Fear tells us what we have to do

Blazing Reader,

In yesterday's post, I shared how (having thought I was done) my editor pointed out that my forthcoming novel, All the Humans are Sleeping, was missing a key scene. Without it, the story didn't make sense (which, considering today's upside-down world, might have been a selling point).

Oddly enough, I found I was resistant to writing the scene — namely because I was afraid I couldn't make it interesting enough. Instead, I was tempted to simply add a sentence that summed it up — a cowardly and lazy cop-out.

But then I remembered this quote from Steve Pressfield's The War of Art:

"Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do.""

So I picked up a pen and brainstormed a few ideas. Killed most of them. Showed the surviving two to my editor. We both agreed on one. And then I wrote it out. And re-wrote it. And re-wrote it. And hammered away at that new chapter until I couldn't imagine the story being published without it.

If you've ever been guilty of cutting corners on creative projects, then I highly recommend you head over here and buy yourself a copy of The War of Art: https://blazingpinecone.com/shop/the-war-of-art/

John C.A. Manley

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/