#BUT LAST YEAR WAS OOF FOR MY WRITING MOTIVATION (oof = understatement) AND IVE BEEN HAVING SOME THOUGHTS

[prosebushpatch]

From one writer to another: do you have any tips on still getting words down even when motivation's low? I've been on a low streak lately and I still wanna write but it's kind of a struggle to get words down and anything I DO get down doesn't come out good.

Always happy to help if I’m able! I guess as a disclaimer, this is just how I’ve been getting words down recently and may not work for everyone and I’m not an expert or anything. Also I’m super about to ramble because I’ve been thinking about writing far too much recently but here we go!

For me, when I’m struggling with motivation, it tends to be that there’s a scene/project/ect in the way of me writing what I want to write. A quick tip for confronting that is to just write a completely unrelated (or related!) drabble/one-shot of something you love to write. Whether it can be used in a project or not isn’t what’s important, it’s just supposed to help you loosen up a bit. Also, if it’s something you love to write, chances are you’ll indulge in all the good and fun descriptions and get silly with the prose, which is healing for the tired writer’s heart, tbh.

Also, sometimes I get a spark of inspiration from art or a song and I just want to write a flicker of a moment because it made me feel a specific something and I want to try and mimic that with a little bit of writing! I don’t tend to do anything with it after that but it’s a fun way to just get words out.

Going along with that, another tip is to shake up what you’re writing. If you’re working on a long story, write something short! A snippet where you don’t need to worry about plot. If you’re working on a short story, write a poem! Force yourself to rhyme. It doesn’t have to be good! Allow yourself to write nonsense that sounds pretty~ Write a limerick to try and make yourself laugh.

Something else that might help is to ask yourself who you are as an audience. What do you want to read? Write exactly that! Indulge! Indulge in self decadence! I cannot stress enough that the more you love a trope or character dynamic or whatever it is, the more it’ll be fun to write.

Okay. Here’s a more serious note. So, this is a piece of advice one of my professors shared in the fall and it sort of changed my life but if we find ourselves unable to write/struggling with writer’s block it usually means that we’re afraid of something. For me, that usually manifests as fear of perfection, or specifically not being able to achieve it. (There’s more behind that but I’m simplifying). And overcoming fear sure isn’t easy. I still feel a little like crying with some stories that matter just a little too much to not accomplish all I’m desperate for them to. But it becomes manageable when I remember the reasons that I write are stronger than my fear. I’m at the point where I can look at a piece that matters just a little too much and when I get twitchy because it’s not perfect in its syntax, I can take a step back and say, “I wanted to write a story where I can feel the love between these friends. Did I do this? Yes.”

Yeah, we can always improve. No, we will never be completely eloquent one hundred percent of the time. Yes, sometimes these things we create matter a little too much and we get a little too lost in everything it’s not. And that’s okay. It happens. There’s even a place for it, how ardently we love and care about the polish of our craft.

But the reasons we write are stronger than our fears. The reasons I write are stronger than my fears. The reasons you write are stronger than your fears. I think that’s the most important thing to remember when struggling with motivation.

This is so long! I hope it’s not too ramble-y and helps even a bit. But I’m cheering for you! \o/ May your words flow freely soon, and may they be what you needed to read! I guarantee that if you needed them, someone else probably did too <3