What to Do When You’ve Lost All Motivation to Write

Here’s a trick that will help you discover the feeling of writing again.

Photo by Johnny Cohen on Unsplash

Let’s talk about feelings. Not yours. And certainly not mine.

Instead, let’s take a deep breath, a healthy pause if you will, and reflect on how we feel when we write.

That’s right, let’s talk about the ‘feeling of writing’.

Until recently, I’ve never given much thought to such an emotion. Like most of us, I just typed and hoped for the best.

But then I entered into a slump.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been more distracted than ever — let’s just say I had a lot going on in my personal life.

And in all honesty, I hardly wrote a thing. I mean, I published occasionally, but I was basically depleting my ‘drafts’ folder.

Eventually, I was past my distraction phase. And with no drafts remaining, I was ready to start writing again. Except, I didn’t.

Getting back into writing should have been easy — after all, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? Yeah, not quite.

Truth be told, I was unable to pick up where I left off. Every blog post on my to-do list felt like a chore that I didn’t fancy completing.

Simply said, I’d lost my motivation to write.

Now don’t get me wrong, I tried everything to snap out of this ‘phase’ — reading what other people have written, reading what I had previously published. Surely a bit of quiet reading time could get me back in the flow again. Not quite.

The only routine I didn’t break was my habit of jotting down story headlines as soon as they spring to mind. I guess I was hopeful I might think of something so awe-inspiring that it would prompt me to immediately start writing again. That didn’t happen either.

So how did I end my writing drought?

I decided to write about how I feel.

There was no purpose behind why I chose to type about my emotions. I’ve never really done this before.

I just sat behind my computer, and with nothing better to do with my time, I began pressing a few letters again. Now that felt good.

To showcase what was running through my brain, here’s a snippet of what I wrote, unpolished, completely raw:

“I’ve got zero motivation to write anything right now. Every title I have written down in my notebook feels like a task-and-a-half to begin, let alone to complete…

Over the past few weeks, my mind has been occupied elsewhere. As such, I broke my daily writing routine. Not for a quick pit stop. I went several days without writing. And I feel sick inside…

So where am I going with this? Nowhere really. I’m just opening up with the fact that right now, I’ve got zero motivation to write anything new.”

Without realising, something more powerful was happening behind the scenes as I was attempting to relive the motions of typing again.

I was rediscovering the force that is, ‘the feeling of writing’.

There are several reasons you shouldn’t write

Here’s what was going through my mind during my demotivated phase:

• I have very little to add — everything I write has been said before;
• It’s been a while since I’ve had a story take off ;
• I zero drafts left to quickly publish (and make it look like I’m still writing every day);
• I have nothing interest to say;
• Planning a story is boring;
• Is anybody still reading my work?

Sigh.

So yeah, there’s a lot for writers to complain about. But that’s normally what happens when you lose motivation. You focus on what sucks. You forget about what’s great.

And what’s great, is the feeling that embraces you when you write.

I simply can’t define this emotion — it’s different for everyone.

Some people find writing relaxing, perhaps even therapeutic. Others relish the energy that comes with being in the zone.

Me? I enjoy the freedom I have to express what’s on my mind in a coherent manner. I guess that’s what I’m doing right now too.

When you don’t feel like writing, write how you feel

If it helps, think of this trick as journaling. Keep it raw, unedited, personal.

If you wish to publish your what you’ve jotted down, by all means, feel free to do so. But publishing isn’t the purpose here.

The purpose of writing how you feel is to discover the feeling of writing again.

And once you do, you’ll wonder why you ever stopped in the first place. And then, there’s simply no holding you back.