Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself

I found myself facing a few uncommitted hours this weekend, and of course, all the things that I have been procrastinating over during the week came immediately to mind: I have a story in the works that is in dire need of polishing so I can send it off to the publishers; I have several other story ideas begging at being put on paper; and I have one or two novel concepts that could stand some fleshing out. Deftly, and almost unconsciously, I sidestepped each task yet again, found some innane things to distract me, and generally did other things instead. To my credit, I did get some creative work done…I put a new face on my websight, and updated another site I manage that was long overdue for a revamp. But the creative energy needed for that is not as high as that for writing, and frankly, not as important to me. You could just as well say: not as threatening. Because that is what happens to me when I experience what so many call “writer’s block;” I get terrified to be creative in the ways that mean the most to me.
Well, today I also got curious about it. A quick Google search for “fear of creativity” turned up several very good articles on the matter. Fear & Creativity by Linda Dissau, and Fear and creativity by Douglas Eby, are good examples. It doesn’t take any rocket science to figure I’m not the only one who suffers from this kind of thing. And it did get me thinking – how many talented, creative people never get past their fears and actually produce anything?
It saddens me to think about what is lost when that happens, but there isn’t much I can do about others and their fears. But I can overcome my own fears, and with the proper honing, perhaps my talents can make up for it a bit. But even if they do not, for my own sake, I need to do so anyway.