Blanket of Lace

Cherry blossoms fall all around
covering the grass, they grace the ground.

Does the grass say, “remove your weight from me?
You don’t belong here, go back to your tree.”

Or, does the grass revel in the cool embrace
as a cherry blossom blanket of lace

protects its blades from the blazing sun
sheltering its green beauty ‘til the day is done?

And, when the pink blanket lifts on an evening breeze
does the grass whisper softly, “come again, if you please?”

Fear of Writing the Unknown

I have been both conservative in my writing and stuck. The realization suddenly struck that, maybe, these two go hand in hand.

When I say conservative, I mean that I am afraid to step out and write what I don’t know. If I am not familiar with the setting, certain plot points, characters line of work, or whatever else I would need to research in order to write, then I am afraid to write it. This fear is that someone will call me on a mistake I have made because my research was not thorough enough or I somehow made an error in factual information.

So, I have been playing it safe and I have been stuck. This stuckness, I believe, is because playing it safe is no fun. I have a strong feeling that my stories are a bit flat because I am not stepping outside of my own reality. I feel at times I would be more comfortable writing a memoir because no one can argue that it isn’t my story. However, I don’t want to write a memoir, I want to write fiction. Good fiction. Interesting and engaging fiction.

Now that I realize why I am stuck, I must discern how I am going to find the courage to unstick myself and write the unknown.

Am I alone, or does anyone else deal with this same fear? What are your other fears?