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Writing Through Times Of High Stress: An Honest Guide For Honest Writers

Yep, sometimes that job you prayed for — being a professional writer — feels like drowning. Here’s how to stay afloat and make it to calmer waters.

Emily Sinclair Montague
8 min readJun 9, 2021
Photo by Jana Sabeth on Unsplash

“I’m so proud of you, Em — you’re really doing it!”

My mom’s support means the world to me. Really, it does. But when she said this the other day, I felt a little blip of inner panic as I became seized with thoughts of, oh, no, what if I can’t keep doing it?!

I’m sure many of you can relate. Life has been rather…overwhelming, lately, and I’ve been reckoning with the fact that the job I would have killed to get a mere year ago is feeling nearly as stifling as any 9–5.

How do you handle that particular brand of stress without feeling like an ungrateful sod? How do you keep writing quality work for your clients — and yourself — when the entire “writer” part of your brain has gone numb?

Well, folks, the answer is simple: you don’t.

Not what you expected to hear? Bear with me, and I’ll try to make it make sense (with the help of a few psychologically questionable projections, of course).

Sometimes Going With The Flow Means…

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Emily Sinclair Montague
Emily Sinclair Montague

Written by Emily Sinclair Montague

Author & Full-Time Writer. Embracing life’s chaos one word at a time. Get in touch at emsinclair@wordsofafeather.net (or don’t, but I love the attention)!

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