I give fear the power, I know this, therefore I dictate the level of fear I am feeling.

The jolt isn't up for negotiation. A door slams, a phone rings at two in the morning, and something much older than you gets there first.

What happens next is where the dial actually sits. The forty minutes of rehearsing worst cases, the eleven drafts of a conversation you haven't had yet — that gets built, and building takes participation.

Watch for the moment fear stops being information and starts being a story you are writing. You can put the pen down there. Not always at the first jolt. Reliably at the second.