Writing and stress don’t mix very well. Not for me, anyway.
Sure, small amounts of stress (like having to meet a deadline or get a higher grade) can motivate you to produce—but if my stress gets out of control (which it tends to do more often than I’d like) then it can be one of the most destructive things to my creative process.
It infests my mind, entrenching itself in the background of everything I do, potentially corrupting every word I write. It prevents me from organizing my thoughts, releasing chemicals that amp up anxiety, and in my case, causing severe and extremely distracting headaches—making writing even more difficult than usual.
That’s why it’s so important to keep control of your stress: letting it control you will kill your drive to write even quicker than having no direction.
Luckily though there are ways to fight back against stress and relax.