The Fear of Writing

Just as long as you get back to writing, after. I like reading Sythyry's Vacation.

I start far more projects than I finish, not just with writing, but in general. After years of thinking about this ... I've decided that's okay. First, it's my basic nature and it's never going to go away; it's a common Aries trait. Second, it gives me a good point of competition with myself, to see how many things I can finish: just finishing is a valid goal, whether the end product is brilliant or not. Third, it's a useful filter. A story that doesn't hold my interest all the way through probably won't grab other people. But if it keeps dragging me back, then it has staying power, even if I lay it aside for months or years before I do finish it. Fourth, I always have stuff to work on if for some reason the steaming idea kettle in my head is not shrilling in my ear at a particular moment when I feel like writing -- I can just grab some half-finished thing and add to it.

Professional writing isn't about going against your nature. It's about learning how to make your nature work for you, because that's where your talent comes from too.

If I wind up not writing, it's for lack of energy, rather than lack of motivation or inspiration. My creativity is one of the last things to flatten out when I'm feeling crappy. By the time I don't have enough energy to run any of the writing functions, most of my social and language functions are petering out too -- and it's a stone's throw from there where the words start to go fuzzy, and I give up and go to bed.

Fiction is the most challenging for me; I usually write it only when I'm feeling relatively alert and energized. Poetry I do a notch or two down. Nonfiction, I'd rather write it when I'm coherent enough to enjoy the process and do a really shiny job, but if I'm on deadline and happen to get sick, I can bull through as long as able to sit up and type. The result will be capably written, though not my best work. Usually if I'm not feeling my best, I work on tangential stuff like recordkeeping instead of creative stuff like writing.

I actually can't go very long without writing, unless I feel so wretched that the passage of time kind of blurs. About five days is my coherent maximum before things start to spurt out sideways. I've learned that it's better not to let the pressure build up that much.

Glad I could help.

>>I think the culprit is a mixture of both the sheer amount of projects I have <<

Don't overload yourself. That can definitely clog the flow. I've done that to myself a few times. If you're feeling that kind of pressure, it's time to start chucking some stuff until you get the level down to something more manageable.

>> also a growing realization of how much I just don't know about the world and human experience. It makes me feel entirely inadequate for the tasks I see for myself.<<

This one is largely self-correcting: writing by writing, life experience by living. Don't worry so much about it that you freeze. Instead, start by writing about things you already know. Pick out a few things you'd like to learn more about and start exploring one of those in more detail; then you can write about it later.