Writing Fear Free: Everything Is Everything Else

No, I didn’t suddenly develop a stuttering problem in that title.


This deer target might not look scary to you,
but to a horse, it can be. Learning to
be confident around this fake deer,
will help the horse be more confident in general.
It makes me a more confident rider and thus
a more confident person in general.
Everything is everything else.


I mean it.

Everything is everything else.

What the heck am I talking about?

Basically, everything is interconnected, even things that seem wholly seperate.

I originally encountered this pharse in the horse training world. Any improvements a trainer makes on a particular behavior issue will affect the horse’s other behavior issues.

Same thing with writing. Any improvements the writer makes to herself will affect her writing as well.

For exmaple, a few years ago, I started learning a design program called Paint Shop Pro. I used it to touch up pictures and make website banners and generally to waste time. What I didn’t realize was that learning this program would help me later as I began this book publishing venture. Without my Paint Shop Pro skills, I would not have been able to create the cover of Charlotte Collins and generate my own publicity flyers and posters.

That may not seem totally unrelated to the publishing field, so here’s another example. I recently overcame a great deal of my fear regarding horseback riding. (I had an accident years ago that left me afraid to ride.) Learning the skills to overcome my lingering anxiety about horses also gave me the ability to overcome my fear of writing and sharing my book with the world. Horses helped my writing.

Although it may not seem like it upon first glance, everything we learn will affect our writing.

Everything is everything else.

What things have you learned or experienced that have had an unexpected impression on your writing or on other facets of your life?

4 thoughts on “Writing Fear Free: Everything Is Everything Else

  1. Jennifer,

    It is so true….everything in our lives is connected in some way or another.

    The experience that comes to mind as I ponder your question is the way a setback has turned into something wonderful for my business. Many years ago I was laid off from my job and as a result, decided to go back to school to get a certificate in website design and publishing. I learned many skills through the classes I took, and ultimately ended up back to work.

    Here I am, many years later, a blogger. I came to this point in my life after becoming involved in network marketing and realizing that I wanted to promote my business using the Internet. Low and behold, the skills I had learned so long ago have served me very well, putting me in a position to fully understand and incorporate some of the aspects of blogging that totally throw some people for a loop.

    Totally full circle!

  2. A powerful lesson from so many angles Jennifer! I too also ride, although not much any more. I was involved in a major accident a couple years ago that took the life of the horse and it was an interesting and not always pleasant journey back to riding. Learning to face fears – like the horse in your picture – provides us the confidence to face larger and larger boogie men and come out unscathed. Wonderful stuff!
    Kimberly

  3. This design is spectacular! You most certainly know how to
    keep a reader amused. Between your wit and your videos, I was
    almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Fantastic
    job. I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it.
    Too cool!

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