Seven Reasons Why People Shy From Writing

Seven fears that stop people from writing  

We all have come across people who are very knowledgeable and experienced. They are highly articulate and can describe incidents in great detail with the effortless use of colourful vocabulary. Their flow is smooth and enthralling.

Yet, when you ask them why don't they write and share their eloquent thoughts with the others, they suddenly go quiet and say its not their cup of tea.

I happened to interview few such thinkers and most of them gave very similar reasons.  

1.      Who will read my work - If all the writers had this doubt, we wouldn’t have had much literary work in the world to read. The world is full of people with varied reading tastes. And there is equal or more writers who write on such diverse interests. 

So, there will always be someone who would be interested in your work. 

Anne Frank didn’t write the diary keeping the readers in mind. She simply wrote what she felt was important for her. And till date, her diary remains one of the most widely read works of nonfiction in the world. 

Emily Dickinson who is such a famous poet, in her lifetime, all her work was either rejected by the publishers or heavily edited before being published.  

2. I have never written anything – No! This is not true. The truth is, we all have actually written a great deal since our school days. 

Have we not written essays, reviews, short stories, sometimes poems, letter to our friends or parents. This was all part of our literary curriculum. All we need to do now is, take more responsibility of our writing targets and be consistent on it.  

Everything has a beginning and usually the beginnings are not much to look at. For the beginnings to become a norm, one has to start.  

I love what Stephen King said,

‘The scariest moment is always just before you start.’ 

3. What can I write about - We all have zillions of thoughts zipping our minds every day. Nobody holds the position to say whose thoughts are more laudable than the others. Some people think about food, some about inventions, some about world problems, some about money making, some about love, some about peace, some about fashion, ..........apparently it is an unending trail of thoughts.      

We all have a lot of dialogue going on in our heads. We witness so many incidents around us, experience myriad of feelings, go through countless phases in life, we can start writing about anything from these. 

4. I am not good at writing - Every famous writer must be having a drawer full of writing failures. Writing is not an inborn talent. It is not like singing. Writing is a skill which grows and matures over a period of time. What is required is making a start and not giving up.  And once we make a start, ideas flow, things start connecting, plot gets bigger and deeper.  

Anne Lamott an American novelist and also a progressive political activist, said, ‘Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere’. 

5. I make too many mistakes - Have we always done every task of ours perfectly, right from the beginning? I don’t think so. All of us crawl, stumble, fall, cry, get up, try again and repeat this process many times before we smile out of satisfaction. Isn't it the same with writing.  

A writer identifying his/her weaknesses is an achievement in itself. Imagine a writer oblivious to the mistakes he/she is making. Not knowing the mistakes would be more damaging than knowing the areas of improvement.  

But worrying about mistakes in structure is an obsolete fear. Artificial intelligence cannot create the content you have in your mind, but it can definitely correct the syntaxes and other mistakes. 

Writers of the current generation definitely have the added benefit of using the online writing tools which help improve the structure of the content. Grammarly, Google docs, Microsoft Online Word, and many more online tools will take care of the mistakes.  

Let the writers do what they are good at – writing. And let AI take care of the task it has been created for. 

6. I can’t finish one whole article. It is too hard - Yes, imagining oneself to be writing a complete 3 pages article might be daunting and a major reason for not even making an attempt. But why should one always try expository writing? Not everybody is cut out for that style of writing. Rather one can choose to do some light descriptive writing. One can try writing small poetry, journal writing or diary writing, all of which are very satisfying.  

Another interesting choice of writing could be narrative writing. Just write any small or big incident that happened in your life. Write a small story. An anecdote.   

There is plenty to write and in any form. Don’t let the formal article style deter you from picking this great habit.  

7. I don't want people to know what I think - I know a young lady who has

zillions of write ups stored in her google drive. They just sit there. They are

not for anyone to read or send, but she still writes. The fact that her work is

not being used anywhere doesn’t stop her from writing. I guess the assurance

that no one will read and judge her work has given her the power to write more

and more.  

And who said we always need to write for others. Many people find writing very relaxing. Just write for yourself, for your happiness and for giving your precious thoughts a permanent place.