How to Keep Writing When You Want to Give Up

Laura Ginn

Writing is a job that requires creativity, imagination and most of all determination. It can get boring, it can become monotonous and the life of a writer is far from the image that most people have in their minds. Crouched over the laptop day after day, or sat at a desk, pen poised waiting for inspiration to strike is not the most exciting way to spend your day. Writers need the motivation to keep going, to keep putting those words on the page and to not give up.

Keeping the Motivation Up

Writers block or bloggers block is very real, it can feel as though your brain is no longer being fed by your internal spring of creativity, the words simply refuse to flow. So how on earth do you get that creativity flowing again? Here are a few hints and tips that might just get the words flowing again. They might not all work for you but you never know until you try.

  • Start off Small: By small I mean nothing more taxing than a single line. If your brain is fried and the words simply refuse to come, a single line or a title is a great place to start. Write that one line and you will find that ideas start coming to you that you can build around it.
  • Write Nonsense: It doesn’t have to be structured and it doesn’t have to make sense just write. It could be disjointed words that pop into your head, colours, names or anything – just get that pen moving across the paper or the cursor moving across your screen. This acts like a trigger and gets you into the right frame of mind for some real writing.
  • Get the Hardest Out of The Way First: if you have a list of tasks to work through, tackle the most difficult first, after that you will be coasting and get the rest done with ease.
  • Have a Break: Put the pen down, close the laptop and walk away. Wander around the garden, make a drink, call a friend – do something that does not involve your work materials, you could even try power napping. Your brain will thank you for the break.
  • Be Inspired: Look at different websites for inspiration – Pinterest is a great one to check out when you are in need of inspirational ideas.
  • Get Moving: Leave the house, take a walk or do some exercise, get your blood back up to your brain and feel reenergised.

Take Heart

Even the best writers get blocks now and again. Writing is a job unlike any other you will find, it can be very time consuming and frustrating but it is ultimately rewarding. You feel exhausted at the end of the day though you may not have moved very much at all, it is taxing in ways non writers will never understand. Writing is something born of passion, and it takes passion and motivation to succeed.