What To Write, When There’s Nothing To Write

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Hacking Creativity

Sometimes a week doesn’t go quite as planned. Sometimes that week is a year. Sometimes, it may feel more like a lifetime.

So, when weeks like that crop up, what do you do?

What happens when you sit down to write in the suddenly, critically-limited time available, and … nothing.

So, you comb through your Evernote Ideas notebook, and … nothing. Nothing that catches your attention. Nothing that fires up those soggy braincells. Nothing to excite or inspire. Nothing into which you feel you can put heart and soul.

So, what do you write, when there’s nothing to write?

You write this.

Because, you have to write. Right?

If you don’t write, you’ll lose your entire follower-base, and no-one will clap, comment, share, or reference your articles ever again. If you don’t write, your Sisyphean boulder will roll back and crush you like ant. And that … will be the end.

So, why am I writing an article every week?

Am I writing to express my creativity? I’d like to think so.

Am I writing to share my manifold wisdom with the world? Hardly. If I were, I doubt I’d be writing this.

Am I writing out of fear? Fear that I’ll be forgotten. Fear that I’ll never be known. Fear that all my previous hard work will be for nought. Fear, that if I take my fingers off the keyboard this week, it’ll all unravel?

Is that why I’m writing? Fear?

Well, to be honest, today it feels like that is why I’m writing. I certainly don’t feel like writing anything. I seriously considered just blowing it off for this week.

But, then I thought, “What if there are others out there that are experiencing the same fears and difficulties that I am?”.

I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this boat.

So, what do I write, when there’s nothing to write ,and I don’t want to write, and I know, I’m just doing it out of fear and duty, and for anyone else in this lifeboat?

The Answer :

I write this. I put my heart and soul, ever so fearfully and briefly on the “page”, in the hopes that it will strike a chord with you, my reader. That it will encourage you … be it ever so slightly.

I write this, in the hope that by next week, my ideas will once again strike some spark of inspiration on the soggy tinder of my soul.

I write this to encourage any and all of you who feel, or have ever felt this way.

When there’s nothing to write — write nothing.