How to Become an Audacious Writer

Audacious is a big word, one synonymous with outspoken, sometimes intimidating people. Yet, it’s also often synonymous with success, courage, seeing massive dreams come to fruition. Audacious, as defined by dictionary.com, means, “extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless: an audacious explorer.“

Those of us who’ve sat back and observed someone instead of taking action ourselves, we’ve have felt intimidated, offended, demoralized when watching someone with the audacity to succeed in doing the things we want to do (and usually not as well as we know we could do them). Yet, I didn’t take action. Other times, I’ve felt that I couldn’t measure up to achieve what I saw others doing.

When I finally resolved to take audacious action:
in spite of feeling afraid,
in spite of worrying about what people think of me,
in spite of knowing how to fully do what I want to be able to do,
I felt more like myself.

How do I become an audacious writer?
1. Write and share words even when I feel fear.
2. Write and let go of others’ thoughts about me.
3. Write and keep writing even when I don’t know how to finish or where I’m going.

Here are three lessons I’ve learned about how to become an audacious writer.

Lesson #1:
Fear Doesn’t Have Power to Hold Me Back, Unless I Give it Power.
Fear can be loud, dark, blaring, and in your face. It can chase you. It can whisper in your ear. Fear can be very persuasive.

But, fear has no power unless you give it over.

For me, fear has a very real spiritual aspect to it. Because I believe that Jesus is who He says He is in the Bible, giving into fear holds me back from receiving love, and I’m just not into that.

So, I know that I can take action in spite of the fear surrounding me because I know that I am loved. When I doubt that I am loved and accepted, cracks begin to form where fear can seep in and scare me off from completing my writing task. This gives fear permission to have power to push me down.

I will write and share words even when I feel fear.
Fear is part of reality. How I react to feeling fear determine whether I give it power over my life. The difference between feeling afraid and being afraid is massive.

When we feel afraid, it’s a condition outside of ourselves that we can choose how we respond in the midst of it.

When we are afraid, however, it’s a characteristic of our identity. While conditional, it is part of who I am. “I am afraid.” Being afraid means stopping in our tracks. Phrases like ‘paralyzed by fear’ cause us to take no action and live in a state of fear.

Simply feeling the fear is an awareness of the fear, but because it’s not part of our identity, we don’t have to respond to it. It has no power, because I’ve not attached it to my being.

As a result, I write words and I share them. Yep, there’s a ton of stuff that feels scary to me. That will likely always be the case that things feel scary, but it doesn’t always have to be the case that they really are scary.

So, while the unknowns, the doubts, the uncertainties can feel scary, I choose to write the words and get them out and not allow fear the delight of holding me back from becoming the audacious writer I’m made to be. I hope the same for you, too.

Lesson #2
Fear About What Others Think of Me is a Waste of Time.

It’s true that I actually spend more time worrying about myself and what I’m meant to do that I do thinking about other people. It’s selfish and normal and, dare I say (yes, I dare because I’m an audacious writer) freeing!

Most of us are stuck in our own minds. This is a topic for another post series, but the reality is that usually people simply aren’t as hyper focused on you and your choices as you are with your own.

When this comes to how to become the writer you’re made to be, allow yourself the ability to get words out. If people are concerned with or by your words, there’s an opportunity for a conversation where you can get to know each other more.

If you’re committed to being an afraid writer who doesn’t write, but simply thinks about writing, people will think of you the same amount that they will if you actually take that audacious step to get your words out, but they won’t have the opportunity to know you in the same way.

Sharing your words is an invitation.

I will write and let go of others’ thoughts about me.
When I write, I am being myself. I am a writer. I am a writer who writes thoughtfully. I am a writer who submits and publishes regularly. I am a writer who encourages and empowers others to become the writers they’re made to be.

The reality of publishing through contests, open calls for submissions to magazines or podcasts, traditional publishing methods means that there is a limited amount that can be published within each issue or episode or print catalog.

The reality of publishing means that sometimes your work doesn’t fit at this time for the publisher, purely from a logistics standpoint. Magazines, for instance, often have themes for each issue. If January’s theme is animal rescue stories and your overcoming cancer story gets rejected, it isn’t necessarily that the publishers think your story is garbage. It just doesn’t fit at this time.

Of course sometimes it can refer to the quality of my submitted work, but one way to ensure my work is of highest quality as possible is to…write! And, keep writing and let go of others’ thoughts about me.

I want to think this part goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway. When I say I’m letting go of what other people think about me, I don’t mean that I can write mean things about people or lack regard for upholding someone’s character or reputation or that are outright mean. What I mean is that I’d rather write my words than not write words in case maybe somebody might not like them (because not everybody will always love everything you or I write–we’re too different to all love the same things).

Lesson #3
Fear of Not Knowing How to Do What I Want to Do Doesn’t Have to Hold Me Back.
When I was a kid I developed this messed up belief that turned into a massive fear I lived many years with. If I can’t do something perfectly the first time something is wrong with me and I shouldn’t try to do it.

This just isn’t true. If I’ve never done something before, of course I don’t know how to do it and of course I won’t be able to do it perfectly. Also, only God is perfect, so me trying to do things perfectly isn’t helpful.

When I’ve allowed the fear of not yet knowing how to do something hold me back, I’ve let go of the power of learning and education. I believe that we all have the capacity to learn and we can observe this human quality as we watch babies learn to walk and listen to them learn to talk. They aren’t afraid of making mistakes or scared because they don’t know how to do something yet. They just do the thing.

I will write and keep writing even when I don’t know how to finish or where I’m going.
It’s a choice to keep putting one word in front of the other. When I plan my writing with exact precision, I can get stuck and prevent creativity from flowing if as I write my ideas morph or change all together.

At the time of writing this (November 2021), I’m in my first draft of a novel. I know vaguely how it will end, but I really have no idea how it’s going to get there. I don’t know–yet–how to weave my main characters’ stories together into a cohesive narrative. I don’t know how to work with a particular editor, yet. I don’t know yet what the best method of publication for this story is yet.

Instead of stopping in fear before I even start the story, I’m committed to writing and allowing myself to learn and discover along the way. This adds fun to the process of creating, but it also allows freedom for me to meander and glean everything I can along the way.

When we do this, I think it makes us better writers, too. We’re not locked into the way it’s always been done. We’re not paralyzed and prevented from any forward motion. We can move forward with imperfection and it’s the process that’s most valuable.

As a creative writing coach, I’m committed to helping people become the writers they are made to be and I do that through courses, community, and coaching. If you’d like to learn more about how to become an audacious writer, I’d love to speak with you. Book a Discovery Call today.