Having some level of anxiety associated with writing is normal, and often a sign that a writer cares about doing well. If this anxiety motivates the writer to devote thought and effort to their writing, this stress-induced attitude and mindset can have a certain positive value.
If you are a writer, there is a good chance you've dealt with anxiety at some point in your life or even deal with it daily.
The causes of writing anxiety are many. Here are just a few: Inexperience with the type of writing task. Previous negative experiences with writing (e.g. someone, maybe a teacher, has given you negative feedback or said negative things about your writing)
Studies of artists and writers collated in Scientific American confirm that artists and writers are up to 20 times more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder (also called manic depressive illness) and 10 times more likely to suffer from depression.
Intuitive personality types (58% agreeing) were by far the most likely to harbor dreams and ambitions of writing a book, agreeing at a rate 24% higher than their Observant counterparts.
Many writers have the tendency to procrastinate and overthink every detail of their article. They shy away from doing the actual work for longer than is necessary. Don't wait until you have that perfect idea before you write and publish.
Because writing is hard work. Sure, it's not physically hard but your brain uses a lot of energy and we have not evolved to spend hours a day trying to produce words from our heads. But there is a difference between being tired and feeling fatigued, stressed and on the way to burnout.
Overthinking encourages self-doubt.
Most of the time when writers get stuck in an overthinking pattern, they're not thinking about how great their writing is. They're ruminating over things they think they did wrong, problems in their writing, or various “lacks” in their writing careers.
Many writers classify themselves as introverted because they are part of a select group of people who can create new worlds in their head, work in isolation for hours on end, and persevere to get every word just right all at the same time.
It's a fact that many writers are also HSP or highly sensitive people. Stephanie Chandler says in the article Why Highly Sensitive People Make Great Writers by Kate Frank: “The trait of sensitivity is about being observant and aware of the details of events and situations.
1 We are loners
We are not naturally team players. To be a happy writer is to enjoy solitude for creation. Writers are often introverts in the sense that they are energized by time alone with their minds. They may love being with people but it tires and drains them.
The hardest part of being a writer (IMHO) is not coming up with ideas, or hitting your word count, or breathing life into your characters. It's trusting yourself. Believing in yourself. Being yourself, and being okay with that.
Compared to the novice brains, the brains of the expert writers showed additional activity in the caudate nucleus, which is responsible for automatic functions, and the Broca's and Wernicke's areas, which deal with language and word formation.
writers are around eight times as likely to suffer from mental illness than those who don't pursue writing as a career, according to Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychology professor at Johns Hopkins who wrote Touched with Fire. Consider how this could impact you. …you may be more prone to depression and anxiety.
Most writers are extremely insecure. Kafka didn't even want any of his books published, living with doubts about his own talents throughout his entire career. Orwell, Hemingway and Fitzgerald all despaired that their writing would never live up to their expectations (or the expectations of their readers).
Having a high IQ won't make you a good writer. It may be a good advantage, but it is the fine balance between intelligence and learning that can give you the craft to form a good poem or pen a beautiful story. Writing is about the ability to express the thoughts, feelings, and ideas that are in your head.
People who overthink tend to score high in the neurotic department. Neuroticism is one of the five big personality traits, along with openness, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness.
While many endeavors of geniuses lead to remarkable results, it doesn't always come, worry-free. In fact, a common trait that geniuses have is the tendency to overthink things and worry, incessantly.
According to Grammarly's research, run-on sentences are among the top grammar mistakes made by writers worldwide. A run-on sentence contains two or more independent clauses (a group of words that contains a subject and a verb and that can stand alone as a sentence) that are not connected with correct punctuation.
Avoid archaeic spellings too. Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before. Don't use commas, that, are not, necessary. Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.
It's hard because doing it well matters, because stories matter, and the details matter, and there are often a lot of details. Sometimes they take years to organize. The feelings and ideas and memories that we put into the writing also matter, and are layered, and we can't force an understanding of them.