An Ode to Writing Scared
A 5-Day Creative Writing Challenge to Spark A Story (& Rediscover Joy in Writing)
I’m currently taking another group of writers through the Manuscript Masterclass and soaking up every minute of it. I love spending time brainstorming and chatting about craft, story, and the business of being an author. But what I often see with students, (especially at the beginning of class) is that so many of us want to write children’s books, yet somewhere between the dream and the page, fear creeps in. We worry about structure, rhyme, “the rules,” or getting it right.
And I get it—four books in and this still happens to me. Which means I have had to learn one important thing: write scared. Here is how it goes: I get an idea that I can’t shake. It pops into my head while turning the chicken in the cast iron pan. Sprints through my mind while vacuuming the hex-tiles in the laundry room. And rolls around the back of my brain while on a run. The idea is hazy and cloudy and I don’t really know what it is, but I can’t shake it.
So while I’m somewhat afraid to sit down and actually tackle the idea (because let’s be real: what I know is very good in my mind, may shift to very terrible on the page), I force myself to sit down anyway. I create a document and jot down all the the things I can hold on to from the idea. It doesn’t make much sense, but it’s *there*. Then I open it and work on it the next day and the next and the next. Often, what I wrote originally is completely deleted and lost into the ether. But what remains? Shapes a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Sometimes, it doesn’t work out and the draft is closed after weeks and weeks of tinkering with it… and here’s the good news: that’s okay! I have shaken out the idea so a new (and hopefully better) one can take its place.
And this practice—writing in faith that the story will emerge even when I can’t see it, is how I eventually write a book.
I start with wonder, curiosity, and a blip of an idea—not perfection—and somehow a book emerges. But it all started by choosing to write scared… and this is the thing, I think, many writers struggle with.
👉 That’s why, this November, we’re going to write scared together.
From November 3-7, join me in The Picture-Book Play Lab, a FREE five-day creative challenge designed to help you write scared, spark a story, and rediscover joy in writing.
This challenge isn’t about finishing a book or meeting a deadline. It’s about loosening your grip and getting comfortable with letting your curiosity lead.
Each day, you’ll receive one small writing experiment—an email prompt that nudges you toward wonder, reflection, and play.
Your only job? Show up and try. (AKA, write scared.)
My hope is this challenge will give you creative momentum, new story ideas or fragments (beginnings, lines, or characters that surprise you), and less fear, finding a lighter, freer view of writing as worship and discovery.
By the end, you won’t have a “finished” book—you’ll have something better: confidence to keep writing. 😉
How This Works:
Click here to sign up for the challenge.
Receive one playful writing email each morning for five days.
Afterward, on Monday, November 10, we’ll gather for The Play Lab Showcase, a community thread in Substack subscriber chat where I’m hopeful each of you will be willing to share a few of your favorite lines and we can encourage each other in the craft.
No competition, no critique—just creative courage in community. Because if you’ve been around here for a bit, you know what I’m about to remind you: at the KidLit Lab, you’re never doing this alone. 🫶
Writing together,
Laura + The KidLit Lab Team