Eight Emotions We Writers Can’t Help But Feel

We writers are sensitive and hold everything they produce close to their hearts. No wonder, our emotions run high all the time.

Published in

Writers Guild

6 min readSep 9, 2019

I remember putting words on paper for the first time when I was eight years old. My younger sibling was bothering me, and I thought an official handwritten letter would compel our mother to take my complaints more seriously. The letter failed to impress her. She laughed because according to her, “there’s nothing in the world that siblings can’t resolve on their own.”

But from that day onward, I started writing — often filling stacks of journals with my thoughts, dreams, and fears. It was soul-satisfying and entertaining! I soon switched to blogging and garnered a decent following with time. I enjoyed writing very much, and always knew I was meant to be a writer.

Fast forward ten years — when the majority of my peers were studying to become Chartered Accountants or Business Managers, I selected a professional path that enabled me to write to my heart’s content. As luck would have it, I quickly found myself as a part of the marketing team in a startup, where being a good writer was an advantage.

Six years and some 60-odd clients later, one thing’s for sure — I am proud to be called a writer. The job is stressful, deadline-driven, and at times, requires collaboration with other teams when running campaigns or curating engaging email content. But I love what I do!

A lot of hard work goes into not just writing content well but also marketing it. But I am not complaining. I chose this career. I decided to be a writer. But my choice also made me prone to feeling too many emotions at my job. If you are a writer, then you know exactly what I am trying to say. According to me, here are eight types of emotions that we writers can’t help but feel:

1. Excitement — When words flow seamlessly

Writer’s Block happens to every writer. Overcoming it can be a challenge, especially when a major deadline is around the corner and you have to churn out a 1200-word technical article. I am no exception, which is why I get excited when my words flow seamlessly on a Google Doc.

In such rare scenarios, I don’t spend too much time researching for the article, nor do I write and rewrite the introduction a million times before finalizing one! I write without any distractions, and the result is marvelous!

2. Happiness — When an influencer gives your article a shout-out on social media

Ah! Whenever someone does that, it proves your writing has had a positive impact on the reader. That’s just blissful! Whether it is a Like or a Retweet from the influencer, any form of interaction from them motivates you to work harder, write better. I feel that it makes you a more confident writer. I know for a fact it does!

3. Love — When your editor shows you, mad love

A few weeks ago, I pitched an article to a community of creative entrepreneurs. I suggested a few tips on maintaining a positive work-life balance. Not only was the pitch accepted but also I received a rather sweet message from the editor who appreciated my idea and how it resonates with their community. Her email made me feel extremely loved!

4. Pride — When even the small accomplishments matter

I once beamed with pride when 15% of the recipients opened my well-crafted, personalized e-mailer. I didn’t get a high click rate on that campaign, but I knew I did something right that nudged the recipients to open the email. We even got a handful of responses though none of them converted. However, the point is that my email got opened and read. That’s an achievement!

I also once got 80+ RTs on a casual tweet I wrote on Arrested Development, and that’s one of the highlights of my personal life! So, whether you reach a follower count of 500 on Instagram or get 1000 unique visits on a freshly published blog, you are allowed to, and you should celebrate those victories and be proud of yourself!

5. Confusion — When you are trying to figure out SEO

Have you ever been in a situation where you were clueless about how a particular web page received more traffic one day, and the next day it didn’t? Or when you had optimized a web page for ABC, but it gained traction for XYZ reasons?

If your answer is YES — nice to meet you! I still don’t know how to use Google Analytics or the Keyword Planner properly. SEO confuses me to the core, but it is an integral part of content writing. Therefore, I take help from people from those who do. Simple!

6. Horror — When your article with typos gets published

So, you have finished writing your article. It took you close to four hours to put your thoughts together correctly, and one hour to comb for typos until you were sure that none survived. But the first thing your readers spot is a spelling error in the fourth sentence of the first paragraph.

That’s terrifying, but trust me — that happens to the best of us! But remember — writing is a high-level task. We expect the meaning behind our words to be impactful and hence focus solely on that, which is why we make silly mistakes while writing.

It has happened to me more times than I’d like to admit. Result: I was mortified!

7. Sadness — When your article doesn’t get any traction

Writing an article is not easy. It takes time, patience, and lots of editing work before it’s finally ready to be published. Every time I write an article, I feel it is my best work to date. However, what completely crushes me is when it doesn’t receive much traction, or no one shares it on social media. Has it happened to you before? Heartbreaking, isn’t it? But don’t let the poor response rate pull you down. Keep writing. Keep sharing!

8. Anxiety — When you are chasing deadlines

I was once chased for work by three different clients simultaneously. They all wanted me to work on their web content, and they wanted it to be completed at the earliest. I had just started my career, and that day was turning out to be the worst day of my work life.

I had never felt this anxious. But here I was — brainstorming, researching, typing, answering client calls! Only I know how I survived that day. Crazy! The good part is none of the clients came back to me for edits. My work got accepted in one go! That’s why I love my job.

Closing thoughts

We writers are sensitive and emotional. We love everything we produce and hold it close to our hearts. I think it is okay to be so open about how we feel in regards to our work as long as it does not affect us professionally or personally.

My list may not be exhaustive but it does contain the most commonly felt emotions by me. What do you resonate with the most? Please feel free to share your anecdotes!