How to Tame Writing Anxiety

Writing anxiety is not just for novices and college freshman.

Writing anxiety is a real thing that affects people at all stages of their life and career—a Google search returned 442,000,000 results in less than a third of a second—and its symptoms can be physical, cognitive, and behavioral.

• Do you have inexplicable indigestion, rapid heartbeat, sweating palms, or muscle tension in your jaw, shoulders, or back?
• Does your brain get foggy as soon as you open a Word document?
• Do you feel bored and listless or easily distracted?
• Are your thoughts racing about everything else you need to get done?
• Are you procrastinating?
• Are you paralyzed by perfectionism?

Writing anxiety is fueled by fear of failure and rejection and doubt about your talent. It’s also powered by the dread of being judged harshly, the traumas we endured when we truly expressed ourselves, and the countless unhealed creative wounds inflicted by teachers, coaches, and well-meaning but clueless people.

Another challenge: The inner critic.

For most of us, a slice of our personality operates below our awareness and observes, monitors, and corrects our behaviors. This inner critic often runs on auto-pilot and feels so normal that you might not recognize it. It may even adopt your voice.

While the inner critic may have a place during the editing and polishing phase of a draft, it often impedes creativity and expression with excessive “shoulds and shouldn’ts” and a barrage of discouragement. It must be neutralized.

Here are some practical ways to tame your writing anxiety.

• Eat well, stay hydrated, and make sure you get enough sleep. If you are hungry and telling yourself you will eat lunch as soon as you hit 500 words, those 500 words are going to be much harder to reach BECAUSE YOU ARE HUNGRY. Eat a sandwich, OK?
• Take a break. Take a short walk, grab a shower, or run out for a cup of coffee. The brief change of scenery will loosen you up. Don’t worry. That page of half-baked sentences will be there when you return.
• Pre-write. Spend a few moments organizing your thoughts. This works especially well if you feel stuck or jumbled. You can read more on prewriting here.
• Freewrite. Set a timer for three minutes and write whatever comes into your head. Don’t worry about the quality of prose or grammar or even making sense. Just write to hear the tapping of keys or the scratching of pen on paper. It will help you take yourself less seriously. That’s a good thing.
• Think small. Do you know how The Great Wall of China was built? One stone at a time. And do you know how you finish a blog, essay, or novel? One sentence at a time. That’s all. Trust your sentences.
• Call a writer friend or writing partner. No one knows how to bitch and moan quite like another writer.
• Put your inner critic on ice. Two things that help quell the inner critic: mindfulness meditation (lets you observe your thoughts in real time) and psychotherapy.

We’ve all been through it.

Feeling writing anxiety doesn’t mean you aren’t cut out to be a writer. It simply means that you are a human being who cares deeply about what you’re doing and wants your prose to shine. Keep doing the work and it will.

Full article available at https://thehumani.substack.com/p/how-to-tame-writing-anxiety.

To contact me to help you with your next writing project, email [email protected].