t does not matter.The secret to overcoming the fear of public response is simply to not care about what others may think. “Write from the heart, not from the head” (Bryson). This may seem like an impossibility, but writers often find themselves at their most creative when they have no one to write for but themselves. When a person writes merely for himself, never thinking about the other people that will read it, he is more likely to write something outside of conventional boundaries; he is free. Someone once said that she was willing to show her stories to people, but she would die before show her poetry; she felt her poetry was far too personal for anyone else to read. Daniel of the AlligatorsHowever, not everyone finds it easy to simply forget about those who will be critiquing one’s work. Some people can become so overcome by fear that their end work is incredibly inferior to what was possible without the fear. Take, for example, a student named Daniel. Daniel was an all-around decent student. He was never in trouble with the law, always had his homework done on time, and always strove to perform to the best of his abilities. Unfortunately, Daniel absolutely dreaded public speaking, especially when he was orally presenting something he had written. His skin would flush, then turn incredibly pale, his hands would lose there ability to hold onto to anything steadily. And then he would begin stuttering, horribly butchering the words written before him. As if that was not bad enough, he would often lose track of his points when writing, and the finished product would sound more like a first-grade textbook than a college student’s speech.Daniel’s problems came to a head one day when he was assigned the task of writing a two page report on the mating habits of the South African albino alligator. Under normal circumstances, this would have proven no match for Daniel’s incredible skills as a ...
