Writing anxiety is one of the strangest situations ever. It makes you scared of doing exactly what you love to do. Then, how can it be solved?
You can overcome writing anxiety by recognizing your behavior patterns leading to the anxiety, then subverting them.
That is vague, I am well aware. So, let us get into the meat and potatoes of it all, shall we fellow/fellow-ress.
What Is The Anxiety Of Being A Writer?
Writing anxiety is the strong panic and fear that you feel when you are exposed to either having to write a book, or exposed to the idea of writing at all.
Writing anxiety refers to mostly any hopelessness and insecurity that a writer may feel towards writing. However, it is important to note how these feelings actually work.
These feelings do not necessarily rise from the fear of writing itself. The person may not mind writing tests or coping academic works. Instead, writing anxiety usually appears when a person has to write their own work.
This fear usually stems from people’s fear of judgement. You will not be judged for rewriting other people’s words, but in other situations this could change. For example, having to write an essay composed of their own idea. Or having to write to a crush.
For our interest though, we are focusing on the writing anxiety that could arise when you are about to write your own book.
Can Anxiety Make It Hard To Write?
Writing anxiety can impact the quality of your work and also the quality of your productivity when you are writing.
A study was posted on PubMed. They were studying writing anxiety as it relates to the situation of students writing in a foreign language. What they found is that foreign language writing anxiety has moderate correlations with writing performance, and writing self-efficacy.
I believe that this is something which can be extended towards writing novels and stories too.
Your writing anxiety when you are about to write a novel has a correlation with your writing performance, and writing self-efficacy.
Another study by Eurasian Journal of Education Research attempted to discover the relationship between Writing Anxiety, and Writing Disposition among Secondary School Students. What they found was that there was a positive correlation between anxiety and disposition in writing. They also found that “the more students like Turkish courses, the more anxious they became”. Finally, they concluded, “the severity of writing anxiety should be addressed as it can drain the students’ motivation to become competent writers.”
The point being, it seems as if the more you liked writing, the more anxious you become about having to write.
There is a phenomena known as choking, discussed in Malcolm Gladwell’s The Art Of Failure. We learned about this in Performance Psychology, which attempts to study the psychology of elite performers in the world, from Olympic athletes, to world class dancers.
They found that there are 2 ways in which elite performers fail. They either panic, which refers to an experience where you feel so much fear and anxiety, that your mind can’t think. In contrast, there is choking, which refers to the moment where you start to be hyperaware of your body, meaning you lose all the “looseness” and fluidity in your movements that you gained from years of practice. Instead, you start playing like a beginner again, overanalyzing every move you make.
When experiencing writing anxiety, I tend to choke. I hyper focus on spelling, and sentence structure. Meaning, I will sit there for an hour and only do half a page of work. Meanwhile, when I am calm, I write through a page, and when I read it again, I am amused by the product.
This could happen to you too if only you learn to control your writing anxiety.
How Can I Reduce My Anxiety When Writing?
1. Learn Why You Want End Your Anxiety
The first step is to quantify how much writing anxiety has costed you in your life, and try to formulate why you want to lose your writer anxiety.
Before we get into how you are going to do this, first we need to discuss the 2 main reasons why you’d want to do this.
The first reason you’d want to do this is to try and get a full scope of writing anxieties impact on your life. It may be one of the most ironic thing you could possibly ever hear, but I firmly believe giving instructions is not the best way to help people, especially when it comes to writing.
Everybody’s situation is unique, socially, economically, and culturally. Also, everyone single person is unique too. The one person who knows just how to fix your problem is probably you. This is why I always teach the way that I do. in such a way that will stimulate “fixing mode” in you so that you will see how to fix your problems, and have the five to actually do it.
This is one way to stimulate this fixing mode.
When you have a clear idea of just what writing anxiety means in your unique situation, you will have a clear picture of your enemy. On top of that, you will have a clear idea of what you must do in order to fix that problem.
The second reason is that you want to create motivation that will carry you over the next 9 steps, and the days it will take for you to complete each step. This writing anxiety fixing technique is permanent. But first, you must create it, then you will be able to wear it at any time you wish. It’s like an armor. It may take a couple of months to get all the metal, and to hammer it into place. But after that’s done, you can wear it in minutes and be ready for the battle.
Getting a picture of the writing anxiety’s effects in your life will give you the motivation to create this.
So, how can you go about quantifying the anxieties effects? Simple. Look at what you have lost because of it, and look at what you will gain when you have completely overcome it.
2. Try Losing Something
The second step is to try and observe exactly what you have lost both physically, and emotionally due to your writing anxiety.
This step and the next are the easiest.
Pull out a pen, and paper. Or Excel. Then, for the header create three columns. Column one, you will write down the whole row line, “Because of writing anxiety, I lost my”.
The second column is going to have a header. This header is called “physically losses”. Then, the third column’s header is going to be written, “emotional losses.”
Action Steps
Then begin filling it in, up to 10 at least. i recommend setting a timer, then writing as much as you can on the single column for about 30 seconds. Then, do the same with the second. The reason that you want to do this is because you conscious mind has a tendency of self censoring. What you want to do is write what your emotions, and soul feel. So, ignore bad grammar, and spelling. Just write straight from the heart.
E.g of physical column could be “I lost a lot of days” “I lost a lot of time” “I lost my prime” “I lost my ability to make a living for myself” “I lost the potential of learning new skills” etc.
E.g. of emotional losses could be. “I lost respect for myself” “I lost self-esteem” “i lost confidence” etc
3. If You Want To Gain Something
The third step is to try and discover what you will gain when you no longer have writing anxiety.
This step is much similar to the first one. Except -where you choose to believe it or not- i do not want you to die from pure shame and self loathing.
But in all seriousness, we are marking the dimensions of writing anxiety’s effects in your life. We’ve marked going down, and reached all the way to the floor. Now we need to mark going up, and try to find the ceiling. Basically, you are not trying to discover what you could realistically pull of. Instead, you trying to find what you could reach if you operated literally everyday at 100%.
What if you wrote everyday, and never felt anxious about writing?
Action Steps
Again, make three columns. The first one, fill the rows with “Because I have no writing anxiety, I have”. The second column will be “physical gains” and the third column will be “emotional gains”.
This time, you do not have to use the timer. You can just fill it in at your leisure. Try to fill it in with as much gain as you can imagine.
e.g. of physical gains could be “I have written 3 books”, “I have learned how to write engaging characters”, “I have learned to put action scenes that are exhilarating”, “I have learned to write a captivating plot”, “I have published my first book”, “I have gotten great reviews” etc
e.g. of emotional gains could be “I have gained confidence in my writing skills”, “I have gained admiration for my penning skills”, “I am a revered prose writer” etc
4. Mark The Anxiety Moments
The fourth step is to mark the moments when your anxiety is at its highest.
So nor we have the height dimensions of the room, we now need to figure out the room’s width. Starting of, you will need to mark the peak moments of your anxiety.
When you decide to write a book, you will suffer from general anxiety. WILL! This happens every time with me. Each second of the day when I am not writing a book feels like a wasted second.
However, there are those peak moments.
The peak moments are the moments when the anxiety rises to its highest. For me, it is when it seems increasingly likely that the opportunity to write will be available. maybe I am told that I do not have to come help with the dishes. Or the time is drawing closer to 06. The closer I get to having to write, the more my anxiety climbs. It gets so bad, it starts to feel like I have to perform before a stage.
Mark these moments.
Do not try to change them. Do not try to fix them. Just mark them down.
Tips
- Note the locations where the anxiety is highest, and write on your phone, or booklet (this can be a room, or a certain furniture).
- Note time. (this can be morning, day, night. It can even be specific hours if you can get those).
- Note your activity. What are you doing at the time (you could be sitting on your bed, or chair. Or just finishing chores)
Compile a list of these, and have at least 15 notes for this stage. You can either go through a week and note these down, or you can think back to your week, and write all that you remember.
5. Mark Your Feelings
The fifth step is to mark down your feelings.
At those high points, I want you to pay attention to the feelings that you feel. Write those down.
If you want a list of all the feelings you could fill in that moment, there is this list right here.
Usually though, it will be something like insecurity, inadequacy, self-loathing, and self-pitying. Find at least 10 emotions that you feel at these moments, and write those down.
6. Mark Your thoughts
The sixth step is to mark the images, and thoughts that you see in those moments.
These are the images that flash in your mind. Often times, they are catastrophizing. But sometimes, they are just lazy images.
As I am writing this, I have an image of myself laying on bed. It is morning, and I am sooo tired. Do the same for yourself. What image do you get in mind when you hit those moments?
7. Mark Your Language When You Feel Those Moments
The seventh step is to mark down your language at the moment.
There is an internal dialogue that we all go through. When in those high peak moments, and you are feeling those feelings, pay attention to the words you use.
Again, you are not trying to change them now. You are not forging the armor yet. You are just wondering the forest, and picking up the metal pieces and materials you will need for you armor.
These thoughts can be something like “Really, you are going to do this? Typical” “Damn, I’m feeling so lazy”, “Bruv, I don’t even have to do this. I’m just too lazy to do what I actually have to do”, “Of course you are going to run. You are such a coward”, “All you ever do is run”, “You are such a disappointment”, “Worthless”. These some of my hit records made for myself.
For you, I do not know. Go out there, and write a list of what you tend to think in those moments heated moments.
8. Use Different Language When In Those Moments
The eight step is to start creating a new language system that you can use for yourself.
In spite of those charming words that I tend to use to myself, I have a fairly healthy self-esteem. On top of that, I am always productive, and getting stuff done. This is specifically because I made those unconscious thought conscious, and then turned them into things that I wanted to see.
Whenever I run through my typical lines, almost automatically, there is a response that I say OUTLOUD.
“Really, you are going to do this? Typical”=“Typically amazing!”
“Damn, I’m feeling so lazy”= “I’m a sluggish train in the morning.” (when I was a child, we used to have trains drive by our house. In the morning, they’d be crusted with ice, and when the conductors arrived, it would still move. That’s what “sluggish train in the morning” means to me.)
“Bruv, I don’t even have to do this. I’m just too lazy to do what I actually have to do” = “There we go, done! Now, what did I have to do again?”
“Of course you are going to run. You are such a coward” = “Or I’m tactical.”
“All you ever do is run”= “Recklessness is not bravery”
“You are such a disappointment”=“I am *insert my name*” (Point is, I’ve succeded so much. There is no way it would make any sense for *insert my name* to be called a disappointment)
“Worthless”= “Sneaker?” (You are not yourself when you are hungry).
Action Steps
By now you should see what I’ve done, but if you still can’t tell. I use humor and intimate nickname calling to address the words. I use some nicknames that are only relevant to me, and recall my childhood. These allow me to put everything into perspective and realize that it is not such a big deal.
I say mean things to myself sometimes, but that means nothing at all.
You should do the same. Write humorous retorts to the things you say. Accept criticisms, but do not accept disrespect. These are the only things that you will ever need, because your mind is rather lazy. It will never come up with more creative swears.
Except when it says “You really think this is going to work”. Then I usually say, “we are going to try your better idea later. For now, we will try this one.”
9. Change Your Body Language
Finally, change your body language.
When you change the way you speak to yourself, you will change the images that you see in your mind. You will start seeing less of the lazy you, and see images of yourself sitting on the desk working, instead of laying in bed. This will change the words you use to describe yourself. When that changes, it will change your feelings.
You will find the writing anxiety dissipates.
When that goes, you need to find a way of “permenanting” your new feelings. You do this by putting on the armor.
Watch your body language.
Your feelings change the way you sit. If you are insecure, you curl into a ball and cover your chest. But if you are confident, you open your chest to the world, and dare it to try you.
When you feel writing anxiety, you take on a certain body language. Change this body language when you feel the writing anxiety dissipate. After that, always try to sit like that when writing.
Eventually, it will take a split second for you to go from not wanting to write, to being in the mod of writing.
Anyway, that’s how I did it. Try it out and tell me where it sucks, and where it can be improved. I’m pretty sure I’m not there yet, but I know that I will be. Think about the possibilities though. I’m telling you, when we you reach the stage where you can put it on at will, we will be that much closer to mastering mastery.