My anxiety is making writing impossible!

Helping a reader through The Fear

Photo by Tonik on Unsplash

Hello Team CCC! Happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a wonderful week. My podcast, You’re Booked is back with a brand new episode, a conversation about writing, reading and crime with Bella Mackie. We’ve got a gorgeous edition with Dawn O’Porter coming next Monday. Listen here and binge the backlist. We’ve got some fantastic episodes coming with authors including Holly Williams, Liane Moriarty and Paula Hawkins…

I’m having so much fun with my Write Like A Reader class - so far, we’ve worked on getting started, character creation, feeling out a plot, and we’re about to explore how to bring pace to our work. Booking is open for the very last Write Like A Reader course of 2024, starting on Sunday 27 October. You can find out more here, and if you’d like the full syllabus, email creativeconfidenceclinic@gmail.com. There will be a price increase in 2025, so this is the last opportunity to sign up with the current course pricing. Paid subscribers get a great discount…

…and this is a great time to take advantage of the Autumn Uprade offer! You can upgrade to an annual subscription, which works out at £2.50 a month - and you get full archive access, community commenting privileges, a special rate on all the courses I run and the chance to join Sunday sessions and workshops (all available to watch on playback) as well as the exclusive Friday Dear Daisy letter. If you’re able to pay for this newsletter, I’m so grateful for your support. If there’s anything you’d like to explore with me in this space, I’d love to hear from you.

Now for this week’s Dear Daisy - I write to a reader who is struggling to write through their anxiety. If you have a Dear Daisy question, email creativeconfidenceclinic@gmail.com

I’m too anxious to write!

Dear Daisy,

I’ve always struggled with anxiety, and over the years I’ve found various ways to manage it. But right now, it’s rearing up and becoming unbearable when I’m faced with a blank page! Whenever I sit down to write, I feel overpowered by it. It’s physical, not mental. I tell myself ‘Just write something – anything!’ and I immediately feel awful, as though I want to tear my own skin off. My chest feels solid, my lungs don’t work, sometimes I feel a bit sick. It’s as though my body has suddenly become allergic to writing, which breaks my heart. This has always been where I find my joy, and how I make sense of the world. I’m just writing for myself, I don’t have a deadline or an editor or any obvious scary source of fear. Just general dread! What should I do?

Love

Petrified Writer