sister’s cousin is going to think if your work gets published. You haven’t even started yet! Your fight thoughts might be as simple as, “I want to write. I’m scared to write. I want to write. I’m scared to write.” You feel the tension in your body and the fight continues. For some people this can go on for hours and stop them in their tracks. I have lots of videos on how to break through resistance and the fight phase is a big phase lots of writers go through. You might even be fighting with a future that doesn’t exist! Or you may be fighting with society who you think is not going to want to read your book or read your work.
How can you relieve the fight? I explain a few ideas in the video, but the easiest way is to become present to the moment. Start looking around, start naming things in the room. Pretend you’re an alien in your own room and look at things with wonder. You can say out loud, “I see a chair. The chair has a metal back. It has a beige cushion. There’s a mirror on the wall. You get out of the fight mode by becoming present.
Flight Phase
What happens when you move on to the flight phase? Keep in mind these phases don’t happen in order and can bounce around. In flight mode you keep getting out of your seat. Maybe you suddenly think you need to find your phone, or grab your tea, or wash your hands, or find yourself pacing back and forth. You might get unconsciously distracted and find yourself in another room watering your plants! The easiest way to overcome this phase is to set a timer for 10 minutes and if it goes off and you haven’t written, just reset the timer. Your mind will adjust and you will sit for longer and naturally begin writing.
Freeze Phase
The third phase of fear is freeze and you probably know this one quite well! This is when you sit down to write and find yourself staring at an empty screen or empty page. This is where you think you are supposed to write something perfectly the first time. In order to get out of the freeze stage you want to allow yourself to be messy. You have to allowing yourself to “write it wrong.” I like to use this sentence to get me going, “What I’m really trying to say is….” And then I just write the first thing that comes to mind to get the ball rolling. Another great trick to get out of the freeze stage is to not write in the same location. Go sit in the living room or go sit outside, or on an open patio or on the porch. It shifts the neuro-transmitters and makes it a lot easier to get out of that freeze phase.
Always think small!
If you were to write 10-15 minutes a day, you would be done with your dream book within a year or less! Whenever you are not writing and don’t know why, you want to identify which of the three phases of fear you might be in. Once you identify each one, you can practice moving right past them quickly and you start blazing through them faster.
A great exercise to try: sit down for ten minutes and write about which phase of fear has more power over your writing. Simply by writing about it will dilute the fear and you can move into being a fierce and feisty writer!
Join my group, Write From Your Heart and catch my weekly show “Write With Me” every Wednesday at 12:30 PST.
