{"id":2515,"date":"2014-01-14T10:40:22","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T15:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/?p=2515"},"modified":"2014-01-16T22:34:26","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T03:34:26","slug":"anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2521\" alt=\"anxietypancakes\" src=\"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/anxietypancakes1.jpg\" width=\"420\" height=\"245\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve decided I&#8217;d keep a diary about the ups and downs I go through writing my novel. Years ago, I did an investigation with art curator Peggy Gale into the relationship of anxiety to creativity. We discovered that some anxiety is necessary; it inspires us to write or make art but if there&#8217;s too much anxiety, the anxiety will shut down your creative powers.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m thinking about our insight into anxiety this morning. I&#8217;m half-way through a novel about a white collar criminal who runs a dead pool in prison where the prisoners bet on which of the list of aging or frail celebrities is going to die first. My character also goes through a spiritual change in prison. Or mimes going through a spiritual change. I keep changing my mind about this. It seems to me that people become their environments to a large extent so it&#8217;s possible he&#8217;s in a place that leads him to spiritual reflection and emotional change. But once he gets out, he goes back to his old ways.<\/p>\n<p>But to begin. My main job right now is to keep writing. And that means keeping anxiety and self-doubt\u00a0 dialed down. I have a tendency to question what I&#8217;m doing, and ask&#8211;is this working? Those questions are like a meal of anxiety pancakes because I end up feeling stuffed with heavy, leaden feelings that lead me nowhere. Anyway, anxiety pancakes are my subject in this blog. I&#8217;ll try to post a few paragraphs every day. That&#8217;s a promise.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve decided I&#8217;d keep a diary about the ups and downs I go through writing my novel. Years ago, I did an investigation with art curator Peggy Gale into the relationship of anxiety to creativity. We discovered that some anxiety is necessary; it inspires us to write or make art but if there&#8217;s too much &hellip; <\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-literary"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel &#8211; Susan Swan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel &#8211; Susan Swan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;ve decided I&#8217;d keep a diary about the ups and downs I go through writing my novel. Years ago, I did an investigation with art curator Peggy Gale into the relationship of anxiety to creativity. We discovered that some anxiety is necessary; it inspires us to write or make art but if there&#8217;s too much &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Susan Swan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/susanswanonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-14T15:40:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-17T03:34:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/anxietypancakes1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sswan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swanscribe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swanscribe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sswan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"sswan\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1796a199861486552b66af8d48bc6554\"},\"headline\":\"Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-14T15:40:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-01-17T03:34:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":272,\"commentCount\":2,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/anxietypancakes1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\",\"Literary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/\",\"name\":\"Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel &#8211; Susan Swan\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/anxietypancakes1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-14T15:40:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-01-17T03:34:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1796a199861486552b66af8d48bc6554\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/anxietypancakes1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/anxietypancakes1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/\",\"name\":\"Susan Swan\",\"description\":\"The Biggest Modern Writer in the World\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1796a199861486552b66af8d48bc6554\",\"name\":\"sswan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/34439d40cdcc0a2dbeab6866009ddae76516a95bf10b42aebe73c207487cc529?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/34439d40cdcc0a2dbeab6866009ddae76516a95bf10b42aebe73c207487cc529?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/34439d40cdcc0a2dbeab6866009ddae76516a95bf10b42aebe73c207487cc529?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"sswan\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/susanswanonline.com\\\/wpress\\\/author\\\/sswan\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel &#8211; Susan Swan","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel &#8211; Susan Swan","og_description":"I&#8217;ve decided I&#8217;d keep a diary about the ups and downs I go through writing my novel. Years ago, I did an investigation with art curator Peggy Gale into the relationship of anxiety to creativity. We discovered that some anxiety is necessary; it inspires us to write or make art but if there&#8217;s too much &hellip; Continue reading \"Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel\"","og_url":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/","og_site_name":"Susan Swan","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/susanswanonline\/","article_published_time":"2014-01-14T15:40:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-01-17T03:34:26+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/anxietypancakes1.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"sswan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@swanscribe","twitter_site":"@swanscribe","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"sswan","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/"},"author":{"name":"sswan","@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/#\/schema\/person\/1796a199861486552b66af8d48bc6554"},"headline":"Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel","datePublished":"2014-01-14T15:40:22+00:00","dateModified":"2014-01-17T03:34:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/"},"wordCount":272,"commentCount":2,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/anxietypancakes1.jpg","articleSection":["Blog","Literary"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/","url":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/","name":"Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel &#8211; Susan Swan","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/anxietypancakes1.jpg","datePublished":"2014-01-14T15:40:22+00:00","dateModified":"2014-01-17T03:34:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/#\/schema\/person\/1796a199861486552b66af8d48bc6554"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/anxietypancakes1.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/anxietypancakes1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/anxiety-pancakes-life-in-the-middle-of-a-novel\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anxiety Pancakes: Life in the Middle of a Novel"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/#website","url":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/","name":"Susan Swan","description":"The Biggest Modern Writer in the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/#\/schema\/person\/1796a199861486552b66af8d48bc6554","name":"sswan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34439d40cdcc0a2dbeab6866009ddae76516a95bf10b42aebe73c207487cc529?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34439d40cdcc0a2dbeab6866009ddae76516a95bf10b42aebe73c207487cc529?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34439d40cdcc0a2dbeab6866009ddae76516a95bf10b42aebe73c207487cc529?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"sswan"},"url":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/author\/sswan\/"}]}},"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2cEJS-Ez","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2515"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2517,"href":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515\/revisions\/2517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susanswanonline.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}