Are You Terrified of Making Something Bad? You Should Be Terrified of This Instead…

I recently came across this quote in a Vanity Fair interview with Greta Gerwig, the director of Barbie and Little Women.

“At some point, the terror of never making anything becomes much bigger than the terror of making something bad.”

It felt especially relevant to me at the moment. I’m trying to return to creating—writing, blogging, a bit of painting, some junk journalling. I need the reminder that there’s a bigger problem than producing something ‘bad.’ And, to be honest, a little terror could be just the fire underneath me that I need to get going.

Terror of Failure

Last week I wrote about how getting to know your Creative Voice can counteract your Inner Critic.

But let’s take this a step further.

Your Inner Critic is (probably) trying to protect you. It’s petrified (and I mean petrified) of failure.

But, what is your definition of failure?

A bad review.

Work back from that.

A bad story/post/painting/anything.

Work back from that.

Creating something that embarrasses me.

Work back from that.

Keep working back until you find the biggest failure.

I might not be a good writer. I might be a fraud.

Ah, now we’re getting somewhere.

Why? Because that last insight leads us to a completely different kind of failure.

Terror of Inaction

I want to be a writer. I’d love to be a writer that other readers love to read. But ultimately, I want to be a writer.

What’s a bigger failure than writing something that isn’t good?

Isn’t it writing nothing at all?

And so, you guessed it, my Creativity has something to say on the topic.

Oh boy, do I!

(By the way, have you read last week’s post about finding your Creativity? If not, you really should. I’m sure they’re amazing and quirky and inspiring and very well-dressed and you’re missing out if you don’t know them.)

Usually when we talk about fears, we think about the Inner Critic (who, as I write this, is still spats-less even though I’ve told him it’s the in thing for critics the world over. Back me up here!) and we think about the many fears that hold us back from creating.

But did you know that Creativities fear too?

We don’t fear making mistakes (there are ‘no such things as mistakes, only happy accidents’ as one famous creative said). We don’t fear what other people say (we have ideas that must exist! They simply must, no matter what!). They fear…

…never being heard.

They fear never creating anything.

They fear weasels in hot dog buns. Why? Well, don’t you now that I’ve put the idea in your head?

They fear ideas that are dead on arrival because they’ve spent too long in limbo.

They don’t fear never having the ideas (because ideas fly in like…oh, what are they called? Some particle that flies through space and just passes right through you…you know the one, don’t you? Quarks? I want to say quarks. But I think that’s because it’s fun to say quarks. Try it with me! QUARKS!).

Where was I?

Yes! Your Creativity doesn’t fear never having the ideas. They fear never fulfilling ideas. They fear never being heard. By you. By people beyond you. By anyone.

Imagine living your life without ever being heard.

Now do you understand a Creativity’s fear?

It’s not a crippling fear. It’s not debilitating. It’s heartbreaking. If you ever see a Creativity cry, it’s because some grand idea was ignored or never expanded upon.

“What if it’s bad?” is never a worry from your Creativity (though it’s one of your Inner Critic’s favourite objections). What if it never lives is the fear that gets to our core.

So, what’s the solution?

You first need to recognise that your Creativity has a fear. Then you need to find a way to let that fear motivate you. Make your Creativity’s fear your fear too. Make it bigger and louder than your Inner Critic. Put it into words, write those words in massive purple (or blue, or red, but really, purple is better) letters, and stick them up where you can see them.

“What if it never lives?” That’s my fear right there.

Make it your fear too. Make the terror of never making anything your motivation.

One best-selling writer put it this way: make your fear of writing something bad the size of a mouse and make the fear of writing nothing at all the size of an elephant.

That can be extended to anything from painting to piano playing to pottery. What’s worse than the possibility (and it is only a possibility) that something might not turn out how you hoped? Isn’t it worse to have never done anything?

The obvious point is that one can never improve if one does not practice (as true of writing as it is of learning the tin whistle). Each time you create something or do something, you give yourself the opportunity to get better. But really, that’s a point for another day. Today’s thought: what if it never lives?

What if that idea never makes it into the world?

What if your Creativity is just bursting with excitement about an idea and you stop it because it might not be any good? Isn’t that the greater loss?

Isn’t “what could have been” the sadder thought than “what if no one likes this”?

There is so much potential in an idea, not just in what that particular idea could be, but also what it could lead to, what it could teach you, what audience it could reach. As creatives, that potential is what we live for. It’s what we breathe.

So take a deep breath, get your pencil or easel or banjo out, and bring something to life.

Keep the terror of never creating burning inside you. Your Creativity will thank you.

Now tell me, what’s the idea your Creativity is most afraid of losing?