Young Writers Society

Okay so the problem is that I'm trying to write a sort of self help, but sort of narrative sort of deal about anxiety. It's in 1st person, fictional characters, with actual anxiety help.

I can't 1) come up with a real plot that is decent and relatable. I don't know what would be considered interesting by readers because I don't usually write this realistic of fiction. Also, I don't think readers will understand if the main character has anxiety over nothing. She's just anxious and it has no cause. It has triggers. But no real reason.

2) In order to write about anxiety, I must think about how it felt when my anxiety was out of control. It's making me upset and uncomfortable. All around just anxious.

I really want to write this because I think it can help readers. But it's flipping hard. I'm writing 1/5 of what I normally do in a day. Less actually. I think readers could relate and it could help them. I want to sell this as an ebook. Just a short little novella. 20 - 30,000 words. But I CAN'T.

Should I drop the whole thing?? I don't want to, but writing it is basically killing me! This is the first break I've had in a long time. Writer's block has been awful lately and this is the only thing I can get down. Help me please. What do I do?

So first and foremost, my honest advice (which you are, of course, free to ignore) -- scrap the "self-help" part.

Speaking as a person with depression and anxiety, I've found that the stories that resonate most with me are not those written specifically as self-help books. They're just the ones that tell the truth about the struggle of coping, and how they affect everyday interactions.

Besides, not every coping mechanism works for everyone with anxiety, so selling this as a sort of self-help idea will only hinder you (and those who read it) in the end, because inevitably the coping mechanisms that work for your protagonist will be the ones that work for you. Those are just the ones that resonate strongest with you, and that's not an issue; the issue comes when you try to sell these coping mechanisms in story form, and they don't work for someone else.

I also think that scrapping the idea that this will be a self-help book will help you, too, as a writer. Don't sell this to yourself as a work of nonfiction, but as a story that happens to have an anxious protagonist who has to work around or with her anxiety in order to get things done. Sell this to yourself as a story that would resonate with you as a person with anxiety.

Wrapping up this part, I'd say that you shouldn't write this novella just because you think it can help readers. Write this novella if you think it can help you, if it's a story or a character that must be told.

Moving on to your first point:

One, this is a first draft. Your plot is not going to be anywhere near solid in a first draft, and I know that it's something that might give you some anxiety to not have a solid plan for where the story is going, but you might do your best to explore the possibilities. Where can this character take you? What about her environment? Is there anything interesting that can go on in her life and take the form of conflict?

Two, for the character's anxiety triggers -- this is going to sound funny, but don't worry. First, a lot of people have anxiety out of nowhere. Second, like I said, this is a first draft, so you're still going to be cementing her hidden anxiety triggers themselves as you develop her characterization more.

As for your second point, hugs all around. This is probably support for how you should drop the self-help bit, because it's going to force you into some very uncomfortable emotional scenarios thinking through your extreme anxiety, and it might be a little easier on you if you had an anxious protagonist but the story itself was not necessarily centered around anxiety.

If you'd like clarification or examples, please, feel free to ask me! I hope this helped a little!

Okay so in a fit of writers block, I opened up google and did nothing for approximately 20 minutes. I decided I would search for scholarships but stumbled across this site. So yeah.... I'm new. But I've been working on something for 3 years now. It started as a poem, then a short story, but now I plan to make it a novel. Honestly I don't care if it becomes something big. I never finish what I start, but this is something I've stuck with. But what you're going through right now... I did this too. My recommendation is to actually move away from writing first. Take a step back. You have a theme, an idea for something that can really be something people look for. But instead of trying to write a narrative that isn't totally there, try just imagining it. I know that sounds dumb. But half the work for me was just that; sitting down and thinking. Think about it late at night, in the morning, when you're totally consumed by emotion, because you must be the FIRST to become invested in this fictional world you're trying to create. It will come slow, but when you feel it, a moment of clarity, it will change everything. At least this happened to me, a poem I wrote to cheer someone up 4 years ago-to something I'm always thinking about. I wrote over 20 drafts for my chapter 1, and it was a different story every time. Fall in love with your work, let it change, but don't forget we all have something important to say, and this story can be it if you let it.
Don't give this up, it just takes time and constant re-imagining.

A single question:

Do you want to tell a story, or do you want to teach others?

If you want to tell a story, readers will be put off by too much teaching. It is not what they signed up for.

If you want to teach others, readers will be put off by too much story. It is not what they signed up for.

The only narratives I've seen work both in are biographies. These are personal narratives that mix in advice the individual person has learned along the way, and the story told is their own life including the revelations earned and the advice they wish they could've given their younger selves. This is a totally different genre from both self help and fiction.

I've put both self help and fiction books down because they weren't what I signed up for. Stories in self help feel fake, to me, purposely crafted to drive home a moral and it never works that way in real life. On the flipside, people who use fiction as simple podiums for teaching how they see the world also feel fake, because it's morals applied to one situation or only one political agenda and it alienates everyone who isn't in that situation or ascribes to that political agenda.

So ask yourself what you want to do, and write accordingly. Either goal is a really good aspiration— my own novel is meant to comfort people, but I've chosen to write a story. Any advice is very accidental, because it just so happened to be what the character hears.

Writing a story where a character deals with anxiety, and all the trials and tribulations that they face because of it, does genuinely help people without ever needing to insert a scrap of advice purposefully. The character will hear advice, go through revelations, and experience their world through the lens of anxiety. This can help non anxious people realize what it's like, and give anxious people a scrap of comfort. It can tell them they can be a hero, too.

Representation is a form of self help for the people who read it. You don't have to force advice into a narrative to help others. You can simply write a story and watch others say 'this is exactly what I needed. Thank you.'