Earlier this week you have met your inner two year old and worked with her to make your writing playful. Now it is time for the concluding chapter. How do you use the things you have learned this week, and make it easy to remind yourself that fear no longer has a grip on you?

Part 3: the FREE writer

Fear is a fickle thing. One moment you are playing, writing a scene that makes you giggle, the next your inner two year old tosses her fear of the unknown at you, and there you sit, all your good intentions blown to smithereens and all there is, is fear. You stare at your computer screen and wonder what drivel you have written there. Even the 20.000 words you wrote before are shit. Where is the delete button?

Fear's eyes always cloud the truth, with images of things that happened in the past, always coloured with an extra sprinkling of sour grapes. Remember that next time you tell yourself you aren't good enough, or your writing sucks. Fear lies, and fear likes to keep you in fear. Your only job is to write, and to keep writing, and eventually you will write something others like. You write for yourself though, you write because you can't not write. And most of all, stop worrying about publishing while you are in the first draft. No writer, not even the most prolific of them all, writes everything in one draft. You can fix everything later.That is the only truth you need to worry about while you write.

When it comes to breaking through your fears, you always need to

• - be truthful (fear is the best liar. The truth always sets you free. And in this case the truth is that you truly are AWESOME)
• - be focused (when you sit down to write, only keep your attention on your writing project, the rest is ballast)
• - be aware (fear sneaks up at any moment, be aware of your thoughts)

But let's go back to a couple paragraphs before, you, sitting down at your desk, scared shitless of your writing. Here are some simple tools you can use as a reminder of the free writer that you truly are.

Journal
Write down your experiences while writing, write down where you felt stuck and where you felt so elated you were ready to burst. Reading through those entries at a later stage will help you identify the spots where fear mucks up your writing, and it will be so much easier to stop yourself before fear drags you to that dark place again.

Create a Bliss book
In my other blog: Simply Blissful, I offer simple tools to help you increase your bliss. One of those tools is the bliss book. You can use this tip to create a writing bliss book. Write down quotes that make you smile, positive things people said about your writing, advise from writers you admire, pictures that inspire you. Anything that can help you just turn a page, and see something that reminds you of the amazing ability your inner two year old has to feel joy.

Make a mantra
Mantra's are words or short lines that are believed to have power to achieve spiritual growth. The most famous mantra is Om/Aum. When you feel really good about yourself, and care free in your writing, write a mantra that instantly gets you back to that feeling. It can be one simple word or line to remind you. (mine is "follow your bliss"). Then, when fear has a grip on you, just close your eyes and recite it, or light a candle, and stare into that while you recite.

Surround yourself with beauty
It will surprise you how much a small potted plant, a gorgeous artwork, or a picture of your loved ones can inspire you to write with all the playfulness you have inside you.

Stop listening to negativity
Everyone of us has one of those people around who says you will never be a published writer, or that you never will write anything good enough. They only read highly literary novels, and your science fiction doesn't do anything for them. Just don't talk to them about your writing, how much you wanna do it. All they do is trigger your fears, and make it all the harder for you to sit behind your desk the next day, hearing their judgement mingling with your own as an endless audio tape in your head.

Allow
Of all the steps to deal with breaking free, this is the most important. Allow yourself to be a free writer, and allow yourself to sit down and write every day, allow yourself to write what you love most of all, write what makes you tingle with anticipation about what comes next.
Don't listen to all those advices about genres that are popular now, or genres that don't work now. Good writing does get recognized, and genres get popular because a writer took the leap and wrote an amazing book they shopped around until a publisher said: "heck yes, that is a GREAT book!"
If J.K. Rowling, with all the setback she had during writing and shopping around the first Harry Potter book, can do it, so can you. If James Redfield can do it, so can you. There are countless examples around of writers who struggled getting their books published, and succeeded against all odds.

In closing
I really hope my workshop inspired you to break free from your fears. I will keep posting articles on this subject, both here, and on Simply Blissful.
When I started out writing this, I thought: "if I can help only one person with this, my workshop is a success."
I did help one person the minute I posted the first part, and that was me :) When I realized that I could just give the fears I had about hosting this a kick in the butt and just feel free writing this. I hope you all could feel that while reading :)
It makes me really happy to see the honest and heart warming responses to the previous posts. I am really proud of you all, for being courageous in fighting your fears, breaking through your own barriers.
And remember: never underestimate what you can do for yourself, allow yourself the freedom to write, and remind yourself that you are worthy.

And now: 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.

Just say in your first reply to my workshop which prize(s) you would love to win!

Blessings!