Some writers astonish everyone. They crank out piece after piece, book after book, with daily word counts that blow everyone away.
Then there’s the rest of us – the people who write during their lunch hour or before bed, just struggling to get the idea down before doubt and self-pity take its place.
No matter where you’re at with your writing – whether it’s the first time you’ve sat down to write creatively or you’re completing your 12th. Book – you will struggle. It’s going to happen. You might get sick or have a family member fall ill. You might just lose interest in what you’re doing, or the topic feels more like a chore than a joy. You might have a review come in for your book that take all of the wind out of your sails.
How do you keep finding the will to write when the world feels it’s against you?
Ideas for Getting Your Writing Groove Back
• Find Support – Working on your writing can be isolating. Reach out to friends and family, as well as other writers, to keep going.
• Try Writing Prompts – Take a break from the work you’re struggling with to play around with a new idea.
• Practice Self-Care – Stop working and take care of you, whether that means going for a walk, getting in some social time, or trying new things like meditation.
• Scrap Your Idea – If you’re not passionate about the story, set it aside and come to it another time. It will be waiting.
The work won’t always come easy, but nothing worth doing ever does, right?
Don’t give up. The world needs your words.
My Struggle with Writing
There is no shame in the struggle. For years, I like the opinion of one high school teacher get under my skin and stopped writing creatively all through college. I let one person’s opinion dictate my passion for something I’ve done as long as I can remember. In hindsight, I should have been stronger than that. At the time, however, their opinion mattered a lot to who I was as a person, and the rejection felt like a rejection of me as a person rather than a critique of what had been written.
It wasn’t until I was out on my own and married that I got up the courage to embrace writing for fun instead of simply writing for school or work. That’s a long time to go without doing something you enjoy.
Am I perfect and able to write what I want all of the time? No way. Is it still a struggle to get going? Absolutely. But when the writing bug bites, I indulge it and let the words flow.
I’m the kind of person who can write almost anything for anyone, but I struggle to write for me. I’m hoping to change that. Even if no one reads it, I at least was honest with myself and the kind of writing I want to reflect me.
How do you keep writing when it’s tough? I don’t have all of the answers. Knowing you’re not the only one, however, can be a comfort to some people. If you can give yourself a break and recognize the signs that you’re either burned out or need to switch tactics, you’ll find a way to get your writing flow back.