I know this has happened to you writers out there. You’re writing a scene that’s highly emotional or 
approaching the climax of the story. Your characters are almost to their low point, their black moment, all hope is lost. You are crushed for your characters. You have to keep writing…get them out of their quandary and into their happy ever after or happy for now. You have to Finish That Book!
This condition does have a diagnosis. It’s called IWS, or Irritable Writer’s Syndrome. And not to be confused with this Reiter’s Syndrome. Funny the things one learns when they use Google.
But that’s not all. Readers experience it too. You book lovers know what I’m talking about. It’s when you are about 3/4 of the way through a book. You anticipate something beyond dreadful is about to happen to these characters you’ve grown to love over the past couple hundred pages. You are almost scared to read on, because if you don’t – maybe the bad thing won’t happen. But you have to read on. You have to find out what happens. It’s at this point of the story you are so irritable and antsy and it’s like an itch that you can’t scratch. You have to Finish That Book!
This is called IRS, or Irritable Reader’s Syndrome. I also thought about calling it IBLS, but that sounds way to close to IBS. You know what I’m talking about. If not – Google it.
As with any ailment – chocolate and a cup of hot tea is sure to help.
Happy writing & reading!!
“Crying is Okay Here” Photo Credit: By Miss O’Crazy from San Francisco [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Brownie & Tea Photo by me.
