Author Website of Rachel Aaron/Rachel Bach

How to unstall, unstick, and keep on creating even when you’re not feeling it.

This essay is part of CONQUERING THE WRITING BLUES, a free online writing conference! To hear the interview that goes with it, click here!

The world’s a pretty stressed place right now. Corona virus is everywhere, people are losing their jobs, the news is even more insane than usual, and there’s no end in sight for any of it. If you’re trying to write--either working on an existing project or struggling to start a new one--the noise from outside can feel like a hammer smashing your creative concentration to bits. 

If your output is suffering during this crisis, you’re not alone. Staying productive, let alone creative in an environment like the one we’re living through right now can seem pretty hopeless. Fortunately for all of us, this feeling is exactly that: a feeling. 

I’ve been writing regularly since 2004. This is my first global pandemic, but I’m no stranger to pushing through hard times. I’ve kept chugging on novels through a new baby, financial difficulties, the loss of my father, and all the other millions of hardships that make life life. Writing through these circumstances wasn’t easy, but that doesn’t really mean much since writing is never easy. It’s always hard. There’s always something in the way, stealing your time your time or sapping your creativity, which is why successful writers learn how to protect their writing, even in dire straits.

Just as there is no perfect time to write, there is no circumstance so bleak that creativity cannot thrive. Humans are storytelling animals. We can be distracted and dragged down and exhausted, but no matter how low we get, the stories are always there. The trick is figuring out how to create an environment where those stories can grow and shine.

To be clear: this is not easy. You can’t expect yourself to be writing at 100% when family, work, and stress are all taking bites out of you. But you can keep going and create great things, it just takes a bit of extra effort. 

When I was dealing with my toughest times, these are the strategies I used to keep myself going. I’m not saying they’re the only path, or even the best--every writer writes differently, so your mileage may vary. But if you’re having trouble keeping your words flowing right now, here’s I’ve discovered works to keep me writing. Fingers crossed it’ll keep you writing, too!

1) Build a Castle

This is probably the most obvious bit of advice, but when real life is overwhelming fiction, your first and best line of defense is distance. No matter how much you love your story, it’s always harder to write in an environment where you’re being constantly interrupted, or where you’re constantly interrupting yourself by checking your phone/email/social media.

My normal solution to this problem is to physically leave my house and go to a coffee shop or somewhere else that’s quiet and internetless, but relocation isn’t practical or responsible in this time of social distancing. Fortunately, it’s also not necessary. Physical distance is nice, but all you really need is a mental division: a space that is set aside only for writing and nothing else is allowed.

This can be as lavish as a writing office or as simple as a chair at the kitchen table with a sign taped to your back that says no one is allowed to disturb you for the next two hours. Even just a timeblock that’s always set aside for writing no matter what else is going on can be enough. Anything works so long as you feel protected when you’re inside, because when you feel safe is when the words come back.

Caveat: this method requires setting and enforcing boundaries. I realize that’s not always possible, and if you’re in a situation where you truly can’t get a single hour to yourself for writing, that’s fine. It’s okay to not write all the time. We’re human, life happens. But if you do have writing time/space, you owe it to yourself to make that time count. Don’t squander your precious writing hours on worries and problems that writing can’t fix, and don’t let others take them from you either.

This is harder than it sounds. Non-writers, especially children, have a very hard time understanding that writing is work that can’t be interrupted. That’s why I call this “building a castle.” You’re going to have to set a hard line, and then you’re going to have to defend it. You’re going to have to say no. You’re going to have to say not now. That’s tough, especially when the other person doesn’t mean any harm, but if you can’t say no, the world will just keep taking your time, and you’ll always be stuck writing in the margins of your life.

The world has billions of people to worry about it, but your worlds only have you. You are the only person on the planet who’s going to put your writing first. It’s up to you to protect your dream, so build your castle, keep it safe, and you will always have a place where your creativity can thrive without someone stomping on it.

2) Remember the Fun

Building a castle is never a bad idea, but sometimes it’s not enough. There have been plenty of moments when I’ve been alone in my writing office with no internet, phone, or needy family members and I still can’t seem to concentrate on what I’m writing. When this happens, my first instinct is to beat myself up. Why aren’t I working? Why am I being lazy? Why am I so bad at this?

This is a terrible knee-jerk reaction, because self-flagellating NEVER works. It’s true that you are the only person responsible for writing your books, but just as you can’t shoot a worker to raise morale, and you can’t make yourself write by telling yourself you’re a failure if you don’t. Remember: writing should be fun. You’re telling a story to entertain people, not getting a root canal.

So if you’re sitting in your castle and you still can’t write, don’t blame yourself. Engage yourself. Step back from whatever you’re beating your head against and get yourself re-excited about all the cool, fun, amazing things in this book that made you want to write it in the first place. Was it the character drama? The awesome world? The fun magical system? What scenes have you already written that were awesome? What scenes have you not written yet that you’re looking forward to?

As much as we’d like to pretend otherwise, writing isn’t actually a magical process. It’s a project, a long one. Like any long project, it can be easy to miss the forest for the trees, particularly if life won’t stop interrupting you. When this happens, it can be tempting to think that the book is broken, and it might be a little. Most books are until the edit, and that can really be a speedbump. I know I have a hard time getting pumped to work on stories that are going to take a lot of fixing.

It’s totally natural to feel uninspired if the writing isn’t going as smoothly as you’d hoped, but don’t confuse reluctance to face a hard problem with inability to write. Sometimes you just have to psych yourself up to get over the hump, and for my money, the best way to do that is with the ideas that set me on fire to write the book in the first place. This is a creative art! Feelings matter. Just as bad times and feelings can make you feel like not writing, remembering the good stuff can get you going again even when the world seems to be conspiring against you.The power of positive thinking is legit in writing, so never be afraid to go back and roll around in the cool. Get excited again! Remember the fun, and you’ll be amazed how fast the words kick back up.

3) Don’t Be Afraid to Let Go

This one is the hardest. If I’ve built my castle, remembered the fun, and I’m still not feeling like writing, that means something’s wrong with me. 

This is not a condemnation. Writers are humans, and when humans get put under too much stress for too long, we stop functioning properly. My life isn’t nearly as hard as some people’s, but I’ve still had times when I’ve been so tired I didn’t even want to watch a movie. When this happens, the answer isn’t some new creativity hack or writing method. The answer is rest.

Remember back at the top when I said you didn’t need to write all the time to be a writer? This would be one of those times. If you are so tired and burned out that you can’t write even under good conditions, then you just can’t write. And that sucks, especially if writing is your job and you need to put out another book to keep your income flowing. 

Alas, these kind of thoughts will only make the problem worse. Burnout isn’t something you can fix with more work or trying harder. It’s a wound, and the only way to get rid of a wound is to let it heal.

When I get burnout--and I do, I try not to but it still happens--the only way I’ve found to get my writing back again is to let go. I let go of my deadlines and my expectations and my schedule and just focus on restoring the part of me that’s damaged without judgement or guilt. If that’s my physical body, I sleep and loaf. If I’m dead mentally, I use my writing time to rehability my creativity. 

My favorite way to do this is to consume stories. I don’t try to read in my genre or study writing books because that’s work. Healing requires rest, so if I want to rewatch all of Steven Universe, I rewatch all of Steven Universe. If I want to read Romance novels, I read Romance novels. I give myself the freedom to do whatever I want. The only limit I set is that I have to consume fiction. Not news, not YouTube, not Reality TV. Stories, written by other artists who work just as hard as I do. Other than that, sky’s the limit. I reread old favorites, play with ridiculous ideas I’m never going to actually write, whatever makes me happy. 

That’s the key. Happiness isn’t a byproduct of goofing off, it’s the point. There’s this Romanticism about the depressed artist, but all the creators I know do their best work when they’re happy. Joy, enthusiasm, excitement--these are the sparks that light the fire, and they’re the only forces strong enough to lift you back up when you’ve worked yourself into a creative slump. But you can’t be happy if you’re flogging yourself, so if you’re doing everything right and the words still aren’t coming, give yourself permission to let go. Don’t give up, don’t throw the book away. Just take a break. Read a story, watch a movie or a show, let yourself bask in the joy of those other creators' creations, and I promise, when you feel ready to go back to your own book, it’s going to be a LOT easier.

And that’s how I do it!

Now you know the tactics I’ve used to get out of pretty much every writing slump I’ve had over the past fifteen years. There were a lot of other things I tried, too, but these were the only ones that worked well enough to recommend to others. Honestly though, one writer to another, there’s always going to be something. Creativity is just a bumpy road, and sometimes you end up in the ditch. 

Maybe there are writers who know how to avoid that, but I’ve never met one. I’ve been in the ditch plenty of times myself, but I’ve always pulled myself out again because the stories are worth it. Just as there’s nothing worse than staring at that blank page, there is no better feeling in the world than when the words are flying. Even if they aren’t flying right now, so long as you never give up, they’ll always come back. The spark is always there, always inside you. You might not always be able to make it shine on demand, but it never goes out, and if you give it room and care, it will always, always, always come back.

Write on, my friends, and good luck.