In today’s video, I want to give you some tips on overcoming writing anxiety. How can we feel calm about our writing?

Hello my lovely writers. 

How do you feel calm when it comes to your writing? I know for lots of you, when you think about actually sitting down to do the writing, you start to panic. A wall of resistance slowly rises up and puts a barrier between you and your writing.

You need to be calm to enjoy your writing

Like anything else in life, if you want to do the best job you can with something and want it to be as fun and enjoyable as possible, you need to come to it with a calm disposition.

You need to be feeling relaxed around it and it’s exactly the same for your creative life. 

The question to ask yourself is, when you think about writing – about actually sitting down to write, not just thinking about the ideas in your head – and it starts to get a bit panicky and you feel your blood pressure rising and your cheeks getting flushed, what can you do to help calm you down and to help reduce the cortisol going through your body like the clackers so you can come to your writing relaxed? 

Overcoming writing anxiety

Maybe meditation or yoga works for you. Maybe doing a jigsaw or some knitting or just taking a walk around the block helps you to feel calm and reduces the panic you feel and gets you into the flow of thinking about your work before you actually sit down to do the writing.

The calmer you can be when you come to do your writing, the more enjoyable it’s going to be and the better the quality the work is going to be. 

Have a think. What is it that works for you? How do you keep yourself calm so you can come to your desk and enjoy your writing? 

Let me know. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is an author mindset coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer’s block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel. Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

Are you sometimes disappointed with your writing progress? You’ve sat down at your desk but at the end of your writing session, you don’t feel you’ve achieved much? 

Watch my video or read the text below to find out why progress isn’t all about how many words we’ve got down on the page. 

Hello my lovely writers. 

I’m working on my new book and I’m at that funny stage in between first drafting and reading over what I’ve written so far.

The story’s already changing, so I’m having to read over earlier chapters I’ve written to figure out how I’m going to put this into place.

I sat down to revise a chapter yesterday, (I say ‘revise’ but I don’t really revise a first draft) and check the structure of the scene to make sure the chapter fitted in with this new outline. 

At the end of the session, I felt disappointed. I thought, why am I feeling disappointed? and realised it’s because I hadn’t made the progress I had expected to. I hadn’t made the leap forward.

I didn’t have any new words on the page because I’m still first drafting. There were no new words down and I felt disappointed. I thought, I’m falling behind, I’m not sticking to the schedule I’ve given myself and I’m not doing what I said I would do. 

Don’t be disappointed with your writing progress

I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s experienced this but I had to really catch myself and say, ‘Do you know what? Don’t be disappointed with your writing progress. You have made progress.’

It’s not the progress I thought I would make, it’s not what I had envisioned for my writing session but the very fact I got to the desk and looked at the words on the page meant I was connecting with my story. I was getting close to the fire, and staying close to the fire meant I was making progress.

Even though it wasn’t the leaps and bounds I like to make and make me feel I’m making progress, it was a small incremental step towards getting to the end of that first draft. 

I thought that was worth sharing with you in case you are in that same situation. The situation where you find yourself feeling disappointed at the end of your writing sessions because you haven’t done what you thought you were going to do and what you expected you were going to do. 

It’s about reframing it

It’s about reframing it. We get the opportunity to reframe it and think, what did I manage to do? I managed to make sure the structure was in place and that it was fitting with the story going forward.

Maybe for you it wasn’t what you thought you were going to do but you’ve now got more clarity on the character you’re writing about or you know what’s going to happen going forward.

You’ve got enough down to give you that baby step, that incremental step, to get you towards the end of that first draft, or towards the end of that round of edits or round of revisions. 

Everything we do, every time we come to the page, every time we come to our writing, we are making a little step forward. 

Don’t be disheartened. Keep writing, keep writing. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is an author mindset coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer’s block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel. Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

I found out a fun fact from my physio today. Watch the video or read the text below to find out how to have a long and healthy life.

Hello my lovely writers. 

Do you want to have a long and healthy life? Do you want to have longevity so you’re here and writing for a long, long time? 

I found out a fun fact from my physio today. He told me about one of Andrew Huberman’s podcast episodes. Andrew Huberman hosts Huberman’s Lab, which is all to do with brain function, body function and having a long and healthy life.

Fun fact

It turns out that pushing yourself out of your comfort zone isn’t just a trendy phrase but actually has neurological and health benefits.

If you regularly do something you don’t want to do, or something that feels overwhelming, and that could be something like I’m doing at the moment, which is turning my shower to cold at the end and doing the Wim Hof method, but you make yourself do it, you’re actually stimulating your brain to grow and function better.

The more often you make yourself do something you don’t want to do, the better it is for your brain health. Then, as a consequence, it creates a domino effect in that it’s better for your longevity and overall health. 

So, yet another reason that doing something challenging regularly is good for you.

It’s not just about getting that book finished but actually, it’s going to have long-term benefits for you too. 

A fun fact I thought I would share with you. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is an author mindset coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer’s block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel. Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

Getting started on your writing is hard, we all know that. But you don’t have to actually write when you’re at your desk.

Watch my video or read the text below to find out why thinking about your book and mulling it over is still working on your book.

Hello my lovely writers. 

I wanted to do a quick video about getting started because that can often be a hard place to start. Sometimes it’s not difficult, sometimes the getting started is easy, but there are times where getting started on the actual meat and bones of a book is hard and it’s eluding you. 

I know I’ve got work to do on my non-fiction book. Non-fiction for me is not something I do often as my focus is very much on fiction, but I’m writing a book based on my course, Unlock Your Creative Block, and so the topics I’m writing about are things I talk about all the time.

Getting started on your writing is hard

They are things I include in my own writing life, so it should be easy, shouldn’t it? It should be really easy to do but I’m finding it hard. 

It’s cold so I’ve put the fire on and I’ve got my lovely cat here for company. But just by being here and taking some time out with my book, even if it’s just twenty minutes to give it some thought, I am still working.

I’m still working.

I might not get the answer I’m looking for today and I might not get what I want to write down on paper but I’m still working because 80-90% of writing a book happens in our heads.

I need to embrace that, be aware of that, lean into it and think, ‘Okay, spend the time with the book, spend the time thinking, doing the mulling it over and the answers will come.’ 

So that is today’s work for me. Mulling it over. 

How are you getting on with your book? Do let me know in the comments. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is an author mindset coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer’s block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel. Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

Done is better than perfect. Messy action. Imperfect action. It took me a long time to embrace these three phrases but, now I do, I’m so glad. 

Watch my video or read the post below to find out why, when it comes to your writing, done is better than perfect. 

Hello, my lovely writers. 

Imperfect action. Messy action. Done is better than perfect. 

These are three phrases I have had drummed into me for a long, long time and, slowly but surely, I have embraced them.

I’ve leaned into them. I’ve taken them on board and understood that, if I want to make progress with my writing and write that book, I’ve got to lean into the imperfect. I’ve got to get started and I’ve got to take some action.

Done is better than perfect

I wanted to impress upon you today that doing something messily and imperfectly is so much better than not doing it at all. 

Some of you might be thinking, ‘Well, if I don’t have my plot line all worked out, there’s no point in me getting started.’

For you sci-fi writers, ‘If I don’t have that whole world and that bible worked out, there’s no point me getting started.’

Or you might be thinking, ‘If I don’t have an in-depth character sketch done, there’s no point me getting started.’ 

I want you to know you’ve got to start somewhere and that is with the imperfection. That is with not knowing everything. Not having all the answers. 

Even your favourite author started somewhere

If you want to be like your favourite writer, you’ve got to get started. If you want to feel as capable and as competent and as accomplished and as finessed as your favourite writer, you’ve got to remember they started somewhere.

They were beginners once as well. They had the same imperfections. They had the same insecurities, the same feelings of doubt and the lack of confidence, exactly the same as you. But they had to do it anyway. They had to lean into that, they had to take messy action. They had to take imperfect action. They had to acknowledge that done was better than perfect. 

I’m sure if you go to any of your favourite writers, they will say their books are not perfect and there are so many things they would want to do differently. But they’ve got to acknowledge the book is what it is, the story is what it is, they are the writer they are and they’ve got to move forward with that and people will love what they do.

Remember, we’re always our harshest critics. 

There’s no point having a perfect book in your head

So, please do take that messy action. Take that imperfect action because done is better than perfect. There’s no point having this perfect book in your head if it’s not on the paper.

And you can’t get the book you want unless you get something down that you can mould and shape and edit and revise and turn into the finished product you want it to be. 

Something I’ve talked about recently is being uncomfortable. You’ve got to get used to being uncomfortable with your writing because that is part of the creative process and I’ll talk more about that another day. 

For now though, just remember, take imperfect action. Messy action. Done is better than perfect. 

Emma xx 

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is an author mindset coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer’s block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel. Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!