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copyblogger, fear of writing, melissa karnaze, mirror neurons, pat pattison, tranquilizer darts, writer's block, writer's digest, writer's panic, writing deadlines
Daughter had a serious case of Writer’s Panic last evening. Writer’s Panic is three steps beyond simple Writer’s Block. If you don’t have to write, Writer’s Block can make you much more interested in cleaning the cat box and sweeping the stairs than facing the computer screen. Sure, you can mumble about not being able to write and how grouchy that makes you feel, but the only thing riding on Writer’s Block is your sense of personal accomplishment. It’s up to you whether you want to get that novel written in your lifetime.
Writer’s Panic arises from a combination of Writer’s Block and an external deadline. The pressure of the deadline ramps up the physical manifestations of Writer’s Block from comfortable avoidance tactics to rapid heart rate, a harried expression, periodic table-pounding, threats of tossing the computer out a window, and a strained voice (the latter often employed to tell your mother that nothing is going to work). Writer’s Panic is contagious and can even be passed to non-writers. (Blame mirror neurons for that.)
If you witness a person in full-blown Writer’s Panic, the best thing to do is remain calm. (I know how hard that is, but do it anyway. The situation will not be resolved if you break down in Writer’s Helper Panic.) You must then attempt to soothe the writer’s fears, because, obviously, if someone is in a panic, they are afraid. Ask the writer leading questions like, “When is your essay due?”, “What is your thesis statement?”, “What are you stuck on?”, “Is there a written description of the assignment you can show me?”, “Can I see what you’ve written so far?”, “Do you have an outline?” Ask anything you think will get the writer working productively again.
If the writer is particularly distraught, have him or her get up and go for a brief walk, do jumping jacks, have a drink of water or a bite to eat, use the bathroom – anything to distract from the sheer terror of writing. Upon returning to write, he will likely still be on edge, but won’t be quite so ready to remove your head.
If the panicked writer is having trouble generating any significant prose (typically caused by self-censoring as she is writing), offer to take dictation, typing while the writer talks through the assignment topic. This method allows for a lot of material to produced in a short time, which will give both you and the writer an idea of where the piece is going for organizational purposes.
(It’s important to note that this is the writer’s assignment, not yours, so when taking dictation, type whatever the writer says as he says it. Don’t embellish with your own thoughts. If the writer is speaking too fast for you to type, ask him to slow down, which will make the writer compose more complete statements.)
Once the writer sees how much is on the page, she will breathe easier because progress has been made. The writer can then take what has been dictated and edit it by moving paragraphs around, tweaking sentences, and deleting what doesn’t work. It’s much easier to edit writing that is solidly affixed to a page than to edit amorphous thoughts prior to formation. If necessary, print out the pages of dictation in order to give the writer a different sort of physical manifestation of the words, providing distance from the writing. Crossing unnecessary stuff off a piece of paper will be a delight for the formerly-panicked writer.
If the writer continues to be in panic mode after all this, you’re on your own. I’d suggest investing in tranquilizer darts. You can decide whether you or the writer are in greater need of them.
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A couple of helpful links related to this post’s topic:
Why Writer’s Block is Your Secret Weapon by Melissa Karnaze on Copyblogger.
Generate Ideas Through “Object Writing” by Pat Pattison on Writer’s Digest.
The Woo Woo Teacup Journal 
I am very impressed by your writings. I am a freelancer writer by compulsion. I had many breaks in my education. The first break was when I was just in my primary clas say passed 4th class. i had no formal regular schooling and I passed 10th as a private candidate by just reading books of my sister long back in 1955.
I am a science graduate, which I completed after my marriage with 2 breaks in 3 years. during my graduation I was not alone I had a son also. I have never learnt grammer and I am just using my sense to write instead of any formal guidance.
Let me again say I am very impressed by your writings, which do the analysis. I was surprised to find you complete the article in 20 minutes, whereas I take about 3-4 hours an article of 500 to 600 words.
I shall appreciate if you comment upon my wriing written above. I have some complaints from european writers that my scentences making is not alright.
i look for a reply from you,
with regards,
Hi, jagmohan – First, let me assure you that many of my blog posts take longer than 20 minutes to write (unless they are short ones). My writing starts when an idea for a blog post forms in my brain. I capture that idea in a notebook and mull it over for a number of days before writing anything, particularly for the long posts I write. When I sit down to write, it can take an hour or more to flesh out a post containing complex ideas. I don’t remember how long it took to write the post above, but if I wrote it in 20 minutes, it’s because I was writing directly from life, which is much easier for me than other types of writing. It’s like stream-of-consciousness writing.
My writing is also not without errors. In fact, in rereading the post above, I discovered that a word is missing.
Writing is a life-long craft. Writers, even the most accomplished, work continually to polish their skills, no matter how much formal schooling they’ve had. I can’t ever imagine a time where I’ll be satisfied with my writing.
As you have expressed your passion for writing and your desire to improve it, I’d suggest you find a book you think is written with superb skill and study it carefully. Look at sentence construction, how the paragraphs are formed and how one thought or idea transitions into another to build the story. Compare what you find in that book to your writing and see what it has to teach you.
At the advice of a friend, I’ve checked a copy of “Stein on Writing” by Sol Stein out of the library. I’m only 16 pages into it and have already found solid writing advice. There are many books on writing out there. Read as many as you can get your hands on and keep practicing the craft of writing. Improvement will come. Good luck to you.