Facing your fears

Hey,

127 km/h on the German Autobahn, racing in a VW T6, I write this weeks edition (I’m not driving).

Let’s get to it.

Photo of the Week

Two ideas

1. Reading “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” by Stephen King. Here are some observations:

   • “I screamed so long and so loud that I can still hear it. In fact, I think that in some deep valley of my head that last scream is still echoing.” - wow what a way to say something hurt.

   • Stephen King did copy work “Imitation preceded creation; I would copy Combat Casey comics word for word in my Blue Horse tablet…”

   • “Writing is refined thinking.”

   • Reading a lot helps with becoming a better writer. Maybe I should read more non-fiction?!

   • Here’s a counterintuitive one: “One learns most clearly what not to do by reading bad prose – one novel like Asteroid Miners (or Valley of the Dolls, Flowers in the Attic, and The Bridges of Madison County, to name just a few) is worth a semester at a good writing school, even with the superstar guest lecturers thrown in.” - please let me know if you’ve read any of these.

   • HAHA: When asked by a radio moderator how he writes, Stephen answers: “One word at a time.” I guess that’s his way of saying I work in baby steps.

   • “People love to read about work.”, well maybe then I have a bright writing career in front of me.

   • A friend told me that a good painter is a good observer. I get the feeling that this applies to fiction writers as well.

   • “Pace is the speed at which your narrative unfolds.”, finally I have an idea what is meant with pace. Oh and in case you wonder–narration is what “moves the story from point A to point B and finally to point Z.”

   • “You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%.”, ups usually my 2nd draft is longer than the first one.

   • While reading Stephen’s book I wondered how can a dude have so many scary ideas and write about them without going crazy? But when he describes how he works without a plot that opened my mind. He sets up the scenery, introduces the characters. And then he lets the story unfold by putting himself into the characters and thinking about how would these characters interact and so on. So he explores the story himself as he writes it. That’s intriguing to me.

   • “Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well.”, I can get behind that.

2. Facing my fears. This Friday I went on a long hike. I didn’t know what was awaiting me. Though the climbing harness that the hiking guide laid out in front of us told me that this tour was more than I signed up for (or than my friends told me).
   
   After 2.5 hours of hiking in the Sächsische Schweiz the guide pointed out that I might want to remember this wooden gate to his right. This is the place I should go back to, if I decide not to take the via ferrata which is another 60 mins from where we were.
   
   I take a mental note, because I am scared of heights. Especially when I cannot grab on to something. The worst is when I stand close to a cliff or when I am in a skyscraper like the Shanghai World Financial Center and there is a glass floor. This is when my legs turn into jelly.
   
   But we keep hiking and I enjoy the lion king like mountains to my left and the spruces that surround me, most of them laying flat on the ground, because they were cut to reduce fire risk. I breathe in deeply twice and start to prepare myself mentally by imagining what the via ferrata looks like, how it would feel to be 20m high and hang on to my dear life. I can do it. I decide that today is the day where I go on my first via ferrata.
   
   When we arrive at the via ferrata I see two guys climbing back down after trying to make the first 3m ascend “this is not for me", the one guy says to the other once he got his feet back on the ground.
   
   Once they were gone, I follow the guide and manage to get behind the 3m mark. I didn’t feel secure but it was ok.
   
   But about 1/3 in, I had a moment as I was climbing a 15m ladder without a safety net, where my legs turned wobbly like a pudding. I am on the ladder at for at around 9m and I realise: If I let go, I’m dead. Okay I better not let go and grab the latter as tight as I can, and take stair by stair, just thinking about the next stair in front of me.
   
   When I go to the top of the climb, I don’t dare standing up, so I crawl on my knees instead. Because there is nothing to grab on to. Just the abyss that I don’t dare looking down. I crawl 1.5m straight, then turn left where I can finally get up into a squat. From there I move like a duck, left, right, left and I just move. But I didn’t prepare for what happens next.
   
   Tears start to run down my cheek and I feel like a 5 year old who doesn’t want to be here. But I realise, I cannot go back. I also don’t want to stay here for another 60 minutes or however long a helicopter rescue might take. The fastest way out here is to keep moving forward. And so I make up my mind, I wipe away my tears with my right arm and I continue left, right, left.
   
   This moment on top of the mountain reminded me of a nightmare I have every now and then, where I fall down and then I wake up, happy that it was just a dream.
   
   But this time it wasn’t a dream. Fortunately I didn’t fall down.

Three cool links

1. Seth Godin on Stephen King: “The person who fails the most, wins” → I am still afraid of failing sometimes, but I think the more I can let it go, the more interesting stuff happens.

2. Shane Parrish “School tests weaknesses. Life rewards strengths.” → I sometimes hear smart people say focus on your strength. What do you think?

3. Simplify, simplify, simplify is what our improv teacher tells me again and again, this tweet reminds me of that → I wonder whether Apple’s ad agency played improv.

Personal note

That’s it for today.

Now do me a favour… tell me what you think!

I wrote it. You read it. How was it?

Dennis

P.S. - if you wanna go read this on a rad website (seriously) or send to a friend, here’s the link: check it out!