# Writing anxiety?



## Holtzmann (Mar 18, 2013)

Hey there, folks!

I'm mostly a visual artist, but I also consider myself a fairly decent writer (accounting for English being my second language, that is). I suppose it's more a consequence of me having more ideas than I can actually put on images, so I'm always thinking of the background information of whatever picture I'm drawing, and whatever brought the character I'm drawing to the situation depicted.

I feel tempted to actually sit down and write whenever I stumble across a particularly vicious art block, yet I very rarely publish the short stories and bits of fiction that result. Oddly enough, I have no compunctions over publishing any of my drawings, including erotic and pornographic works, yet I can't bring myself to put even my least controversial texts on display. It feels like writing is a far more personal activity than drawing to me.

Anyone else got that? If you did, but then got over it, how did you do it?


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## Car Fox (Mar 18, 2013)

Given that I haven't published anything, no. But the "writing anxiety" I get is when I'm near the end of a text, and I rush to try to finish it, making both grammatical, and canonical errors sometimes.


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## Symlus (Mar 18, 2013)

I was nervous when I posted my first poem (and only, so far) because I rarely share my poems in the first place. But yes, writing *can* be very personal, which affected my decisions regarding sharing these works. 

As for getting past it... I just sucked it up and posted it. After the first one, it should be easier for you to post them.


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## miskey (Apr 11, 2013)

I had that. Because your probably saying (or I did), "Are people going to like it? Are they going to read it? Trooollllssss? But after I did post my first fanfic, I got a lot of positive reviews and favs, so it made me feel good. Also met a lot of people because of it. So now I don't really get it, but still you always have to think like this: 

Some people are going to like it. And some people aren't. Not everyone is alike and everyone has their own personal opinion. If one person says that's it is a crap story, another person might think it is a gem.


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## Zuranis (Apr 13, 2013)

One thing I've always had an issue with is that whenever I begin to write, I have a lot of praise for my work. However as I come to the ending of my writing, I look back at my work and think: "It's not actually that good." Still, I post it anyway and I get a lot of positive comments and constructive feedback. Any negative comments I get aren't actually because of the 'flaws' I notice when working on it.

I agree with miskey. My writing style is not to everyone's personal tastes - some hate it, some love it.


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## Troj (Apr 13, 2013)

Four things that often motivate me to write:

1) Reading, period.
2) Proofreading other people's work.
3) Having a deadline of some sort.
4) Participating in writing circles or clubs.

Some of these things spark intrinsic motivation, by filling me with the desire to express myself. Some provide extrinsic motivation, by compelling me to respect an external deadline, or not let other people down by not writing.


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