My recipe for finding joy in your writing:
(As with all advice, take only what works for you and ignore the rest. This is what works for me. 😊 Also, this is not advice for hitting best seller lists or making enough money to quit your day job. This is about recovering the happiness that writing used to give you.)
Write the book you want to read.
If you want to read the story you are writing, you will enjoy writing it a heck of a lot more than if you are writing a story you think someone else wants to read.
Turn down the volume on the critical voices in your head.
Once you’ve gotten feedback on your writing, there will always be little niggles about doing things someone told you not to. And guilt for not writing the way someone else said you should. Decided carefully who gets a vote on your writing. Who do you really trust? Give them a voice, but keep the volume down. Nothing should be louder in your head than the story you want to write.
Don’t take a hard writing day, week, or month to mean you’ve lost your mojo.
Refill your creative well. Give yourself permission to take time off without guilt and let your brain rest. A broken leg doesn’t magically heal without a cast and writer’s block doesn’t magically go away without giving your brain time and permission to rest.
Protect your creative mind and energy.
- Figure out the things that drain it and avoid them.
- Revisit and revise goals that are causing more harm than motivation to your writing.
- Don’t get lost in other people’s shoulds.
Take a moment to be grateful for the gift that writing is in your life before you start to write.
There is so much joy to be had in simple gratitude. If you aren’t thankful that you can and do write, you’re undercutting every other source of joy you can get from it.
Leave a Reply