{"id":117,"date":"2014-08-17T01:23:53","date_gmt":"2014-08-17T01:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/?p=117"},"modified":"2014-08-20T01:34:58","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T01:34:58","slug":"how-to-write-when-you-dont-feel-like-it-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/how-to-write-when-you-dont-feel-like-it-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write When You Don&#8217;t Feel Like It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.peaceandprojects.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/dont-quit1.jpg\" rel=\"colorbox\" class=\"colorbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6516\" src=\"http:\/\/www.peaceandprojects.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/dont-quit1.jpg\" alt=\"dont-quit\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Every writer experiences burnout.<\/p>\n<p>The article you&#8217;ve drafted gets boring. The novel you&#8217;ve plotted has so many holes you consider renaming it <em>Dead Swiss<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Self-doubt might arrive to remind you that you&#8217;re nothing more than an amateur, and maybe you should give up telling stories to sell Avon.<\/p>\n<p>But you know the truth.<\/p>\n<p>Unless you really are an amateur, you&#8217;ll get through this phase. <strong>You&#8217;ll write<\/strong>, because that&#8217;s what writers do.<\/p>\n<p>We write when we don&#8217;t feel like it.<\/p>\n<p>This post is going to offer some shortcuts for when you&#8217;re burned out so you can get on with life. And writing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The best part of this stuck-cycle is that the magic of telling stories always comes back.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To me, that&#8217;s the number one motivator to write when you don&#8217;t feel like it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Write to get the magic back.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Writing-euphoria can&#8217;t be beat.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some things to try when you&#8217;re stuck:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Music.<\/li>\n<li>A new location. (write at the library or a coffee shop)<\/li>\n<li>Read from your favorite book. (It&#8217;s always inspiring to see how other writers make magic.)<\/li>\n<li>Timers, to set goals. (<a href=\"http:\/\/ticktocktimer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Tick Tock Timer<\/a> is my personal fave.)<\/li>\n<li>Reward systems. (No internet until I write another 200, 500 or 1,000 words. No cookies. No shower. No getting off the chair. You get the idea.)<\/li>\n<li>Visit a book store. There&#8217;s nothing quite so motivating as seeing all those book covers on the shelves that aren&#8217;t yours (yet).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Write light.<\/strong> Write with joy. Smile.<\/li>\n<li>Meditate for five minutes, then get back to work.<\/li>\n<li>Try a new routine. If you write in the morning, try writing 500 words at night instead.<\/li>\n<li>Announce a writing sprint or goal on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MelissaGorzela\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Call a writer friend for encouragement.<\/li>\n<li>Exercise, then get back to work.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Step away from the computer and take out paper and pen.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Take a five minute break.<\/li>\n<li>Write two novels at once so you can switch between the two if you feel bored. (This is something new I&#8217;m trying &#8230; no guarantee on how it will turn out.)<\/li>\n<li>Look up some inspiring quotes. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.writersdigest.com\/writing-quotes\" target=\"_blank\">Here&#8217;s a start.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Remember the payday. Dream of how you&#8217;ll treat yourself, then get back to work.<\/li>\n<li>Music. (This deserves to be listed twice. Music motivates me like nothing else. I recommend creating a playlist for every character. Choose songs that set the mood you want to convey when you write their scenes. This is why I listen to so many songs on repeat.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Just start doing it.<\/strong> We don&#8217;t have to feel like doing something in order to physically do it. Type whatever words come to mind, in whatever point of view and tense.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Happy writing.<\/p>\n<h5>Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/celestinechua\/\">Celestine Chua<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every writer experiences burnout. The article you&#8217;ve drafted gets boring. The novel you&#8217;ve plotted has so many holes you consider renaming it Dead Swiss. Self-doubt might arrive to remind you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-read-p\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/how-to-write-when-you-dont-feel-like-it-2\/\" class=\"post-read-more\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissagorzelanczyk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}