Welcome (or welcome back) to my writing journey!
How are you all doing?
This post is part of my series “The Writer's Survival Kit“ and you can find the other post in the series here:
The Writer's Survival Kit #1 — Protecting your confidence
The Writer's Survival Kit #2 — How to write when you’re exhausted
The Writer's Survival Kit #3 — How to restart after a long break
My writing nowadays is divided into two separate worlds — I write here on Substack and I’m also writing a sci-fi novel. Both of these have a few things in common, chief among them being that they require consistency, which is very difficult to maintain because writing is tough. I love it with all my heart and I don’t know what I’d do without it, but at the same time, it is undeniably difficult.
I need to be consistent, though, or I’ll never be able to accomplish anything. I want to publish a post every week, so I need to put in time every day so that I can finish writing and editing it on time. On the fiction side of things, writing a novel is a huge commitment, and if I’m going to ever have any hope of finishing the one I’m working on, I need to spend time writing it consistently over a long period of time. In order to make this happen, I write every single day — three days a week on my posts, three on my novel, and one learning how to be a better writer.
There is a lot to be said for consistency, and its benefits are huge. However, something that isn’t talked about nearly as much is one of its side effects — monotony. Doing the same thing day in and day out is a great way to achieve your goals. It’s also a really great way to get bored and quit. When we consistently do something, by virtue of that same consistency, we also open the door to boredom. Being bored by what we’re writing is a one-way ticket to quitting. Somehow the thing that was supposed to help us achieve our goals becomes the reason we didn’t.
Starting a new project often brings with it lots of excitement, joy, and energy, and we could never imagine being bored by it. As we start working on it, though, writing a little bit every day, it starts to lose its shine. Boredom is the killer of joy, and writing starts to feel really tedious and extra hard when it no longer makes us happy. Losing the joy writing brought you is very painful, and it hurts to write after losing it, because you remember how happy it used to make you.
Of course, even when you’re not bored, not every second of writing is going to be fun or bring you joy. Some parts of writing are tedious, a lot of it is hard, and sometimes you just have to push through and do it anyway. However, if the thought of finishing the project, or the big picture, or writing in general makes you happy, you’re good to go. The issues start when you lose your overall joy, when nothing about writing makes you happy anymore.
Something you can do to help re-find the joy in writing is to introduce variety. Doing different things can help break up the monotony, so it’s very important to find a way to incorporate different things into your writing routine. This doesn’t necessarily mean working on more than one project at once. That can get pretty overwhelming and cause its own problems (you can read more about that here — Project hopping — good or bad?). What you can do is try and spend time paying attention to different aspects of your project, so you don’t feel like you’re just plugging away at your keyboard every day.
In a way, writing is a little immune to monotony because you’re writing something new every time. Even if you’re working on the same project every day, you’re writing new parts of it. You’re discovering new places and characters, experiencing things through them, and learning what path your story wants to take. This can be quite exciting. But if that’s not happening, and you’re struggling with writing, it may help you to set aside one day a week to focus on worldbuilding, character development, artwork, or anything else connected to your book that’s not writing. This way, you are still immersed in your story and working on it, but you get a little bit of a break from the typical writing work and you can feel like you’re doing something else.
In my experience, the hardest part of the book-creation process is editing it. You need to read through it so many times, and there seem to be endless mistakes to correct. Yes, there are different kinds of editing such as language edits (spelling and grammar) or plot edits (making sure your story makes sense), but they all involve painstakingly reviewing what you’ve written, again, and again, and again. It’s inevitable that you’re going to get bored. Not only that, you’re probably going to be so sick of your book by the end of it that you won’t be able to imagine how anyone, ever, would want to read it. Unless you love editing with every fiber of your being, this is going to happen, and even the most editing-loving person on the planet will get bored of editing the same project eventually.
What you can do to help get you through those tough times is to try and pretend like you’re editing someone else’s book. They’re trusting you to make their work the best it can be, and you don’t want to let them down. By stepping outside of yourself, you can try and help yourself look at the project through new, fresh eyes. This will only work for an editing pass or two, because nothing can hide from you the fact that you’re reading the same thing over and over, but it’s at least a good start. You probably won’t need it for the first editing pass, because the first reread of your book will feel fresh and exciting, but you can use it to help you through editing passes two and three.
Once you’re past that point, and that method no longer works, you can try working in smaller chunks and taking breaks in between. Spend half an hour editing, go do something else for half an hour, spend another half hour editing, take a break for half an hour, and so on. Doing this allows your brain to stay fresh and able to focus, and you won’t feel quite so bored while working because you allow yourself to do something else for a while. The editing will still feel tiresome and dull, but less so, and every time you come back from one of your breaks you’ll find yourself refreshed and having more energy to work with.
You may think this method will mean that you get less work done and that a better idea would be to just push through and work until you can’t anymore every day. I say that the method I offered above is not only more sustainable, but the quality of the work you do will be far better. You’ll come back from every break with fresh eyes, so you’ll get more right the first time. You may even end up needing fewer editing passes. Allowing yourself to work in small chunks will mean that you won’t overextend your brain, and you won’t feel groggy and drained nearly as much because you give your brain recovery time as you work.
Instead of draining yourself past your max and then hoping you’ll recover back to full strength by the next day when you’ll drain yourself again, you’re allowing your brain to rest in between chunks of work, which will mean you won’t bottom out energy-wise, and you’ll have a lot less to recover from. You’ll be able to start every day at 100%, because you’re taking care of yourself and regularly allowing yourself to recharge, and only rarely, if ever, going into an energy deficit.
When we feel drained, there’s not much room left for us to feel anything else. We become apathetic and aloof, and have no energy left to feel anything other than empty. When we go about life like this, we don’t have any space for joy. The things we used to enjoy won’t make us happy, and we’ll usually end up quitting because we can’t find it in ourselves to care. There are many reasons why this is bad, and many things that could cause this, but I want to stay focused on the writing aspect.
If writing is what is draining your energy and making you feel that way, try the strategies I suggested above. Writing is so amazing and so incredible and can bring you so much joy. The first step to feeling that joy is to make sure you’re not drained so that you have space to even feel it. Once you’re there, make sure that you take a moment to reflect either before or after every time you write. Allow yourself to marvel at the fact that you’re creating whole worlds with your words. You’re creating people and having them live lives. You’re writing something that has the power to transport its readers into a whole different reality. That is unbelievable.
When you take a second to think about how amazing what you’re doing is, you’re helping preserve a little bit of that wonder that comes with writing. You’re reminding yourself that you’re doing something incredible. This will help you truly appreciate what you’re doing, which is the path that leads to finding joy in it. That joy will help you get through the harder parts of writing and carry you through those that feel impossible to manage. When the sailing is smooth, cultivate your joy so that it’s there for you when you need it.
The joy that comes from writing is one of the most incredible feelings in the world. It fills me up like nothing else. It’s so pure. It makes me feel like I’m flying. When I lose it, I feel the space where it used to be, aching like a lost limb. You don’t realize how much of an impact it has on you until it’s gone, and suddenly your whole world goes a little dark.
If you want to get to the end of the project you’re working on, you’re going to need joy to power you to the finish line. It’s not just about finishing your project, though. Joy from writing and creating can elevate your life in so many ways, and I really believe that it seeps into other parts of your life and helps you be happier with them, too. Finding the joy in writing will transform you, and maintaining it will transform your life.
How do you find the joy in writing? How do you get it back when you feel like you’ve lost it?
Talk soon :)
Shira
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This was a beautiful post. I’m struggling to find motivation to begin edits for my draft of book 3. I suspect that I’ll have to cut a lot of scenes and the thought is intimidating to me. These tips might help :)
"The joy that comes from writing is one of the most incredible feelings in the world. It fills me up like nothing else. It’s so pure. It makes me feel like I’m flying. When I lose it, I feel the space where it used to be, aching like a lost limb."
Thus is the dance of life. Sometimes the work we do, the relationships we're in, make us glide effortlessly together with our loves. Other times, we put space between, we vary the steps, put variety in the movement. If we didn't, the dance would lose it's beauty.
Writing a novel takes years to guide and nurture from spark to shelf. Authors are in it for the long haul and much of the process is unpaid and thankless. You're not a novel writer because you need to be rich and famous, you write because it is who you are, and being a writer colors the way you see the world.
Even when I'm not sitting with the keyboard under my fingertips, I'm noticing the world. Thinking what words I would use to describe that smell, color, shape, plant, or person. I see faces and smile when one looks exactly like I imagine one of my characters to look. I see how people move, how they interact. I derive joy from seeing them, really seeing them, as fully human with all the faults they attempt to hide and the bravado they project.
When the words don't come, or writing is a chore, I change the scene. Actually change the scene, take my notebook and go somewhere else. This week, I sat at an amusement park with my pencil and notebook in hand and I sketched images that will become part of my next book. I watched parents with their children. I watched how teens laughed and joked together. I noticed with delight how some kids start screaming before the roller coaster leaves the station and continue screaming after it returns.
Sometimes, I write side scenes to get to know a character better - scenes that will never make it into the book. I listen to what I've already written using different voices available on the app I use. A different voice can change everything. Try ones with different accents; you'll be amazed how much that changes the feel of your words. I also toggle between projects, although, as you've said, you have to be careful how much you jump from one project to the next.
A writer also needs life experience to draw from. As much as possible, seek out what is new. Squish mud between your toes. Try a new food. Meet new people. Visit a new place. Touch and sniff everything safe to do so. Do something that scares you - within reasonable limits - if it's heights ride a glass elevator to the top of a tall building. If it's spiders, go make some eight legged friends in your garden. Live with wonder.
A writer also needs knowledge. You are writing science fiction - I know you have a science background so the science part is probably easy for you but what about all the other aspects of your world? Politics, religion, economics, art, music, education... you have to fill out your world so the reader can immerse themselves. Research in how societies function helps authors build their own new worlds that feel real. You can come back with fresh ideas for your stories by listening to new music, visiting an art museum, attending a town hall, reading the news etc.
In the end, writing is like anything else in your life worth doing, some days it's fun, other days its a slog. You can chase away the doldrums with new inspiration.