#sowen

"How?" You may ask.

Easy- write down your experiences. Anything that happens to you when you panic is real. It's raw. That's what you need to write a good story. If anything seems unrealistic, or just doesn't seem well written, chances are your reader will put down the book at this part.

Like I said, people experience panic very often. Even just having anxiety is a form of panic. But when you write it, it needs to have an actual impact on the character it's affecting. Writing down "They panicked" isn't good enough. It's far too empty. It leaves room for too many unanswered questions, like "Why were they panicking," or "When did they stop," or even "How bad did it get?" These need to be answered during any panic scene.

Now, panic does not equal panic attacks. Feeling dread over something for a moment is not the same as having a breakdown so bad, you feel like you can't breathe.

This post is focusing on panic attacks.

Writing one is simple. When you have a panic attack, or even something next to it; write down your experiences (after it's over. Unless you can during it).

Do you feel like you're going to die? Or are you just very tired? These are important questions for developing not only the panic attack scene, but your character as a whole. If your character is tougher, they might not be as affected by that, and may only get tired (or mentally drained). If you're character is more of a regular Joe, chances are they feel as if they're dying during it.

"What elements do i add into this?"

You need to make the reader feel and understand the character. Better than the character understands themself in the moment.

Adding things like flashing lights, tears that burn, ground that feels as if it will open and suck them in, are perfect for developing description while writing this.

Here's a panic attack scene I wrote a few months ago. I have to cut a lot of it because it would make the post too long, haha.

"-redacted-'s vision was gone. Maybe his eyes were closed, maybe the tears were blocking his sight. He tried to stand, but the weight of the world sent him tumbling down with a small THUD and some books off the shelf he used to lift himself up with. The noise was quiet, but -redacted- felt as if it was the loudest thing the world had to offer."

This is the buildup to the full blown panic attack that was inevitable. In this paragraph, you can tell that the character is freaking out, but you can't really feel the haste or panic yourself. That's what this paragraph is for;

"Not when everything you do means nothing. When everything is pointless, who cares when you mess up? Who cares that you finally realized that you're a pathetic waste of space? Who even notices when those urges get stronger, despite the fact that you can't kill yourself in the circus? Would they even care if he -redacted-? Right here, right now, on the floor of some library, sobbing uncontrollably. He couldn't help it, his mask had completely fallen off and he didn't care. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. He was a terrible person to the group and everything he did was a continuous choice. He got to choose weather or not he was a bitch, but he chose wrong. He was always wrong. He was wrong when he thought that -redacted- was fine, so he might as well always be wrong, right? It didn't matter, it didn'tmatter, itdidn'tmatter, itdidntmatter itdidntmatteritdidntmatteritdidntmatterITDIDNTMATTERITDIDNTMATTERITDIDNTMATTERITDIDNTMATTERITDIDNT-"

This adds the sense of panic to not only the character, but the reader. What's happening in the character's mind helps move the scene forward. Personally, I like writing the character's thoughts because I find it beyond helpful, but if you have a different approach, that's just as valid.

I will make two follow up posts to this. One to write panic, anxiety, and dread without the panic attack, and one to help soothe out of the panic attack naturally.