It seems to be common for writers to wallow in the misery of writing. Sure, you say you like it, but you might be treating it as a chore or – worse – a punishment. If you’re feeling discouraged or that your writing is a slog, DIY MFA‘s Jessie Kwak offers some advice for recapturing the joy in writing.
“The only thing you have much control over in the publishing journey is your writing process,” Kwak writes. “And if you’re going to be spending so many days and months and years in the act of writing, why not find some joy in it?” Here are her tips:
- Create a new space. “Experiment with manipulating your physical space in order to make that creative energy flow,” Kwak suggests. If you can, change your view, even if it’s just the clutter on your desk or the art on the wall. Remove distractions, like extraneous noise, with earphones. If you usually write at your desk, sit on the couch for a while.
- Try new rituals. “Ritual is a good way to trigger your brain into writing mode,” Kwak says. “Light a candle or brew a cup of special tea. Do a short meditation, or go for a walk around the block. Turn on music or white noise (I always write to the same thunderstorm track), then fire up that word processor.”
- Draft differently. “When you experiment with how you draft, start by listing your strengths and the things you love most and use those as the basis from which to play with new methods,” Kwak writes. “There’s no reason for you to force yourself to become an outliner. But you might find tips and tools in an outliner’s toolbox—like scene beats or writing in an act structure—that work for you.”
- Count your wins. When do you celebrate your writing? Many of us feel we have to wait until our work is published, which might be never. That’s a real shame. “Did you finish writing act 1? Tell a friend!” Kwak says. “It’s impossible to escape the pressures of the outcome: publication schedules, word count goals, the agent hunt, and the need to produce more work faster. But don’t let those outcome pressures sap the joy of the writing process itself.”
