Risk Taking Without Desperation: Write From Trust

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Risk Taking Without Desperation: Write From Trust – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 194

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“Every creative project involves risk, whether you are writing a novel, creating a play, a film, or starting your own creative entrepreneur business.” – Beth Barany

In the this episode of How To Write the Future podcast, titled “Risk Taking Without Desperation: Write From Trust,” host Beth Barany discusses how taking risks is unavoidable in both the realm of storytelling and being a creative entrepreneur.

She shares her own business growth and future plans, including different ways she thinks about risks.

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

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About the How To Write the Future podcast

The How To Write The Future podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. We cover tips for fiction writers.This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for episode 194 – Risk Taking Without Desperation: Write From Trust

Introduction

BETH BARANY: Every creative project involves risk. Whether you are writing a novel, creating a play, a film, or starting your own creative entrepreneur business. 

Hi everyone. I’m Beth Barany. I’m here today to talk to you about taking risks both in the realm of storytelling and in the realm of building your own creative entrepreneur business, because I am developing a whole new wing of my business where I help people like myself who are already creative writers, who want to also serve other creative writers. Yes. How to Write The Future Podcast is my sandbox where I am playing with lots of interesting ideas, to bring you into the kind of future you would like.

Whether you’re writing science fiction or fantasy, or whether you want to create your own creative business that speaks to you, that serves you, that really feeds you, that brings you joy. 

[01:04] Risk in the Body: Calculations vs. Sensations

So today, let’s talk about risk. I think of risk in a few different ways. I think of the calculations that we can make around numbers and time and pros and cons, sort of the linear left brain, the things you can write down and look at a list. And the things you can, that are tangible in your life versus the body sensations of taking a risk. How does it feel when you think about the next risky thing that you want to write about, whether it’s the next chapter or the next book? How does that feel in your body?

[01:40] “Scare-sighted” Storytelling: Writing the Hard Parts

A friend of mine, Gala Russ, who is my co-teacher with the Creative Entrepreneur trainings, she got a word from her kids when they were small, and that word is scare sighted. I love that word, scare sighted. Are you a little bit scared, a little bit excited about this new step you wanna take in your writing?

I know that when I am writing my science fiction fantasy adventure stories, I really need to put my characters in difficult positions. And one of the ways I know I’m doing that is if I feel a little bit scared and a little bit excited, and then because I’m writing a story, I go ahead and write it and just see, well, what could happen?What might that be like? 

And it’s always turns out better than I expect actually. I’m always surprised at how fun it is to write it, but also how well it works for the story. 

[02:34] Trust & Intuition (and a Real-Life Tangent)

Because if you are listening to me right now, and it also, if you have listened to my previous episodes, you may know that I come from an intuitive, organic place when it comes to my fiction writing.

Well, guess what? It also has evolved. I have evolved to really trust my own instincts. 

[02:53] Don’t Decide from Desperation: A Better Creative Mindset

I was brainstorming this episode with one of my creative entrepreneur grads, Iman. And Iman is an operations assistant and handles the behind the scenes for creative people. And she said something really great. She said, desperation shouldn’t be your tool in making decisions. So even if you’re, if you’re writing a story, do you wanna come from a place of desperation? Like, oh my God, I have to hurry this, or else. I personally find that very difficult to write from. In fact, I can’t write if I’m in that state. I have to write from a place of trust, from a place of love, and from a place of like being fully engaged and committed to the story and to my characters. Same with being a creative entrepreneur.

If you would like to serve other creatives and you’re being called to help other creative writers, then if you are doing it out of a place of desperation, like maybe financial desperation or some other kind of desperation, it can be very difficult to make decisions from that place. So how do we wanna make decisions and how do we make, already risk related decisions in our lives?

[04:04] How I Make Big Decisions: Sleep on It, Get Input, Gather Data

So I would encourage you to think back, well, the last time you had to make a very difficult decision. How did you go about doing that? Now you may be like me, in which, when it comes to making a hard decision, you need to sleep on it. In fact, I sleep on it for about two to three days, depending on how big the decision is.

And I also talk to other people, loved ones, people I trust, advisors who would know more about the topic than I do. Do I turn to AI? Sometimes. Search engines? Sometimes. I am gathering information. The more information I can gather, then when I sleep on it, it’s like my body can digest and can really think through the highs and the lows, the pros and the cons.

And not only am I gathering intellectually information, but I’m gathering emotional information about whether or not this is a good decision for me. Now it’s not quick. And that’s because I really come from an emotional, physical place. 

[05:01] Your Personal Risk Process (and Resisting Pressure)

Now, of course, you might be different, you might make a decision really quickly and you might base it on your intuition or base it on all the pros and cons.

That’s okay. 

I want you to think about how do you take risks and what are the best ways, what is your process for that, versus letting anyone pressure you to take a risk, take a step that you don’t like, that doesn’t feel right for you and, even if it’s illogical. 

[05:27] Risk Never Goes Away: Writing, Marketing, Hiring, and Business Choices

When you are a creative. When you are a creative writer, there are a lot of risks to take every step of the way from deciding what to write about, to deciding who to pitch your story to or who to market your story to. Deciding how to really make things challenging for your characters. All of those involve risk.

Same with running a creative entrepreneur business. At every step of the way, there’s gonna be risk. And the risk actually never goes away. Every decision I have to make, whether or not I do business with certain people, whether or not I invest my money in certain projects or programs or pieces of software, or marketing channels.

I do hire people for support around creating images. I’ve done that in the past. Maybe I hire someone to edit videos, right? Like anytime I’m asking for help, especially in the marketing realm, to me, that feels like a big risk because I have to communicate my vision and the messaging and the branding, and who’s my audience. And there’s a lot of factors at play, and I’m taking a risk. Will they understand my messaging or not? Will they get it? Will they really help me meet my goal? And we don’t know. Everything involves risk when you run a creative business. 

[06:38] Wrap-Up + Invitation: Bootcamp, VIP Mastermind, and the Quiz

Alright, I’m gonna stop here for today. Thank you so much for listening about me discuss risk, both for being a writer and for being a creative entrepreneur. 

And if you are curious about what is involved in being a creative entrepreneur and you’re a writer who wants to serve other writers, come join our March bootcamp. The link will be in the show notes. You can register for that. Join us for four days, get a lot of great education, get a lot of great hands-on training with me and Gala, and you will get some live support from us ’cause we will be there with you while you watch our trainings. We’re gonna be there with you answering all the questions that you have, and then there’s an optional upgrade for a small, intimate mini VIP mastermind where you’re gonna get live help from us, in a small group. 

So check that out if you’re interested. and be sure to also take our quiz. 

Go ahead and put “quiz” in the comments if you’re watching this on YouTube, and we’ll be sure to give you the link to the quiz, so you can see what kind of creative business style you have.

All right, that’s it for this week, everyone. Write long and prosper.

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ABOUT BETH BARANY

Beth Barany

Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites: 

 

Author site /  Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

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CREDITS

c 2025 BETH BARANY

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