Ever felt this great sadness that threatens to overwhelm your soul whenever you want to write or maybe when you're done writing?
It could be a book, poem, short story, article or a social media post - it doesn't matter. This deep anguish does not give a hoot.
It tears you down completely. It haunts you and whispers terrible things to you.
People will judge you!
You are not good enough!
The book will not sell!
On and on the anguish goes, telling you stories that are not true or are just manufactured to crush your morale.
What is the major factor? Fear!
Even before your pen hits the paper, you are already scared of what your readers will think. Negative thoughts roll in and your spirit dampens.
Then you close that book or that writing application and you sigh. And probably eat or run off to social media, scrolling through posts mindlessly in a bid to ward off the anguish you feel.
But then you feel awful because you know you should have just written. On and on the cycle continues and weeks pass without you writing a word.
Now, maybe you end up writing but then fear says you are not good enough and you just hide that article.
If you eventually post that article, people send in their criticisms - some very bad - and fear screams: I told you so!
This could be you and I believe that at some point, every writer has experienced the writer's depression.
The first thing to take note of if you indeed want to overcome this is to get rid of fear by actually facing it. Yes!
Just like Jillian Michaels said, "Feel the fear. Do it anyway."
In reality, failure is paramount. You can not be afraid of it. You just have to embrace the possibility that failure could come.
People may judge, they may scoff at your write-up and even throw destructive criticisms. What matters is, with each step you take, you get better!
Another thing you can do to overcome the writer's depression is to write about the fear you feel. Yes! Come on, you're a writer.
Have you noticed that most times we tend to give life-changing advice to others that we need to take?
You can write about that fear or that overwhelming depression the way you would if you were talking to someone about it.
Pour out your feelings on that sheet of paper and you may be shocked how well that would help.
Lastly, strive to become a professional. A professional does not care what emotions are present or what time of the day it is.
Think of it this way, you can not tell your boss at work that you will not be in the office because you feel sad. Can you?
I hope this was helpful.
Have you ever faced the writer's depression?
If you have, drop your experience in the comment section and tell us how you handled it.
Good morning ma'am, that was indeed helpful. Thank you for this. 👍👍
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