A journaling practice for when writing feels vulnerable

Sometimes, it feels scary to share

Sometimes, writing is vulnerable.

It asks us to take something from deep within ourselves and, if we’re a writer who publishes our work, to put it out in public view.

As an academic, I wrote on the defensive for many years: Anticipating people’s possible problems with my work, the shortcomings they’d notice, possible holes in my arguments. Writing became sterile and clinical, more like a mental fencing match with my ideas (without the artistic and intuitive flair of fencing, just the combat part), trying to back them into a specific type of corner.

I’m all for precision in research and research-based writing, and for being intentional and thorough in our claims. Having research be, well, research is important!

BUT the culture we've developed around writing, in academia and beyond, and around how we critique each other’s ideas, has lots of room for improvement, and often forgets the living, feeling person behind the words.

This makes it scary to write and share our ideas: And to write without being on the defensive. Or, put another way, to write from a place of scarcity (what people won’t like/ how the work doesn’t stack up) versus abundance (what the work adds to the world/what works well).

One of the big things I do with my 1:1 clients is help them build a sustainable writing practice while also using that practice as a container for their most powerful, important work. And giving ourselves tools to meet and work through our fears around writing is one part of it.

If you’ve done your research, you KNOW that your work is good enough and that your ideas are strong, but you find you’re still struggling with feeling vulnerable about sharing it, try the prompts below.

I developed these freewriting/journaling prompts for a 1:1 client, when he told me about how working on one particular section of his book made him feel really vulnerable about sharing with others (for context, he's an academic who's working on a scholarly monograph, but this could apply to anything you're worried about other people judging, academic or otherwise).

These prompts are for anyone who feels like they need a little extra support to step into their power/the power of their writing this week.

These freewriting prompts ask you to focus specifically on thinking about the parts of the writing you're worried people will judge or that 'isn't good enough.

Write as much as you want on each of the following:

🪷Why do I feel vulnerable about this particular piece of writing?

🪷How do I think people will react? What positive things might they say?

🪷What criticisms or negative reactions am I worried about receiving?

🪷Why is this work strong enough to meet those reactions without falling down?

🪷What can I do to feel more confident in this work? Where can I look for reminders that I'm a capable, competent writer?

I like to wrap up with a moment of gratitude to myself and my writing practice after journaling sessions, too.

Did this resonate with you? What else do you do to support yourself when writing feels scary to share?

P.S. if you want to reset your relationship to your writing, my mini class Pleasure Practices for Creatives has (you guessed it) a variety of ways to weave pleasure into your writing time: So you can feel more comfortable and confident in sharing your biggest ideas.