Fighting the Writing Blahs?
By Dana K. CassellÂ
In the depths of northern winters, when we find ourselves fighting procrastination, we call it the winter blues.
A couple months later, it’s spring fever — we’d really rather be out there raking away the winter debris than in here digging the right words out of our sluggish brains.
Then there’s summer… when it’s too hot to work.
Let’s just call it the blahs — when the writing isn’t going so well. It can hit us in any season. When it lasts only a day or two, there’s no problem — in fact, it can give us a nice break in the routine, then we bounce back more energized than ever.
But what to do when it lingers? We sit at our keyboards hour after hour. We do a bit of work — mostly busy-work tasks; we just can’t seem to get the tough “real writing” done.
If you’ve slowed down and need to rev up your writing engines, try these tactics:
• Start each day by reading one chapter from a book on succeeding as a writer — or a how-to article from a magazine on writing — even if you’re beyond that point and know everything in the book or magazine. The inspiration from it will sneak up on you.
• Launch a new project. Make it something you’ve been wanting to do, but haven’t had time to get to.
• Rearrange your office. If that’s impossible; at least rearrange your desk area. Move things around a bit.
• Double the lighting in your office — especially if you live in a real winter climate.
• Use a few props. Try writing the old-fashioned way — with a pen — but not just any pen. Find one that makes a smooth, easy-flowing line. And try different colors of ink. Try writing on different colors of paper; both lined and unlined.
• Get out of the office, especially if you’ve been staying in it most of the time lately. Take a walk. Play a round of golf or some tennis. Attend a lecture or meeting. Go to the library or a bookstore for a few hours.
• Make two lists: one of things you must or need to do; one of things you would like to do. Then schedule them into your day, your week, your month — pulling tasks and projects from each list.
Dana K. Cassell is a full-time author and runs the Writers-Editors Network. Learn more about Dana »
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