It’s Easier Not to Write
Without anybody expecting me to write or publish anything, I shouldn’t feel anxious about writing.
It’s easier to be a writer who doesn’t write.
Of course it is — it’s almost always easier not to do something. Knowing this doesn’t explain exactly why, or how to overcome it, so in seeking an answer to either or both of those questions I typed the same sentence into a search browser and clicked on the first result, which introduced me to the term “writer’s anxiety.”
I plugged those words into a separate search browser and didn’t have to click on any results to get an explanation, and it explained so much insofar as not clicking on results can answer those questions because I haven’t been able to bring myself to do any further soul-searching. I’m struggling enough to just get these sentences out, and I’m terrified at the thought of having to revise them if I want this piece to go anywhere at all.
It’s going to sound like I’m delusional but as soon as I actually read the two words, “writer’s anxiety,” I felt like my head began to spin and I wanted to go into the bathroom and lose the breakfast I’d just eaten — which was not upsetting my stomach at all prior to my head getting involved — and then I wanted to crawl back into bed under a weighted blanket and take a…
