How do I write when I just can’t write?

1.) Set the mood

Think about what makes your writing sessions productive. Do you need a cup of tea? Make one! (And grab yourself a glass of water while you’re at it. Writing is thirsty work and once you get up, you might not sit back down!) Does your desk need to be cleared off? Take a couple minutes to clear the clutter!

2.) Find your tools

Grab whatever you need to write. Grab your lucky pen and notebook, your laptop charger, a snack, everything you need. Put on your favorite playlist and take a seat. You’ve got some work to do.

Open your notebook or document to where you left off. Pull out your pen, pencil or keyboard and take a deep breath. Reread the last couple sentences. If you can’t continue from there or you just aren’t feeling the scene anymore, take a break to clear your mind, then see if you can go back and pick up where you left off.

3.) Clear your mind

Open to a blank page in your notebook or create a blank word document. Write everything that happened to you today up until this point. Did you have a lousy day? Write what made today so lousy. Have something you wish you could say to someone but don’t really want to? Write it here. Write about your crush. Write about that argument you and your sister got into. Use this time as a brain dump just to get some words on a page.

Maybe you have a story idea you want to write down before you forget or a snippet from a future scene? Jot it down and highlight or circle it. You don’t need to save this document, but if you wrote anything important, you might want to save that snippet.

4.) Pick a theme

Have you ever done a focused free write? Pick a theme. It can be an emotion, an item, a character or setting from your story; pick whatever strikes your fancy. Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and in that time, write everything that comes to mind when you think about that theme.

You don’t need to use complete sentences. This can be a list, random words, feelings you associate with that, descriptions, how one of your characters would interact with this object, or anything else. The point here is to get some words on the page through association.

Can’t think of a theme? Check out @deepwaterwritingprompts or @writing-prompt-s for some writing prompts and try a similar exercize.

5.) Give your story another shot

Did you get into the groove? Did you feel like you can write? Great! Open back to your story and start up again. Even if you can’t finish that particular scene, throw in a couple enters or a page break and start writing a scene that you really want to write.

If you decide to skip ahead, try to write a couple of sentences of what happens between where you left off and where you start back up. This doesn’t need to be eloquent or beautiful or even full sentences. Just an idea of how your characters can get from point A to point B.

Here’s an example of something I’ve written when I didn’t want to finish the scene in Illusions of Hope:

6.) Don’t give up

Maybe today just wasn’t a good day to write. That’s OKAY. You’re not going to be able to wake up every day and write 5,000 words. You might not even be able to wake up every day and write 1,667 words.

YOU ARE VALID no matter how many words you write in a session. YOU ARE VALID if you didn’t even open your word doc today. YOU ARE VALID if the words you wrote weren’t up to your standard.

No matter where you are in your writing process, your words don’t need to be perfect. You can always come back later to make revisions or rewrite entire scenes. The biggest fear I face when I’m looking a blank page is that the words I write won’t be perfect. The perfect first draft is a myth, just like the perfect final draft.

I believe in you. Don’t give up.