One of the biggest obstacles on a writer's path is their fear. It can be fear of anything: what if they won't like my stories, what if I am not good enough, what if my story is just plain stupid. From the starting block of a story to the publication of it, fear likes to play a part in each stage of writing.

In this workshop I want to offer tools to break through that fear, and get you to write through all stages, putting fear on the back burner.

But first, an introduction to the basics of play and fear. As I don't want to write a long post that no one reaches the end of, I will keep things short in this.  I might write a more detailed post on the nature of fear after the workshop if you would like to learn more :)

Part 1: Meet your inner two year old

Deep inside of you lives a little temperamental two year old. For the sake of the rest of this introduction I will use the female form. I am a woman after all, just read he if you are male :)

My inner two year old is a blonde curly haired girl in a dress with big pop art flowers, and she constantly demands my attention.

Can you picture your inner two year old already? (if it doesn't work, just get a picture of yourself at that age.)

Your inner kid can do two things really well.

She knows how to enjoy life to the fullest. She plays like a pro with all the toys that are at her disposal. She dances through life, loves to giggle and sing songs. She can often be found in a corner of the room, making up stories using her dolls as characters. Her stories are the best, because she excels in visualization, and her imagination is limitless. She dreams up whole new worlds during those moments of intense play.

She knows how to be scared shitless. She also has a dark side. She hates anything new, and she is afraid of dogs, thunder, darkness, aunt Bertha's persian cat, basically everything that gets thrown into her little world. The strangest things scare her, and she is really good at hiding away under the blankets.

Writing, two year old style
You as a writer get to deal with both aspects of this two year old, and oh boy, does she show off at all steps of your writing life.

You write something you are happy with, it is playtime to the max. You have a big smile on your face, and the words just write themselves. You see everything clearly, you can visualize your characters, and you giggle at the in-jokes you know only you will really get.
Your inner two year old goes all out, dancing, singing, joking, everyone is laughing, which makes her go even wilder.

You write a story, but you aren't happy with it. There is something missing, you just don't know what.
Your inner two year old listlessly toys with her food. Any question you ask her, gets answered with a grumpy: "don't wanna!"

You are editing your story, cut out some parts of your story, and polish it until your story shines from all sides.
Your inner two year old wonders when life got so boring. She only has her dolls, but she really really really wants to play with the jigsaw, anything but the damned dolls. She forgets that last week all she wanted to play with were the dolls, and that back then the rest of the toys were completely forgotten.

Then you show it to someone, and don't get the same reaction back that you had. You send it in to a publisher, and get a rejection letter.
Your inner two year old made a drawing, and shows it to mommy. She doesn't get the response she expects, and stomps away to the corner of the room.  She wraps her arms around her knees, and vows to NEVER do it again. Complete with a pout and a growl.

You have made a sale!
Your inner two year old is so happy, there can not be a bigger happy than the one she has. Everything is awesome in her world!

Your story is published, and gets a bad review.
Your inner two year old locks herself in the bathroom.

The last time you sent a story in to a publisher, you received a well motivated but still painful rejection, so you scratch that publisher from your possible list for the next story.
This when her fear starts meddling with her play. Last time the thunder scared her, so she never plays in the room when there is a thunderstorm.

I can come up with a lot more examples, do hope you get where I am going after these, though :)

Now the microphone is on you

Tell me about your inner two year old. What does she love to do, and what is she afraid of? What drives her insane? What makes her want to hide in the corner? And now, with this realization in mind,  what is the aspect of writing you have trouble with, how does your inner two year old come into play?
You can answer either as a reply to this post, or in an email to tamlynleigh at gmail dot com. Both ways makes you eligible for prizes.

On Thursday: Step Two - Come out and play 
For this day I want you to get out a story you have really struggled with, it can be in any stage of writing, from the first idea to several submissions.

And now for the prizes!
Anyone who posts a reply, can enter into a raffle to win the following prizes:

1. An Ebook of Stephen King's On writing You choose the format, I buy the book and mail it to you.
2. A one hour coaching session Through chat (or if you wish we can correspond through email, 3 emails total), going deeper into your personal aspects of fear and the way it influences your writing (and your life)
3. A story - tarot session You email me a description of one of your characters on a problem they face, and I do a 3 card tarot reading for him or her.This is a great way to find underlying emotions and problems.
   

Please write which prize you would like to win in your first post, so that I  can give away the latter two prizes to people who really want it :)