HOW TO WRITE WHEN YOU DON'T WANT TO

We love writing. Indeed, we might not even be able to think about a life devoid of writing. Nevertheless, we too are humans and won’t be able to perform a routine task on a daily basis like a computer. At times our emotions thwart our desire to pursue our dreams. In this post, I will be sharing with you a few simple steps that’ll help you write when you don’t want to.

1.   Break down your work

In case you are feeling overwhelmed the first thing you must do is to break down your work and formulate a plan. Thinking about the volume of work, before even starting it, will discourage you from starting the work itself. Even after formulating a plan and you’re still feeling overwhelmed, you just have to take it one step at a time. If you isolate your problems and tackle them separately, then it’s a lot easier to digest what you have to do.

2.   Ask yourself why you’re dreading the writing

Often the reason for not wanting to write is when you don’t really know where you are going in the manuscript. When you realise you don’t like where your manuscript is going, that’s when you need to put on the brakes. If you’re not excited about where the book is going, then your readers aren’t going to be excited about reading it either. So, if YOU, the writer, aren’t excited, that’s usually a sign that something is off. It might be a pacing or plot issue, or it might be that you don’t have enough conflict or tension, which I find often the problem. Conflict drives the story. If you hit a lull in your plot, then it might be time to bring in a man with a gun – not necessarily literally, but conflict.

3.   Deal with writer’s block

You know a character has to get from point A to point B and you know what point A and B are. But you may not know the in-between and sometimes this paralyses some writers. That’s when you pull out a pencil and start making a bulleted list of ‘What if this happens? What if the character did this? What if the other character came in? What can I do to make it more difficult for the protagonist? What can I do to get my protagonist through this?’ etc. Once you do that it becomes a lot easier to see how the character gets from point A to point B, which then in turn makes it a lot easier to write.

4.   Figure out your zones

Everyone works best at a different time of day. Some people are night owls and do their best writing at midnight or two in the morning. And some people are early risers and prefer to get up at 5 AM and get writing right away. So know your zone so that you can ensure you are writing at your best time.

5.   Don’t become a workaholic

If you burn yourself out, your productivity is going to take a massive hit because it is going to take a lot longer for you to recover and be able to start writing again. So, make sure you take breaks. And take care of yourself. This means eating on time, keeping your body hydrated, and getting enough hours of sleep. BUT!!! Don’t overdo it either.

6.   You are your own competition

Failure qualifies you to be successful. Every writer has to endure a certain number of failures before writing an international best seller. It varies from person to person. And you never know your number. Be patient and push through. Reprogram your mind to focus on your achievements. Replace this thought, ‘Am I better than so and so writer?’ with ‘Am I better than who I was yesterday?’ Remember, the only way you lose is if you stop writing.

7.   Rip from your vocabulary, ‘I don’t feel like it’

Here’s the thing about ‘I don’t feel like it’ mindset. When you say it, think it or feel it, it doesn’t change what you can do next. It does nothing to actually limit your decision to keep going forward. When you say ‘I don’t feel like it’, it DOESN’T actually prevent you from filling the blank paper before you. You’re simply giving yourself an excuse not to do the work that you know you need to do.

8.   Leap before you think

At times you’ve to leap before you think. Just thinking about doing something won’t get you started. Write something even if you feel the idea is dumb. Once you’ve gained a little bit of momentum and you’ve made a few edits here and there, BOOOM! The idea which was buried under your thoughts finally breaks free. Trust me, ideas don’t come fully formed to anybody’s mind. Even the elite of elite. They too just have a spark in the beginning like the rest. The primary difference between a successful writer and an unsuccessful writer is that the former is patient with his ideas till it grows to its full potential just like a farmer is patient with the sown seeds. The Harry Potter manuscript had to be sent to 12 different publishers before it ended up with Bloomsbury. Agatha Christie, whose books are outsold only by Bible and William Shakespeare, had to undergo 5 years of continual rejection. Click here for a list of best-sellers initially rejected.

……………………………….
“There’s a word for a writer who never gives up: published”

– J A Konrath

___Author’s Note___

Know that every writer, even the best of the best, have trouble writing time to time. Writing is hard and it doesn’t get easier. But what you learn is that you can push through it anyway.
Just drop me a line if want me to cover a topic that you feel is missing on this blog. You can reach me on twitter, fb or G+. Please share if you liked what you just read and subscribe to join the journey of a writer. Don't forget to share your thoughts in the comment box below 😊