THE PURPOSE OF FEAR The first thing to remember about fear is that it’s not necessarily bad. Fear serves a purpose. On a primal level, fear is an adaptive response that helps us survive by motivating us to protect ourselves from danger. It is both natural and helpful in many cases. You evolved to fear things that can hurt you, and fear works to help keep you safe. The problem with fear is when you let small or irrational fears stop you from doing something you should be doing. Then fear is destructive, not protective. Some of the fears you face will make sense, while others will seem ridiculous if you rationally analyze them. That’s normal. Fears aren’t always rational (nor are they intended to be). Don’t shame yourself if you feel any of the fears listed, even if you think they are irrational. Even if they are irrational, the feeling of fear is still real, and you have to address it in order to move forward with your book. Don’t beat yourself up if fear is holding you back. It’s beaten me before, as it’s beaten almost every author at some point or another. HOW TO BEAT YOUR FEARS You can win this fight against fear. How do you do it? And, even more importantly, how do you prevent this fear in the future? You train your emotional brain to reframe the fear you feel and then use it as fuel to action, instead of inaction. I’m going to show you the specific, step-by-step method we use to help our authors overcome their fear, but first, let’s actually reframe what fear is. 42 · ThE SCriBE METhOD