Piper Nuelle

There are many things in the world that can make everyone anxious at some point, but I feel for writers and authors, things that make us anxious are a little more personal and maybe even in a ‘borderline’ come neurodivergent way. Authors and writers as a whole seem to be a whole different breed of human being, with quirky wants and fears and anger issues when the creative juices haven’t been allowed to flow for a while, and all of that can lead to anxiety and stress.

Here is my list of things that make Writers and Authors… Anxious;

• Not Writing – Yup this is the worst, not writing or being able to write is enough to charge the spirit of the writer into a full blown rage.
• People reading their books – We like to write and put our special book babies out into the world… But that doesn’t mean we actually want people to read them and critique them. Oh no, that’s just scary.
• People not reading their books – It’s a catch 22 honestly. We don’t want people to read them but at the same time we do. We want people to know we write but also don’t, we want our books to make us money but then it’s too scary to sell them.
• Having an idea when you already have a work in progress – As writers we are prone to ideas and inspiration just popping up out of nowhere and at the most inconvenient times, but when we are already writing one story, its very rude and anxiety inducing to then have another idea turn up in our heads and try to overrule the previous work in progress.
• Having no ideas – There’s nothing worse than having too many ideas right? Oh wait maybe not… Maybe having ‘NO’ ideas is much worse and all panic stations are on high alert when our muse has left us to our own devices and on empty.
• Procrastination – The dreaded ‘P’ word! Where we know we should be writing but we avoid it by letting our brains go off with doom scrolling on our phones, or by starting housework tasks that could have waited till later.
• Not having enough time to write – This one is a killer! Especially when you get all burnt out from work, house chores, family responsibilities, friendship responsibilities and then you get home or finally relax but it’s bed time or your too tired. So it therefore makes you angry and anxious.
• Bad reviews – We can get 100 good reviews, but all it will take is that one lil F****r to dislike page 19, paragraph one, line 4 and pick up the one typo and discount the whole book.
• Imposter Syndrome – Knowing you’re a writer, knowing you’re an author, knowing you can do it, but still… something inside you disagrees and tells you, you can’t be.
• Editing – You’ve completed the story, the final draft, its beautiful… But now you have to edit it, you have to search with a fine tooth comb all the hidden mistakes and typos. And editing takes so long so you know you have a long road ahead of you.
• Not editing – See Procrastination.
• No reviews, no likes, no sales – There is nothing that makes an author feel down in the dumps like working hard on their book baby and then no one reviewing it. They might read it, but not review it. Or you work hard to advertise it on social media, but you get no likes, or the best one yet, low or no sales for a brief period of time. That one is pure anxiety inducing evil… You need money to live, but there has been a pause in sales… That is scary shit!!!
• Trying to read – You need to read to write, that is the rule of thumb. Yet if you have spare time you don’t want to read, you want to write, but then you feel conflicted because you need to do both.
• No one being happy for you – Being a writer is a creative art and those that reside and work in the art and creative industry usually get a lot of grief for it not being a ‘real’ job, or anyone else can do it, or jealousy. Some family and friends don’t always have your back and if you start to succeed, they begin to get jealous and are not happy and don’t want to support you.
• Telling people you meet your a writer – Because then you have engaged with a real life human and not just a character in your mind… You now have to think of real life dialogue and not just what Johnny said to Sally.
• When the music changes and a new idea forms – Similar to the too many ideas section, but this is for the writers who listen and use music to write and form ideas. You have one playlist for a WIP, but then a new, cooler song comes on the radio and BOOM!!! New idea alert!!!

As you can see from my list, writers and authors have it pretty rough right! Anxiety looms everywhere!!! But I guess that is all the fun of it, writing, being anxious, writing, hiding away and being a loner and terrified of real people and the real world.

Let me know, if you’re a writer, what makes you anxious? Is there anything I can add to this?

xo Piper xo