We storytellers often feel afraid when we Begin a story.  Fear can strike us in The Middle and The End, too, especially if we do not have much experience with creating a whole story.

When young elves turn to the elf elders for advice and for comfort, the elf elders tell us the truth, that creating a story is hard.

“Hard is not the same as bad,” the elders say.

Hard means we need to make new efforts, learn new skills, take chances we have never taken before, and keep trying—even when we feel like giving up.  Bad is very different and means that the things that are happening are unwelcome.

So, if we know before we start that the undertaking is going to be challenging, but that we do welcome the experience, then creating a story does not feel as scary.  (This is probably why Valkiri the illustrator elf gave the teller of hedgehog stories a smile and not a look of fear.)

New idea:  If we expect that writing, illustrating, or anything new to a storyteller is going to be tough at times, then our experience is often much more tolerable.  We can repeat what the elf elders say, “Hard is not the same as bad.”

This may even put a smile on the lips as we sit down to work!

(If you would like to see a Drawing tip on the series of little decisions we had to make to create a writer warrior hedgehog, please see Decisions-One-By-One.)