Writing Pages Past the Honeymoon Phase
“Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.”
~ Virginia Woolf.
It took J.K. Rowling approximately five years to write the first Harry Potter book. It then took her a single year to write the second one.
Writing a book can be a crushingly long and daunting process spanning years or even decades, and often the love for our work fades.
This is especially the case for our first books; our love gets drowned in everyday hustle and bustle, and one missed writing session leads into another until one day, our excitement completely dies out, perhaps to only be awoken months or even years later.
From my experience, this persistent shift between burning to tell the story to gradually losing interest in it is what keeps most aspiring novelists from finishing their first drafts and doing so in a timely manner.
If this perfectly describes you, then worry not. It happens to the best of us.
To begin, the best advice you’ll ever get on recapturing the love for your book and keeping it is to just keep writing, even on those days when every word feels like a landmine and your mind the idiot tasked to disarm them.
That said, a little help goes a long way in fueling your creativity and calming those treacherous mental demons. This article is about those little yet effective fixes that will help you recapture and keep the love for your book throughout.
Find your people
“Collaborative workshops and writers’ peer groups hadn’t been invented when I was young. They’re a wonderful invention. They put the writer into a community of people all working at the same art, the kind of group musicians and painters and dancers have always had.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin
Surrounding yourself with a community of like-minded writers can be a very fulfilling experience.
I recently joined a small group of fantasy and sci-fi writers — most of us beginners — and we all love sharing tips, talking about our books, and celebrating each other’s wins, no matter how small.
Writing is a very solitary experience, but it doesn’t have to be lonely.
Participating in a small, intimate writing group instills within you a deep sense of comradery, especially when you realize others are fighting those same mental demons you are. It also fuels your productivity by magnitudes.
So if you haven’t yet, find a community of writers and actively participate. Set goals together, discuss your work, and just have fun. You’re then less likely to fall out of love with your work.
Having trouble finding a community?
Just head over to the NaNoWriMo website and take your time browsing its glorious features and nice niche writing groups. If this is too huge a step for you, head over to Reddit.
I found Reddit communities to be a nice starting point as you slowly get comfortable interacting with other writers. The r/writing subreddit can be a great starting point.
Pick up a damn pen and draw!
Drawing has this weird power of immersing you in your work, and I’ve read many posts on Reddit on how drawing reinforces the writing process.
So feel free to draw maps, characters, and anything that might immerse you in your work. This is a true and tried way of keeping the love for your work alive.
But if you’re like me and can’t draw to save your life, just head over to deepAI or any other text-to-image AI generator and bring your descriptions to life. It’s quite enjoyable, and while it may not be as immersive as drawing yourself, it helps a lot in visualization.
Alternatively, you can browse images that are closely related to what you’re writing. I usually browse Pinterest for fantasy inspiration images. When I find that perfect image that embodies something I had envisioned for my book, I begin by describing it in my head, and before I know it, I’m typing away.
Hog all the love
When I’m feeling particularly demotivated, I sneak down to the basement, crack open my hidden titanium treasure chest, and pull out my guilty stash of classified documents detailing every single compliment I’ve ever received on my writing.
And I sit — in the cold, murky darkness — grinning like a villain as I read all those delicious compliments. By the time I emerge back to normal functioning society, my ego is sufficiently soothed, and I’m ready to crank out another shitty first draft for my adoring nonexistent fans.
“Life is a lonely business, often filled with discouragement and rejection. Yes, validation is for parking, but it’s still a tremendous boost when people say nice things about our work.” ~ Austin Kleon.
Keep Lists
Keep notes of all those little random ideas you get. Keep them close by and accessible, and go over them often.
I have multiple such notes on my phone, and sometimes I’ll read something on those lists that’ll transport me to the exact moment I had that flash of inspiration, and the words will flow unbidden. It’ll be just what I needed to transform my writing session into a beautiful flow of unintelligible sentences, careless adverbs, and a whole lot of mess I graciously leave for my future self to clean.
“If you do not write the thoughts of the moments, it is lost forever.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita
I must remind you that these tips only make it easier to put words on paper, but you also need to allow yourself to be messy. Let go of all your thoughts of being a great or even a good writer and focus on just being in writing.
Watch and read productively
This might be obvious, but I’ll still talk about it.
Reading and watching content that gets your blood boiling or that is thematically similar to your book stimulates your writerly heart.
I find that reading a mixture of good and bad writing is good for my health. Bad reading for me constitutes reading translated Japanese light novels, which almost always have horrible writing and yet surprisingly entertaining stories. As I read them, I always catch myself thinking:
“I could do better than this! No matter how horrible I am, at the very least, I am better than this.”
Bad writing is good for your health like that.
Good writing is essential too, of course; you can’t be a good writer if you don’t read a lot of good writing.
Work on some short projects
Taking a brief break from your book to work on a short project can be revitalizing. It could be that short story or nonfiction you’ve been brewing behind the scene.
Working on short projects puts you in the mindset of a prolific writer. For me, pressing publish on medium fills me with a sense of validity and seriousness that I then carry back into the novel.
However, it is important to note that balancing writing different content simultaneously can be tough. Still, when done properly, they synergize, empowering each other in a continuous circle of growth.
Music of course
“Where words fail, music speaks.” ~ Hans Christian Anderson.
Listening to the right kind of music — your kind of music — can really get the words flowing. Music helps me deal with my perfectionism when writing; it eases the pressure from my writing session, creating space for fun and clutter.
With time, music can be a pretty sweet form of mental conditioning for your writing. It can be the tap you need to draw on those delicious creative juices.
Brain Juice
Take time to be bored. In fact, get a boring job.
Some very successful writers initially held jobs that weren’t mentally engaging, so they’d dream up stories while working. So if you’re looking to be a writer — and still can’t go full-time yet — a job that doesn’t drain you mentally would be perfect for your writing goals, rather than one that revolves around using your brain all day, barely leaving any space for your creative endeavors.
Creative people need time to be bored.
Also, just create time to brainstorm, aka fantasize. A nice brainstorming and visualizing session before you write can help solidify the story’s progression in your mind and transform the blank page from a daunting creature to a welcoming phenomenon.
So if you find it hard to get some words out, get comfortable, practice mindfulness, and start fantasizing.
Edit for Immersion
When I edit, I tend to focus too much on finding the right words, the right sentence, the right adjective. This makes for very slow and unproductive writing, particularly when I do so in the first draft.
So instead of obsessively focusing on how my words look, I let myself sink into the story, past the words and imperfect sentences. I focus on the interplay of characters and on editing for sensory descriptions: the texture, noises, and sights. I focus on what makes the scene come alive as I edit, which gets my creative juices flowing.
I believe that those are the edits that truly matter in the first draft. Everything else comes in the second and third drafts.
Walk dammit
“Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.” ~ Henry David Thoreau.
Walks are also great for relaxing and brainstorming.
While I used to spend my walks listening to podcasts, audiobooks, or music, I now find it more productive to just unplug and let my thought stream flow. Often my thoughts will turn toward my writing, which is when I get my best ideas.
“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche.
Listen to the right podcast
Listening to the right podcast can make a world of difference. I love listening to the Prolific Writer podcast and the Writer Files podcast, among others. Learning about other writers’ journeys and their advice can be very educational and motivational, especially for beginners.
Podcasts also help by immersing you in the profession, what I like to call the wizarding world of writing. It’ll help you take your writing more seriously.
Love the Verb
We’ve talked about how to keep the love for our work alive, but it’s important to remember that love isn’t just an emotion. In the words of Stephen R. Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:
“Proactive people make love a verb. Love is something you do: the sacrifices you make, the giving of self, like a mother bringing a newborn into the world.”
It’s the same for our writing, and our books. We practice love for our work by writing no matter how tired or busy we are: we sacrifice constantly and unreservedly.
So sit down and get some words out even when it’s uncomfortable.
Do it daily.
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