Why You Need To Take Creative Courage Today
Creative courage is not only about taking risks with your story, but also about believing your story will be worth telling before you’ve even started. It’s important to explore how we bring courage into all aspects of our writing life, as courage is an essential tool for our toolbox.
The Meaning Of Courage
When we look at the word courage, it comes from the Latin word ‘cor’, which means heart and in its original form, the word meant to speak one’s mind while telling one’s heart. And that’s so much of what writing is about. Whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, you’ve got to speak your truth. To be honest, to be vulnerable – to say what we really want or what we really think – what’s on our heart, and that takes a lot of courage.
Why courage? Why is this an important part of our writing journey?
It’s really interesting to see where the root word from courage comes from and what it means, as it can help us understand its definition and understand how important it is, but also how hard it can be to be courageous and how much effort and how much we have to give of ourselves to fulfil that word, to show courage, to act courageously.
When we show courage, it doesn’t mean that we will absorb ourselves of any fear or doubt. It just means that we are acting courageously that we act, even though we feel fear, even though we feel doubt because we know that all good stories about are about action, all good stories about momentum and moving forward.
When we think about courage as a writer, it’s really central to the stories that we write, but also to our life, as a writer.
So, when we think about creative courage, we need to consider:
Creative courage in our stories.
Creative courage as a writer.
Let’s explore this further.
What Does Creative Courage Mean?
Creative courage can look different to all of us.
o Creative courage can mean taking creative risks. The first thing is to consider how we are taking risks with our story. And this takes courage because we have to challenge ourselves. Are we pushing our story to its limits?
o Creative courage can mean asking tough questions. We must be honest and ask the hard questions. Is our story boring? Is it going to captivate our reader? Does our character take enough risks with their actions?
o Creative courage can mean trying new things. You may have to try new genres. You may even have to experiment with new point of view – writing from different characters’ perspective. Or even trying out different tropes, you have to show creative courage within your work.
o Creative courage can mean challenging our characters. Our character is going to have to act courageously. They are going to be forced into situations that maybe make them feel uncomfortable. Or they’re not happy about because that’s what makes our story interesting. And that’s what makes our story come alive to the reader. You’re going to have to take your characters to places where they don’t want to go. You’re going to have to be really mean to your main character. And this will take courage because you may really like your character and you might not want to put them in situations that are going to harm them that are going to upset them. Or that is going to take your story in a direction that you hadn’t even imagined. But when you do this, when you show creative courage through making your story come alive via action, you are going to take your characters on an incredible journey. And in turn, you’re going to take your reader on an amazing journey too.
o Creative courage can mean ‘killing our darlings’. We have to be courageous by removing all the things that don’t add to the story. This could be extra dialogue; it could be an additional description or exposition. But the best way to get your story in the best shape as possible is to edit out anything that doesn’t move your story along. To do this, you’re going to have to be brave. You’re going to have to show courage because you are going to have to kill your darlings.
Creative Courage As A Writer?
We’ve started to look at this idea of creative courage, but what about the courage we need as a writer? This is where we really start to touch on some of the writing mindset needed and our personal beliefs about ourselves and what we are capable of.
Turning up at your computer that you keep showing up for your work in progress. That takes incredible courage, and you should be really proud of yourself for keep turning up to the blank page. Or even to that massive wordy manuscript, you keep showing up ready to edit it and you keep coming back and coming back. You should be really proud of that courageous achievement.
It takes courage to set really huge goals. It gives us something to work towards, to aim for. It gives us that motivation. But when we start to achieve these goals, it gives us self-belief, and that is incredibly powerful. Take all the courage you can to set huge, seemingly impossible, big, delicious goals, and then take tiny actions to move towards.
It also takes a lot of courage to accept that we will not be perfect. Our first draft will nowhere near be that perfect finished article. We have to believe that perfect is the enemy of done. We have to take courage and know that our first draft, our work even, will never be perfect, but you know, what is better than a perfect chapter is a finished draft.
It takes a lot of courage to believe in yourself. The fact that you keep showing up for your writing is incredible.
It takes a lot of courage as a writer to say no. We have to say no to a lot of things to make time for our writing. It could be saying no to our friends to go down to the pub because we haven’t written today. You feel like you’re missing out. But more than that, it takes incredible courage to say no, because you are saying yes to yourself.
It takes a lot of courage to share our work. It’s such a big thing to share our truth with the world, to be honest, to be vulnerable. And again, when we go back to that initial definition of courage to share what’s on our hearts, what’s on our minds in an honest a way as possible. But I also think, although that takes a lot of courage, it’s such an incredible gift that we can share.
How Are You Showing Courage?
Consider how you are going to show courage. Take some time to journal and free-write around these prompts:
How are you going to show courage?
What creative risks do you need to take?
Why is courage important to you? (If it is).
What do you need to say no to?
Where do you need to show more courage is your writing life?
How will you deal with sharing your work? How can you put boundaries in place to protect yourself?
When did you last show courage?
What we know about courage is that it will be worth it in the end. When we’ve been courageous and we’ve acted, we will reap the benefits.
This is what writing is about. We have to write, even though we don’t know what the finished product will be. We must believe that the more we write, the more we edit – we will get there, but to do that, we must protect our time. And that takes a lot of courage.
Keep sharing your, your story, keep sharing your truth because it matters. And I know how much courage it took for you to get there for you to take that for.
