Writing Help for Artists Struggling with Unclear Writing or Fear of Writing
by Thea Fiore-Bloom, PhD
The second post in our Writing For Artist Series
The first post in our series helped artists and new writers understand how we confuse our readers with our hairy sentence structure.
Now let’s explore two reasons why we might be writing those kinds of sentences in the first place.
The first reason many creatives write weird is that our first language is images.
Many of us think in chains of images, not words. That is a gift not a curse.
And there is not a whole lot we would want to do to change that even if we could. Because it would take away from our art.
The second reason we confuse readers and write weird can be addressed, with great results, over time.
So what’s the second reason?
Is the Problem That You’re TOO Intelligent?
It’s not that we creatives are not intelligent enough to write clearly. It’s often that we’re too intelligent.
What do I mean by that?
We may be so intelligent that we have the ability to design our sentences so people won’t understand them.
We unconsciously obscure our point on purpose.
What-what, Thea? Why on earth would we want not to be understood?
Well, if you were born with less than a “Trumpian” sense of self-worth, you may fear being criticized, laughed at or judged if you come right out and say what you think about things.
It takes moxie and a bit of madness to write clearly.
If we verbally circle round and round to cover our tracks, we prevent the public from rifling through our underwear drawer and possibly laughing uproariously at what they find there.
Could Your Writing Be Unclear – On Purpose?
I came up with my “unclear on purpose” theory after the first 20 deranged drafts of my thesis in grad school.
Apparently, I reasoned (unconsciously) that if a professor didn’t understand my argument they couldn’t say it was wrong, or just plain garbage.
Solution? Knock it off with the unclarity.
I had to take a chance on being understood.
I forced myself to assert my ideas plainly. The world didn’t end. In fact, it began. And the process helped me evolve as a writer and as a person.
My “unclear on purpose” theory has since been confirmed by several grad students and artists I have coached or edited with their own writing, since then.
Unclear writing can come down to a fear of being judged.
“I went for years not finishing anything.
Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.” – Erica Jong
Fear Factor For Artists
It’s terrifying to be ridiculed. It isn’t fun to worry about what people in authority will write in the margins of your world. Many of us get nauseous even imagining what a skulking internet troll might say.
Are you an artist who feels more vulnerable on the page than on the canvas? I get that.
I still struggle every day with the fear of writing clearly as well.
But you know 3 things I fear more?
1. I fear people nodding off and drooling on top of my writing because I was too terrified to take a clear stand for anything.
2. I fear how I will feel about myself if I never take a chance on releasing just one glowing paper lantern of an original thought into the world.
3. I fear never having gotten to help other folks who might benefit from my weird-ass take on things.
What do you fear not communicating while you’re running around here on Earth?
So how can someone begin the journey of writing with greater clarity?
Writing Help For Artists Struggling With Fear
Muster up enough self-love and self-confidence to look at your sentences and paragraphs and ask yourself:
‘Now what the hell am I really trying to say here?’
“Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.”– Barbara Kingsolver
Try this.
Think to yourself, ‘How would I explain what I’m trying to say here on the phone to my close girlfriend who believes in me?’
Write down what you’d say.
One Solution: Call For Help
Better idea. Call that girl or guy friend.
Scribble down what you manage to communicate to them that makes some sense. Do it while you’re on the phone, or you’ll lose it.
Tip: Pay even more attention to what your friend says back to you.
Here’s why.
Certain friends know you better than you know yourself. They can often quickly and clearly summarize our “long road to nowhere” arguments in a single sentence.
Don’t be surprised to hear your friend answer: “Oh, so you’re just trying to say (x+ y= z.)
Your jaw may drop open because the very idea you have been in a three-day-oiled-pig- wrestling- match with — has just tripped off their tongue in 2 seconds.
My friends are used to me interrupting them on the phone. I say things like: “Stop talking… I’m writing that down…I hate you…you’re a genius!”
Don’t forget to buy your friend a coffee.
But first, type up that phone gold.
Put it in your bio, blog post, grant proposal or artist’s statement.
Leave in your personality. Leave out the long sentences.
Keep working on the idea that what you truly want to say, has value.
When you begin to believe what you say has value, and you begin to write with that belief in your mind — your ideal audience will throw open their hearts and embrace your words with open arms, perhaps for the first time.
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Read the first post in The Charmed Studio’s Writing For Artists series on:
Improve Your Art Writing Overnight by Forbidding Yourself To Do 2 Things.
Or try the third post:
How Vulnerability Can Make Your Art Writing Shine.
Extra Writing Help from The Charmed Studio for Artists and Aspiring Writers:
How To Write a Kick-Butt Opening Paragraph: With this Easy Paragraph Sandwich Template
5 Crazy-Good Writing Books I Wish Someone Told Me About Earlier.
Start Writing Your Book in 7 Days, With Tea
51 Blog Post Topics for Heart-Centered Artists
On the importance of being weird: Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Laureate: Genies, Junos, Junk Shops, and Genius
Great article on Writing for Artists & Visual Thinkers by Austin Kleon.
Want one-on-one coaching for an important piece of writing? Check out my coaching services.
Or forget books and pass on classes.
Just write. Write a lot.
You’ll get better.
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Comment please if you can: This is the first time I have dared voice this off-the-wall theory of mine. If you relate to it at all or want more posts like this, please let me know in the comments. Thank you guys for reading!
Agree with you so much on this! artists are the same, you want to show but also hide at the same time. To different extents and in various ways – modern art for example (who understands that?) which is so hard to understand and can sometimes have many meanings – some very complicated and some simple…and then illustration or representational art – where the meaning or story might be super obvious but still there is so much you can hide in plain view…which may be even more fun to do. On one side I agree with you that we should try and express things clearly – especially with writing! but on the other side there is a very interesting and involved process that this balancing of seen and hidden meaning creates – which I really love. Not just making but viewing other artists work as well – trying to find out what they are screaming out, what they are saying and what they are not saying at all but hinting at. Where you could guess, that it might be pointing towards something but you aren’t sure- it makes you think and imagine …ok I’ll stop! thank you so much for pointing out the audio version I love it!
Thanks for your kind words on audio version. Yes, I agree Kikoe with your good point about mystery being key to art and and story writing. You want ambiguity or space for a viewer to have their own experience or interpretation of your work. But I would say lack of clarity loses its romantic, creative appeal in non-fiction writing—especially copy writing for your blog. Hope that’s clearer now. 🙂
Yeah it is, thanks for making the separation for me – here you are talking about actually communicating in the best way possible – clear and enjoyable. I have to remember that. I totally get it, reading confusing writing is painful! (like me editing my blogs/anything I write). I got so excited to find a similarity between art and writing that I missed the point you were making – this is non fiction! We aren’t trying to create mystery! Thanks so much for explaining:D
I love the fact that you bring in your experience with art when you comment. Please keep doing that! I am always interested in exploring the bridges, similarities and differences between the visual arts and writing. There isn’t much written out there for people like us who are trying to develop as both artists and writers. So all metaphors and ruminations welcome! It helps me think more about it. Thanks for your comment.And try to remember writing is like drawing; the more you do it, the less basic frustration you will have with it. You are a good writer. Just honor yourself by continuing to show up and work on your blog. It’s just a matter of putting in the hours. Keep doing what you are doing and little by little thing get less tedious and more exciting. It’s never a rose garden. But it gets a hell of a lot easier over time I promise.
Thanks for your encouragement! I have to take a cue from Nike…and just do it. lol
You are doing it already. You are working hard on many aspects of your creative life as we speak.
Since I’ve been outed here, let me add my words of great appreciation for all the blog posts on the delightful Charmed Studio – especially this one! You so charmingly and disarmingly teach what I have also tried to convey to my students over the years, lessons that I had to learn the slow and hard way (I’m happy to know that lesson about ending your sentence on a strong word stuck, Tracy!, and was delighted when Thea claimed her strong voice). I don’t think linearly either and could never follow even my own outlines. I often draw out my chapters with messy charts of circles, triangles, arrows and scribbled ideas all over the page. I finally accepted my messy but imaginative process, came into my own, and my book, AN INTIMATE REBUKE (Duke UP 2018) about FEMALE GENITAL POWER, is on its way into the public eye now. Unabashed plug: order it now on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Intimate-Rebuke-Politics-Religious-Cultures/dp/1478001550
Laura (Laura Grillo)
Thanks for your comment and kind words Laura. I think your work with female and minority students on this topic was/is especially important.Here’s why:
What Being Female a Minority or Just Plain Different, Has To Do With Unclear Writing
Being a women or a minority doesn’t help in the writing confidence/clarity area either.
If your opinions have been ridiculed or marginalized in the past for wrong-headed reasons like your gender, sexual orientation, skin color or your originality and uniqueness; it can inhibit your desire to make clear pronouncements on the page.
You may want to blend in, stay safe.
Because, as your ego rightly reasons, making clear statements about how you really think or feel, could draw unfair ridicule again.
I especially connected with the first part of how we think differently. It made me think about how I think – haha. But I think I think in feelings and in image. I often remember the feelings but not what gave me the feeling.
Thanks for the article to help me understand myself a bit better. I’m about to really get in and start writing so I need your inspiring articles now more than ever.
Thanks also for the two lines. ‘Leave in your personality. Leave out the long sentences.’. Such simple sounding advice will stay in my head – like Laura’s – always end strong. Will stay with me as I write.
Hey Tracy! So glad you could relate. So interesting that you “think in feelings” and in images. I think there has been so little research on highly creative brains. Yes, Laura ( Dr. Laura Grillo) gives great writing advice to dissertation writers and writers in general. I dedicated a writing post (https://thecharmedstudio.com/5-best-reference-books-for-writers/) to her and mentioned her in it because she helped me uncover so much about writing. She really helped me to stop using apologetic like “perhaps,” “maybe,” and ” I feel” – and encouraged me to say things like… I assert. Which can be terrifying right? “Just state what you think as a sentence and don’t apologize for it in the sentence.”Go Laura!
Great article, Thea.
Being understood does make you vulnerable and that can be scary.
Thanks very much for reaching out to let me know you liked the article Chey. And you put it so well -“being understood does make you vulnerable and that can be scary.” Yes Yes Yes. I admire your writing, its professional and personal at the same time.
Thank you! All the best.
Brilliant! Many take-aways here for me. One being that I have this tendency to rush through to `get it done so I can relax’, LOL. Being `in-it’ sometimes is fearful. Like being close to a blast furnace of truth. With a creature lurking inside that will throw fire bolts at me if I linger to long. The truth is, the longer I stay and face that fear, the furnace becomes me alchemically and the potential is there to turn leaden words and thoughts into gold. And then what? It may actually be finished! LOL.
Such a beautiful conceptualization John! Wow. That helps me think deeper on the whole topic. Makes me think more about fear and how we can learn to live with the heat of it. Keep our own feet to the fire as an act of creative self care. Counterintuitive thought but right on the money I think. Every day you write you will develop more heat tolerance right? Or increase one’s alchemical forge-ability tolerance. 🙂
Once more into the forge!!! Thanks so much for reading the piece and for your great insight.
That was a wonderful article, it was very intersting and Informative. It made me have a lot of realizations that I either could not speak out as perfectly or didn’t think about properly. I’m not a good writer, I’m more the ‘visual’ type of person but I would love to get better 🙂 so I will try and apply the advice you give. Thank you so much :).
Oh and your articles really feel like high quality and I can always sense that you put so much heart and effort inside to make it perfect. Thank you for sharing such inner thoughts of yours I can relate a lot to everything you say.
So glad it makes sense! I can’t thank you enough for this comment. I should print it out and tape it to the wall above my desk or just write it with a Sharpie marker on my arm for those low self esteem days. lol. Thank you for all your support and magical words.
“Kind words not only lift our spirits in the moment they are given, but they can linger with us over the years.”
—Joseph B Wirthlin