Anxiety over writing

[heroiceroica]

A few years ago, writing used to be one of my absolute favorite things to do. In school I won a few small competitions and used to write fiction, nonfiction, essays, anything I wanted to write or had to write for an assignment. Almost all my free time was spent writing. But over time my anxiety got worse, and for some reason I slowly stopped writing completely. I feel like I’m constantly being watched and judged for what I write and I can barely get a few sentences down on paper without cringing at how horrible they sound and deleting everything. I tried keeping a journal but I eventually ripped out the small amount of pages that I had actually filled out and flushed them down the toilet because I thought someone would find them and laugh at me. I haven’t wrote anything in years and I feel so lazy and frustrated about it. Anyone have advice on how I can get back into it???

 

[MainerMikeBrown]

Heroiceroica, I don't think this is a case of you being lazy. Instead, this is a case of fear.

 

[Siphonophorae]

I love writing too... no awards yet but that’s my dream. I can understand where you feel everyone is watching and waiting... just remember just like how there’s always that 3.6K of people that spend their time on YouTube disliking things, critics will be critics no matter what. People are stubborn and nasty just for the sake of being nasty. You can never please everyone, someone will always criticize. But if you love to write, write! Caring what they think may SOMETIMES make you a better writer but only if they are really giving feedback, not trying to ruin your self-esteem.

 

[MainerMikeBrown]

Heroiceroica, congratulations on winning some writing competitions back in school.

 

[Aries]

I used to write too - a long time ago. I wrote silly poetry and stories. I found other things to do though. It wasn't like the things I was writing were going to ever get published and get read by people. I guess I used some of those skills when internet dating site forums became popular. I liked creating funny profiles on PoF and making up stupid stories about things that would happen to them. Lots of people thought I was funny but some got mad and the mods labeled me a troll and kept banning me. I had profiles like The Chadster- and obnoxious good looking womanizer, Gloppo- a space alien looking for humans to become zoo specimens, and Needy Ned, a very needy guy. That one got banned after I created a second profile called Aritsrocat who was Ned's father. They got into a big argument on the site when no mod was around . Only a few people realized it was a fake. It was hilarious, and a few people said so. Didn't stop me from being banned though.