Where Fearless Writing began. It took reach a very dark place for me to understand how quietly addicted to praise and validation I was. Here’s the story.Autor: Bill Kenower

Writing is often about waiting for the right story, the right scene, the right word. Learn to trust what you know is true about what works and what doesn’t.Autor: Bill Kenower

A writer’s primary tool is thought. Every time we sit down to write, we practice choosing the ones that serve us, and the ones that don’t.Autor: Bill Kenower

You can’t look for your validation from anyone other yourself, which you do every time you write a sentence that satisfies you.Autor: Bill Kenower

Creativity is very active, but all the stories and songs and poems that have ever been written began with listening, when artist heard the inspiration offered to them.Autor: Bill Kenower

We all need one sometimes. It’s easy to lose track of why we do this, where our confidence comes from – so here you go. Enjoy!Autor: Bill Kenower

Nothing feels better than getting in the flow. Yet this fantastic experience requires nothing but the focus of own attention. A great reminder when we’re feeling down.Autor: Bill Kenower

Writing is about the search for the effortless path. Our job is to test for resistance with every scene, sentence, and word. When we meet it, we have to find a different way forward.Autor: Bill Kenower

Sometimes we have a low-running fear of writing. We’ve created unfriendly story about what’s waiting for us at the desk. We have to change that story and make it as friendly as possibleAutor: Bill Kenower

Fear is always a movement away from, love is a movement toward. Both are creative, but only one creates on purpose.Autor: Bill Kenower

You would think we wouldn’t need to ask this, but it’s easy sometimes to accept experiences AND stories we don’t really like. Pay close attention to your preferences. They’re your best guide.Autor: Bill Kenower

Writers sometimes romanticize how hard writing can be. It’s important to remember that effortlessness is the essence of our best work.Autor: Bill Kenower

Your confidence doesn’t come from success. It’s something you’re born with that you have to find every time you write. Jane Friedman interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UHldR_smYVs?si=Fb0klOIBQOpA7iHSAutor: Bill Kenower

Your stories may or may not live on forever, but what you tap into to write them is eternal.Autor: Bill Kenower

Writing teaches us that our focus is everything. Nothing can control our focus but ourselves. The conditions of our life will change, but our focus will always be in our control.Autor: Bill Kenower

There’s no such thing as good and bad in a story – just what belongs or what doesn’t. The same is true for you. There’s nothing wrong with you that success will fix. There’s just the right path or the wrong pathAutor: Bill Kenower

Every story has already been told – but that’s all right. By telling your specific version, you’ll help us remember why love matters, why life matters, why we matter. Your readers will never tire of hearing that.Autor: Bill Kenower

A creative question is one to which only you have the answer. These are the most important questions in our lives, and writing is a great way to practice getting the “right” answer.Autor: Bill Kenower

You start the conversation, and your reader finishes it. What’s the conversation YOU want to have?Autor: Bill Kenower

You don’t have to please anyone. You don’t have to care about your results. You don’t have to be good enough. You just have to get into that true writing headspace, and let the rest take care of itself.Autor: Bill Kenower

It’s hard to remember, especially as an artist, but you’re only job is to please yourself. Forget the applause and the reviews. Those only come after you’ve satisfied your own unique aesthetic.Autor: Bill Kenower

Writing is all about connection. I know you’re alone in your workroom, but when you get in that flow, you are connecting to something in all of us.Autor: Bill Kenower

It’s critical to learn your craft, but all that learning is driven by interest. Interest is the fuel that drives our creative engine, and without it, we will stall.Autor: Bill Kenower

It’s easy for artists to become distracted by and even addicted to praise. It may feel good, but it’s a bottomless need that will never be satisfied.Autor: Bill Kenower

Everyone needs to “come out” in one way or another, to be who they really are rather than who they believe they’re supposed to be. Writing is a great way to practice this kind of authenticity.Autor: Bill Kenower

Life is creative and so are you. But when you stop participating deliberately in that creation, life seems random and you feel out of control. Take what you learn at the page and apply it to your whole life.Autor: Bill Kenower

It’s impossible to overstate how important it is to think in small steps. After all, every novel or memoir is written one sentence at a time. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, think small. It’s how you get someplace big.Autor: Bill Kenower

At its core, creativity must be fun. Here are the two rules for having fun that I learned while playing Dungeons & Dragons that apply to games, writing, and life.Autor: Bill Kenower

It’s almost impossible to grasp the effect our work has in the world. Most of it happens where we can’t see it. But know that it’s happening, whether you ever learn of it or not.Autor: Bill Kenower

Here are the three steps I take whenever I start doubting and worrying about my work.Autor: Bill Kenower

Writing teaches us every day that the pleasure of creating is discovery. The same can be true of life away from the desk, if we accept that we don’t need or want to know the future.Autor: Bill Kenower

Whether you’re walking a balance beam or wondering whether you’re good enough, the goal isn’t perfection but rapid course correction. Balance is always available if you pay close attention to how you feel.Autor: Bill Kenower

It loves the unknown, which is the only place it can exist. It’s only when you doubt it, resist following it, that you suffer. It will never steer you wrong.Autor: Bill Kenower

If you have an imagination, curiosity, and desire you always have what you need to create anything you want. These can never leave you, but you have to trust they’re enough.Autor: Bill Kenower

The imagination is faithful, but it doesn’t discriminate. It will answer any question you ask it. Make sure you only ask those to which you sincerely want an answer.Autor: Bill Kenower

Sometimes our most creative moments stem from things that bother us – stories that we wished ended differently, or passages that seem sloggily written. To be truly creative, however, we can’t complain, which is focusing on the thing we don’t like. Instead, our attention must be on what we want, the story we want to tell, and the life we want to liv…

If you’ve spent a lot of time taking care of other people, it’s easy to start believing their lives, their happiness, their safety and well-being, matters more than yours. It doesn’t. Writing demands we close the door and acknowledge that our life matters to us more than anything else.Autor: Bill Kenower

Writers sit down every day at their desk and summon all kinds of feelings, from joy to grief. When you’re not writing, focus less on the result you want, and more on the feeling you want, something you’re already good at.Autor: Bill Kenower

A story from my brother that serves as a great reminder of how easy it is to lock our attention onto what we don’t want. Creativity is all about thinking deliberately, knowing that whatever we focus on increases.Autor: Bill Kenower

Our craft evolves to match our creative desires. With time, you will always be “good enough” to write the kind of story you most want to write.Autor: Bill Kenower

We can’t let fear of being misunderstood keep us from sharing our work. Not everyone can get everything, and that has to be okay.Autor: Bill Kenower

Sometimes we go a few days or weeks without writing and feel disconnected and dissatisfied. Try not to despair. Your true creative self is always with if you know where to look.Autor: Bill Kenower

Nothing we dream exists outside of us. Just like our stories, it starts within us and then we dream it forward onto the page and into the world.Autor: Bill Kenower

You must be willing to tell the story you most want to tell in the way you most want to tell it. That is freedom.Autor: Bill Kenower

Writing is a great way to practice creating on purpose, rather than accidentally or by default. The blank page asks what we want, and only we can answer that.Autor: Bill Kenower

You need to know your character’s motivation to really understand them and tell compelling stories. You also need to be clear about your own motivation when you sit down to write.Autor: Bill Kenower

Starting this week, begin practicing how you think when you sit down to write. Practice caring about the story, not what other people think about the story. It’s as important as craft.Autor: Bill Kenower

I'll be hosting a Fearless Writing retreat January 26 - 31 in Portland, OR. Space is limited! I'd love to see you there. Retreat: https://www.portlandretreathouse.com/fearless-writing-with-bill-kenower Bill's website: https://www.williamkenower.com/Autor: Bill Kenower

We all have a personal aesthetic that’s unique to us. We can’t control it; we can only obey it. In this way, what we create is not dissimilar to the stuff we love that other people created.Autor: Bill Kenower

It can be hard to connect to why we publish aside from money and possibly acclaim. It’s important to remember that if you’re sharing something you love, you’re making the world just a little bit better.Autor: Bill Kenower