What To Do When Your Writing Is Blah
You and I both wish there was an article that gave the golden remedy to writing valuable content day in and day out.
This is the second time in six months where I feel utterly stuck with my writing.
If you’re like me, the world is your muse.
Lately my world has been pretty blah.
I’ve been pretty thorough coming up with reasons for my blahness.
Number one: “Working at home is not exciting.”
Having the option to sometimes go into an office gave me material to work with. My creativity flowed from observing and interacting with others. (Quite ironic being that I’m an introvert.)
Number two: “When my muse is taken away I turn inward.”
And inward is a dark place to be. I will save people the agony of hearing about my emotionally abusive past, battle with anxiety and struggles with perfectionism.
This is one of the reasons the writing of my first book has come to a halt.
Number three: “A blah world puts me in a blah mood.”
Enough said.
Number four: “I feel like everything that once provided me consistency, comfort and security has crumbled all at once.”
Emotional needs are now sucking dry all of the mental energy that I once allocated to writing.
Number five: “I don’t know what I’m doing or where I’m going.”
BOOM!
I believe that last one hit it right on the head.
So now it’s your turn.
Make a list on why you think your writing is not to par right now.
I’m willing to bet that as you get down that list you will discover more about what’s getting in your way.
What the heck am I doing?
Seriously. I quit a great job because I wanted to pursue “my calling.”
I come to realize I don’t really know what my calling is except that I want to make a difference by empowering others.
Ok, so I start a company.
Write half of my first book.
Acquire a handful of clients for my company.
Take a blogging course on Medium.
Start a Medium publication.
Blog regularly and build a decent audience.
Volunteer. For not just one but three places.
Become the head honcho in one of those volunteer organizations.
So besides staying busy, what exactly am I doing again?
I’m still trying to figure that one out.
What I am sure of are my values. I know who I am and what I represent.
So when everything you write seems awful ask, “What is really going on?”
As I said in past posts, regardless of my next direction, I have my writing that grounds me. It is a part of my past that binds my present and future together.
I wholeheartedly believe that.
So, if writing is my guide, I am in pretty big trouble when it’s not working in my favor.
As with everything else, as corny as it sounds, this too shall pass.
When your writing sucks try the following:
1. Stop writing. Yes. Please. I beg you. If you don’t want to read it we probably won’t either.
2. Go outside or to another room. Get away from your writing dojo. It’s time to refresh your energy.
3. Go to a place (physically or mentally) that brought you happiness in the past.
4. Tell a story to yourself about that happy memory.
5. Ask yourself what other stories that reminds you of.
6. Now that you’re in storytelling mode go back to your dojo and write some thoughts down.
OR
1. Repeat step one from above.
2. Repeat step two from above.
3. In your most annoying voice ever scream out loud why your writing sucks at the moment. Let it ALL out and take note of how ridiculous you sound.
4. Ask yourself what has really gotten in the way of your writing. More often than not content or writer’s block is associated with some fear.
5. Once you’ve let it all out, remind yourself why you ever started writing and why your writing doesn’t suck (include examples if your remember).
6. What do you wish to do with your writing? (That in itself is a blog post.)
Most important of all, regardless of what you try, remember that mindset is the key to everything.
Good writing is subjective. And guess what? Bad writing is too.
If you constantly think, “I don’t know what to write. I don’t know what to write. I don’t know what to write.” You won’t know what to write.
If you believe what you write will be garbage, it will be garbage.
I don’t have the answers.
And I guarantee you I will have other episodes of “bad writing” days. The key is to recognize it’s temporary.
Stop the funk. Discover what’s really going on.
Writing is very emotional. It comes from the soul. When something in there is not right your writing will sense it.
Just as you take some time to get better when you’re under the weather, don’t force your writing to walk out again into the world until it’s ready.
If it’s truly part of you, it will come out again. Just give it time to heal.
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