Negative Capability #1: Feel Your Fears & Write Anyway
This article is for: Everyone!
Writing poetry can be hard—sometimes very hard.
And I’m not talking here about the technical side of poetry, although goodness knows that can be tough enough!
I mean the emotional demands of writing.
I mean how sometimes, trying to work on a poem can lead us into such doubt, such fear and loss of confidence, that we lose all our joy in writing—or maybe even stop writing altogether.
These times are never fun. But you can overcome them—and in a strange way, they might even be necessary for your writing to thrive and improve.
To explain why this is, I’m going to introduce you to the concept of Negative Capability, first created in 1817 by the English poet John Keats. And I’m going to explain to you why this 200-year-old idea is something you can and should use every time you write.
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What Is Negative Capability?
John Keats defined Negative Capability as:
“when a [poet] is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”
If you’re anything like me, your first reaction on reading this might be, Huh? What does that actually mean, John?
Keats himself never explained it very fully, so I’m going to try to do the job for him.
And just so you know, I’m covering a form of Negative Capability that Keats himself probably didn’t mean, but which is very strongly related to what he did mean, and very important. (I’ll cover what he really did mean in another article.)
Doubt and uncertainty are normal
Let’s focus first on the beginning of what Keats said:
“when a [poet] is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts”
Why is this so important?
Because every time you create a poem, you are making something entirely new. No one else has ever put together these words, in this order, about this topic, in this exact form. No one. You are exploring a unique path, going off into the wilderness, all by yourself, with no certainty about where your route will lead you.
And that’s a risky thing to do, because you don’t know how it is going to go. You don’t know, at the beginning or perhaps ever, whether the poem is going to work or not. You don’t know quite how the form of the poem is going to shape up. You don’t even know what you’re going to end up saying, since we hardly ever write exactly what we thought we were going to write. So there are lots and lots of areas for doubt and uncertainty.
Moreover, there is also lots and lots of scope for fear and anxiety. The poem might flop completely. You might be criticized or judged for it (most likely by yourself). It might all be a terrible idea! You can’t know, but all these things are possible, and may make you feel a great deal of worry and even pain.
Now, I am not saying that every poem is super painful, but I am saying that every poem process involves some uncertainty and emotional risk, and that often leads to us feeling doubts and fears—sometimes pretty nasty ones.
And this is where Keats rides in to rescue us!
Hold onto your fears and keep writing
Now we need the second part of what Keats said:
“when a [poet] is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”
Let’s unpack those words in bold a bit.
When you’re in a position that’s frightening, or even uncomfortable, it’s human and normal to try to get out of it. If you’re being chased by a tiger, you run. (Good luck!) If your chair is too hard, you fetch a cushion. (Ahhh, that’s better…)
And if you’re facing a great deal of doubt, uncertainty, confusion, and/or fear in the middle of writing a poem, you’re going to want to do something to remove those feelings, which is to:
STOP.
And I think this is a part of what Keats meant by the “fact and reason” that we reach out for when we’re feeling rough.
When you’re suffering, writing the poem seems totally unreasonable, because it’s hard and painful, whereas stopping seems like a much more reasonable thing to do! It’s a cool, solid, fact you can choose in place of the poem. And if stopping means you can go do something more “sensible” instead, like pay your bills or clean the house, that will seem all the more reasonable!
But Negative Capability means doing the opposite of this.
Negative Capability means:
In the middle of doubt or fear, keep writing anyway.
In other words, we have to be Capable despite the Negative feelings that may come up.
And above all, we need to keep writing.
Why it’s important to use Negative Capability
But why should we keep writing when we feel doubt and discomfort? Wouldn’t it be better to stop, and wait for the feelings to go away?
Actually, no, for a few good reasons:
1. You’re giving away your writing power
If you have to stop every time you feel doubts or troubles, you won’t be in charge of your writing process any more.
That will be a problem: you won’t enjoy your writing as much, and you won’t get nearly as much written.
2. The doubt and discomfort may never go away
It’s all very well to stop and wait for the doubts and fears to diminish, but what if they come back the moment you pick up the pen/pencil/laptop again? Because they very well might do!
Then you’ll be stuck forever.
3. Doubt and uncertainty are necessary for learning and growing
To my mind, the main reason for using Negative Capability is this:
Doubts and fears tend to come up most when you’re doing the right things in your writing.
When you’re taking risks and breaking new ground with your poems—trying a new form or a new voice, or perhaps daring to write about some very personal topic for the first time—you’re doing the things that are most likely to lead to learning and to good poems.
But these are also the things that are most likely to lead to you feeling doubtful and afraid as you write!
So to give yourself the chance of writing your very best poetry, you have to be able to keep going when you feel uncertain, anxious, or downright bad.
How to Strengthen and Use your Negative Capability
I hope I’ve convinced you that you really need this thing with the bizarre name that Keats invented 200 years ago.
But it’s one thing to say “Keep writing when you feel bad,” and another to actually do it when your insides feel like they’re being crushed.
In particular, I do not want you ever to feel so bad writing a poem that the experience is actively painful or even traumatic.
So here are some ways you can grow your Negative Capability gently.
1. Expect It
For some people, just realizing that doubt and even fear are a natural part of the writing process is enough to make it not a problem. It’s simply a thing that happens, and that’s OK.
Even if you’re not one of those folks, just knowing that the negative feelings are not a bad sign can help a lot. If you feel the bad emotions flowing in, tell yourself that they probably mean you’re doing good work, not bad work, and that it’s a great time to carry on.
This by itself may be enough.
2. Box It Up
Another thing you can try is to imagine the negative emotions as only a part of you: merely a section of your mind or personality.
This can work precisely because the doubt and fear, when they come, seem overwhelming and all-consuming. But they’re not everything: you still have all the strong, creative, daring, exploratory parts of you as well, even if they’ve been temporarily covered over.
So when the fear and doubt come, stop for a moment and picture your mind as having two “rooms”:
In one room are all the fears, doubts, negative self-talk, and so on.
But in the other room are all the positives that you do really still possess: your creative side, all the skills you’ve acquired in poetry, your faith in yourself, your desire to learn, and so on.
Then you can say to yourself, “I hear you, doubts and fears, and I know that you’re real, and I know that you’re trying to keep me safe. But I also know that you’re not all of me, and at this time, I choose to remember and keep working with my optimistic, creative sides, and not let myself be stopped.”
It might sound hokey, but from personal experience I know it works.
3. Break It Up
Sometimes no trick works, and you just can’t master the fears and doubts. What to do?
Well, you could plow on and keep writing, but that may come at too high an emotional price. At these moments, I think it’s OK to pause.
That’s pause, not stop. Say yourself that you will come back to this poem and keep it going, and then do that, pretty soon (ideally not more than a day or two later), even if it’s only for a short time—15 minutes or even less. Keep nibbling away at the poem, as many times as you need, until you break through and complete it.
These times when you master a real tough challenge are especially powerful for building up your Negative Capability, so if you get one of these, treat it as a great chance to learn, and make it one of your mental list of achievements, as discussed in the next tip.
4. Build It Up
Your Negative Capability is a mental muscle, one that you can strengthen over time.
So when you experience fear and doubt, but carry on and finish the poem anyway (perhaps using my other tips), you will have proved to yourself that you have that much Negative Capability. That will boost your confidence, and help you tackle harder challenges in the future.
This approach works best if you do it consciously:
Any time you get through a difficult poem process, reflect on it and congratulate yourself for the strength you showed and how much Negative Capability you used
Keep a mental list of a few poems where you felt particularly bad, but still got through and finished the poem. Have these ready to use as evidence for yourself that can keep going because you have kept going in the past.
Make yourself your own cheerleader, and keep writing!
4a. Share It Out
A variant of the previous tip is to have a writing buddy you can call on when you’re struggling. Then your buddy can remind you of all the times you got through it and get you going again.
5. Forewarned is Forearmed
Over time, you should find that as your Negative Capability goes up, your levels of doubt and fear go down. This is great—enjoy it! It means you’ve worked hard and earned it.
BUT, be aware: when you try doing something new, the doubt and fear will probably come back strongly!
So be ready for this to happen, and when it does, you can use all my other tips to get you through this new challenge. If you’ve conquered the fears and doubts before, you can do it again—and remember, just Keep Writing.
Next Steps:
Here’s an exercise that’s more intensive than you would usually want during a poem process, but I think it’s worth doing once or a few times to see more clearly how all this Negative Capability stuff works.
Next time you’re working on a poem, try to notice the point at which doubts and worries start to arise.
In your notebook or on the poem draft, write down what the doubts and fears are. Also rate them on a scale from 1 (almost nothing) to 10 (paralyzing).
Use one of my tips above to try to contain or reduce the doubts and fears.
Set a timer for 5 minutes, and keep writing the poem.
When the timer goes, check on the fears and doubts again. Are they still there? How strong are they now from 1 to 10?
Use the same tip, or another tip, to hold the fears; set the timer again; and write again.
Repeat this until:
EITHER you finish the poem or the fears and doubts go away
OR it’s getting too hard to continue.If you finished the poem, or if the fears and doubts dissolved, congratulate yourself! You just stretched your Negative Capability and got through.
If you can’t carry on, then Pause, but decide when you’re going to come back to the poem. Then stick to that time, and use this exercise again, and again, until you do get it done.
