A Fear of Writing.. And How to Overcome It

With a spooky spirit in the air, we thought it would be a good time to talk about a difficult subject… the fear of writing. Last week, we touched on sharing quotes with our students that give them perspective on just how my writing masters struggled with the craft.

But what about when a student has a longstanding fear of the writing process? How do you nudge them in the right direction without overwhelming them? Or worse yet, turning them off completely?

While there’s no singular answer, Writing with Design was founded on the principle that everyone, anywhere can write. And not just write, but excel at it, enjoy it, fall in love with it. One of the cornerstones of our approach, part of what makes our program so successful,  is “the little step.” What’s “the little step?” you ask.

Just like when you take up a new hobby, say playing a musical instrument, you’ll usually recognize that you can’t just play an epic ballad all at once. Instead, you learn some basic notes and a simple song. But remember how good that felt when you got that song down perfect? Probably pretty awesome.

“The little step” is exactly like this process. For some students, getting it perfect, right here and right now, is a feeling that’s hard to dismiss. So is the feeling, in some cases, that they don’t have anything of value to say or that their writing won’t be respected. Every situation might be different, but one overriding factor remains: to dispel the fear… focus on a little step that builds their confidence. Before you know it, they’ll be using their writing to do great things.  

“Writing with Design was founded on the principle that everyone, anywhere can write”

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