How I Cured My Writing Phobia

Everyone has a different NaNoWriMo experience. We’ve asked some wonderful NaNoWriMo writers to share theirs. Today, Shimona Patel, NaNoWriMo participant, shares how she diagnosed… then cured her writing phobia:

“Doctor,” I said. “I have a phobia.”

The doctor furrowed his brow and asked, “What kind of phobia? What are you scared of?”

“Doctor, I think I have a writing phobia…”

Ever felt like your fingers won’t move to let you type or write? Have you ever felt like your brain just freezes or shut downs? Like your body refuses you to come closer to your laptop, or journal, or typewriter? 

Well, these are the symptoms of what I call a “writing phobia.”

Fear not, your doctor is here!

Writing phobias can happen to anyone. It’s a fear and it can enter into anyone’s mind, whether you are a New York Times bestseller or a rookie writer. Fear is something we all have to fight and make our way through, towards the light.

Our fear makes us wonder if we’re not able to produce something awesome or creative. Don’t listen! Every mind is creative; you just need to be able to reach out for that spark from the deepest corners of your mind.

NaNoWriMo challenges us to fight this fear by giving us a deadline. A deadline can be good medicine for a writing phobia. In the end it’s us, the authors, that must defeat this phobia. Here’s how I defeated mine.

The Story of How I Cured My Writing Phobia

I remember, sitting on my Google Nexus tablet and watching people fuss and chat about #NaNoWriMo2015 on Twitter/Instagram. When I first joined Wattpad, I had seen several people talk about it. I never knew what it meant, until this year. Three days before NaNoWriMo, I stumbled upon it again when someone told me she was  going to try and write 50K words to which I laughed saying it was impossible.

Later I Googled NaNoWriMo, got to know it better and talked about it to different people. I didn’t want to commit to it. Heck, I have been trying to complete my book on Wattpad for the past year and a half. So how could I win this challenge?

I was already depressed about my writing skills. I did have an idea for a novel: I knew its ending but the middle… that’s the hardest part of a writer’s job. I never made it past the middle, in either of my two books on Wattpad. So how could I even think about NaNoWriMo?

Well, you never know until you try, right?

I decided to take on the NaNoWriMo challenge and tried my best. I increased my coffee intake. I wrote in places I shouldn’t have been writing, e.g, during college lectures, etc.

And in the end? I did it. I wrote 50K words in a month, and, heck, am I amazed by it. Something that felt so impossible a few weeks ago was possible now. And I have been doing very well in my other projects, too.

NaNoWriMo gives you a platform, a challenge and so much inspirational advice. What else could one ask? Defeating writing phobia seems so easy now that I realized this mantra: Impossible actually means = “I’m possible.”

Don’t give up. Butt in the chair, coffee by your side, and your laptop/typewriter/ notebook in front of you… you can do it!

Here are 6 techniques I used to beat my writing phobia:I always listened to music while writing. It not only creates an imaginative atmosphere around you, it also keeps you from distracting yourself.
Use writing prompts. They really help.
Listen/read to inspirational quotes and use them as writing prompts.
Have too many ideas? Well, combine them into one long book.
Keep a word-count goal for everyday
Talk/commiserate with another writer.

Hope this all helps and you can beat that ‘writing phobia!’

Shimona is the author of the winning NaNoWriMo 2015 novel, Teaching Him. You can connect with her on Twitter—@Shimonap04—or on Wattpad. She is not a published author but hopes to be one soon. Shimona is an average teenage, Indian girl, who loves to draw and write in her free time.

Top photo by Flickr user Han Shot First.