A Writing Anxiety Scale (WAS) was developed. A literature review and interviews with writing instructors identified nine components of writing behavior (Empathy, Expression, Evaluation by Others, Motivation, Organization, Procrastination, Self-Esteem, Technical Skills, and Writing Anxiety). A pool of 146 items were written to reflect the components. Eight raters sorted the items into the 9 categories; 103 items with an agreement of 6 or better were retained. In experiment one the WAS, the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist (MAACL) Anxiety Scale, and a self-rating scale of behavioral sketches of the subscales were given to 117 undergraduates. Analyses of frequency of endorsement, Cronbach's alpha, and correlations with experimental scale support sufficient psychometric strength to warrant further refinement. In experiment two, 91 subjects replicated the psychometric properties of the WAS found in experiment one. Convergence with a measure of Writing Apprehension and a Writer's Block Questionnaire were demonstrated. (Contains 8 references and 5 tables.) (Author/SLD)