Writing Demons & Daemons
Writing demons are the evil little mental infestations that twist us up and stop the process in its tracks. We all know them: Procrastination, Laziness, Doubt, Resistance, and that most insidious gremlin of all, Reasonableness. Daemons are the genii and attendant sprites who want the work to flow: Passion, Energy, Enthusiasm, Discipline. Daemons can be much more frightening than demons. They present a direct threat to the status quo.
The thing about demons is that they’re really daemons turned inside-out. When a daemon, or soul-spirit, is told No too many times, it gets frustrated and sullen, uncooperative and resentful, for the sake of its own self-defense. That’s how the innate capacity for Flow turns into Resistance, how Cheery Optimism becomes Grave Doubts, how Endurance shifts into Impatience, how Courage contorts into Fear.
One approach to consider for any demon is to befriend it, whenever it pops up. This doesn’t mean believing what it says; it means listening to it, kindly, and soothing the fear beneath its panicked words. Demons have had plenty of trauma already. They don’t need any more attempts on your part to fight, block, or punish them. Instead, console them. Smile at them, take them for walks, invite them to your desk. Show them that they don’t have to worry. Everything’s ok, you’ve got this handled, and they can relax. Their power to stop your writing will transform into energy and ideas. Fear will turn right-side-out into Courage, Resistance will reclaim its true nature as Flow, and Reasonableness will relax back into Wide Possibility.
