Today’s article is written by regular contributor Sarah Baughman.
True confession: for the past three months, I’ve been a terrible writer.
That’s not to say I’m usually great. But this summer, I disappeared completely from the writing scene: no blogging, no tweeting, no creative composition of any kind, and totally unreliable emailing. I became exactly what Suzannah gave us such good advice on not becoming: burnt out.
I had reasons. Don’t we all? The first week of June, my husband and I moved ourselves and our three-year-old son, ten-month-old daughter, and dog from Germany, where we’ve lived since 2010, to the United States. We spent six weeks bouncing back and forth between our parents’ houses in Michigan before driving to our new house in Vermont, where a jumbo-sized moving truck’s worth of boxes awaited.
Sure, it was a big transition, but at the same time, wasn’t there a lot to write about? Couldn’t I have done a better job of maintaining a writing schedule?
To both questions, yes. I could have prepared more carefully for what I knew would be a chaotic time. And while I can’t undo my silence, I can reflect on some lessons learned during this “writing lapse.”
1. There’s never a perfect time to write. Don’t be picky.
Moving overseas with young children has, for me, been uniquely stressful. But life is full of challenges, both planned and unexpected, and if I stop writing during all of those times I’m not going to end up writing much at all.
After having children I learned about the surprising benefits of writing under time constraints, but even with fewer free hours I had always benefited from fairly predictable recurring blocks of writing time.
My attachment to this regular schedule became debilitating instead of helpful as soon as we started living out of suitcases and moving between other people’s houses. Subconsciously I kept searching for a predictable space and time to write, when really I should have recognized that I wasn’t going to get it.
2. A little writing is better than no writing. Do a little.
I usually write when I can finish an entire piece, or section of a longer piece, in one sitting. I don’t like starting and stopping. If I don’t have a strong idea of where I’m going with my writing, it’s hard for me to begin until I’ve settled on a clear path.
Usually, these perfectionistic tendencies don’t cause too much trouble because when life putters along with some normalcy, I can collect my thoughts well enough during my non-writing times to use the writing time I have productively.
For the past three months, though, I’ve felt frozen in place– the lack of daily predictability, combined with my self-imposed unwillingness to just write even without knowing how much I’ll produce or what exactly I’ll say, have made writing quite difficult. I wish I had “let go” more often this summer and written a sentence or paragraph even when I knew I wouldn’t be able to write more.
3. Inspiration is nice, but not necessary. Don’t depend on it, especially during stressful times.
Writer friends and I have often debated which writing strategy–waiting for inspiration or composing during fixed times–is more effective. While I do believe in dropping everything (within reason) to write when those wonderful moments of inspiration strike, relying solely on this method is dangerous.
Even when there’s a lot to write about, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed if we’re waiting for a divine spark to inspire every writing session. Sometimes true inspiration happens during the writing process, not before it.
4. Clearly defined writing priorities help. Don’t try to write everything.
I’m not sure I’m ever going to be a great tweeter. And, while I want to maintain my blog and update regularly, I’m not yet sure how regularly I want to post or how many blogs I can reasonably follow while devoting the majority of my time to my writing priorities, creative non-fiction and essays for Write It Sideways, and some print publications.
Someday I might be in a position to take on more writing tasks, but for now, honing my priorities and being okay with letting some of the rest go is important.
5. No need to dwell on your lapse. Figure out what it taught you, then start writing again.
My lapse has given me a pretty clear idea of what I need to put in place to keep writing in the future. A more manageable set of writing tasks and a clearer sense of my writing goals will hopefully keep me afloat next time life throws an inevitable curve ball (I could go without any more international moves, though).
Rather than waste time wondering where the past three months went, I think I’ll pick up and move on. Now that I’ve told all of you, I’d better get that blog up and running again!
What have you learned from your “writing lapses?”
I have my biggest problems in just finishing a book. I have a zillion Ideas, thoughts, and inspirations. But while that is strength, it is also a big weakness for me. I tend to abandon my books unwittingly. Its not that I stop writing. Its that I can’t stop writing my new ideas. I decided to do a blog-book to see how that goes. I am now writing chapter 13. It does help.
By the way, any ideas on how to lengthen a book when time constraint is a HUGE part of the book and is very limited?
It’s definitely hard to choose a direction for a writing project when you have so many ideas that could work. I also struggle to end a piece sometimes because I wonder, “should I add this or that?”
As for lengthening a book under time constraints, it must be tough. I’ve never written a book, so I’d love to hear others weigh in. It seems that if you’re going to have to do a lot of starting and stopping, having a “map” of the book to keep you on track would be helpful. Multiple maps for multiple possible plots would help do your different ideas justice. Good luck!
Boy, these are great tips, Sarah. I didn’t take a hiatus this summer, but I definitely struggled to find time to write. Or, should I say, to make time to write. I think that’s the key for me, because like you say, there’s no perfect time to write.
Thanks, Christi! It really is always about making the time, isn’t it? I always talk about “having” time, but that’s too easy a way to let myself off the hook. 🙂
Ha, I hear you! In fact, in my guilt over my inconsistent writing schedule this last month as we’ve been gearing up for school, I wrote this about the dilemmas of the mommy blogger: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wholemama/2012/08/the-mommy-bloggers-dilemma/
Not many solutions there, but lots of empathy! Keep writing, Sarah:)
Great post, Amy! It’s good to know I’m not the only one who struggles to keep up. That tension between wanting to live your life and capture it definitely makes for a tricky balance.
Great tips. I get really distracted and I just don’t get twitter. I end up reading more than writing especially when I am between books, the querying process gets me so de-motivated. I have a hard time pushing myself to start writing something new, whether it is a blog post, an article, or another book.
I also struggle with distraction if I’m pushing myself to write something instead of riding a wave of inspiration to its end. And yes, there’s something really exhausting about querying and/or submitting. Being immersed in the writing is great, but then putting it out there takes so much time and doesn’t always offer immediate results.
Thanks! I needed this.
Sarah, this article of yours is just what I need right now—I have so slacked off on my writing. Yes, there are reasons, and I need to get beyond the reasons and the situations and just write. There’s quite a bit of material that probably will come in handy in months to come. Lots of jumping-off places—starters for short stories and my own blog which has ground to a halt in the past couple of months. Your latest article is motivating me to action. I will start jotting down snippets of beginnings, parts of thoughts about the recent weeks, turning some happenings into positive paragraphs and blog starters. There. See? You are just what I needed today.Thanks for all the great tips!
I’m so glad it helped, Pat! I have been doing the same, and it’s helping. I do find that sometimes a lot of material simmers during these “lapse” periods, and comes out sooner or later. Of course, the sooner we make time to write, the sooner it comes!
All too true. I continuously find myself thinking, “I can’t write just this minute because of X, Y, and Z. I’ll write this evening instead.” But of course, by evening, washing the car has become making dinner, walking the dog has become doing dishes, and I end up putting things off again. And again.
I always find that the best cure for lack of inspiration is writing. You can sit for hours at a laptop, waiting for the right words to come (at least, I have!) but the only thing that makes you want to write is actually putting something down on paper.
Story of my life! I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to do everything before breakfast, because afterwards too much gets in the way. 🙂 And I totally agree about actual writing serving as a great cure for lack of inspiration. Sometimes you just have to pretend you know what to say and then the words come.
I find that the best time to write is between 10 and 11 at night. That’s when everyone else is in bed and I have zero interruptions. As for writing at a writers block… For me I just work on a different piece until I get the right words for book A. And when that doesn’t work, I draw, do poems, or songs instead. Even knitting. Just something creative. For me that works. I can’t imagine having to write random words. When I lose creative juice for that work, it’s because it is important to the rest of the book. Not just any word will do. But again, that’s just me.
Good point. Trying to write through writers’ block isn’t always the answer…in fact, I think that’s why I often hold off when I’m not yet sure what I want to say. Like you, I’m looking for the right word. Other creative activities fill the well too.
George I think I’m like you the blogs I chose to follow are those where there’s a pansorel sense of connection. That means we don’t care about that person doing something silly! In fact it makes us closer to them, and helps us to see you’re just like us’ and that’s essential for creating rapport. I like the point about rapport going across the way between readers / your community as well as between you and readers. It takes another set of skills again to create the environment where that can happen. Thanks for adding that one and of course for making it happen Trina thanks so much for that feedback. I do try to walk my own talk, but it’s always gratifying to hear it played back to you. ThanksBruce thank you. I agree it’s a more powerful lesson to see how something is done esp once you’ve started to pay attention to how an effect is being achieved. I’m very interested in this topic including pacing and leading and I hope you find it useful to think about and apply some of the ideas.
This seems to be the constant refrain of the Summer of 2012! Is there a writerly virus going around the blog-o-sphere? Seems to be. Just don’t look in my archives under July. Yep, nada. I can provide the litany of excuses too. My gut feeling is that we were all doing work just of the internal variety. I vote absolution for us all. Onwards and upwards. Thanks for the ladder of ideas to get us up and out again. #4 is the one that speaks most to my issues.
I’m all for absolution! We’ll chalk it up to something in the blog-o-sphere water and move on. 🙂
Excellent suggestions. I’ve struggled with writing the last several months. I have great days and horrible days. But I love this advice. There’s never a perfect time to write and the great days are rarely consecutive for long. We have to seize every moment and set clear goals for ourselves (even if we have to change them up).
I’m glad this resonated with you, Sonia. Here’s to seizing those moments and recognizing that a balance of great and horrible days is normal and no reason to stop writing.
Thank you for this post. I was wallowing in guilt, feeling like I was the only one who wasted the summer. I am able to work on my blog with time constraints and unpredictable circumstances, but my novel has suffered. Thanks for the tips!
You’re definitely not the only one who struggles, Amanda! It’s great that you kept your blog up even through a difficult summer… I’m sure the novel will resurface soon.
Wonderful reminders, Sarah! I especially like the last one — no point in beating yourself up. “Kindsight” can be the best form of “hindsight.”
I love that term– kindsight! Thanks for sharing.
Such an inspiring post, Sarah 🙂 When I start to feel a bit overwhelmed these days, I’ve been pulling out my new voice recorder and carrying it around in my pocket. Whenever inspiration hits, I take an audio note. At the end of the day, when the kids are in bed, I transcribe the notes onto my computer. It’s amazing how many good ideas I lose if I don’t write them down immediately! I’ve the entire first draft of a short story (4500 words) in the last week and a half, which is extraordinarily quick for me. Thanks for your tips!
The voice recorder is an excellent idea, Suzannah. Plus, the transcription work you do at the end of the day wouldn’t be as exhausting as trying to generate new material (which you’ve already done throughout the day anyway via voice recorder). Sometimes if I feel “pressure” to come up with great ideas at the end of a long day, I’m less likely to start writing at all. I’ll have to try your method.
What I’ve learned from my writing lapses: That I am absolutely subject to that same degradation in skills that affects anybody who neglects exercising that skill for too long.
Some years ago I came back to writing after many years of almost total neglect to the craft. During that absence I stopped writing completely other than the occasional business correspondence. For all intents and purposes I stopped reading as well, particularly fiction.
When I made an attempt at writing again, I found myself stiff, awkward and embarrassingly inept. What had once flowed came out drip, drip, drip. I started going to the second hand book stores, filling shopping bags with book, some for as low as ten cents each. I began to read again voraciously.
It was not until then that my writing began to come back around.
I would have never thought my skills could get so Gosh Awful so quick during my writing sabbatical.
Now I’m certainly an advocate of the no-excuses, write anywhere, anytime philosophy. With my smart phone—which is far from ideal as a writing implement for anything but the shortest notes—I jot down ideas on the fly.
I even try to use the voice activated dictation assistant. Something tells me this technology hasn’t quite been perfected—especially if you try in a car where the wind is rushing by, and the kids in the back are yammering about the stupid coach at soccer practice.
One sure fire tip to get inspired, take a walk without any pen, paper or means to capture and save your ideas.
I bet you’ll stumble upon three or four Nobel Prize winning concepts during your walk. Unfortunately, I’d also bet that you stand a fair chance of forgetting them by the time you accost a stranger and cajole them into letting you borrow their pencil.
I love this response, Adam– I don’t think you’re struggling with writers’ block! I think I’ll claim the last scenario– that I’m always inspired when I’ve got two kids crying in my arms and no paper or pencil in sight. Someday my Nobel Prize will come… P.S. You’re right–reading is a great way to get back into writing, and it’s fun too.
That’s great advice, Sarah. The easiest way I’ve found to get back on track is to draft, say, 1000 words very quickly. I know vaguely where I’m going but I let the words take care of themselves. Sloppy? You can bet on it! A week later, I go back, fine tune and edit. Writers’ block is then a thing of the past, And it’s more fun (I find) to edit than to compose.
I like that approach. It reminds me of the idea of immersing oneself in fear in order to get past it. Not that writers’ block is always about fear, but it’s a kind of mental paralysis whose cure can best be found in just, well, pretending you don’t have it! Sloppy doesn’t matter at first anyway; what’s important is just DOING it. Then you can go back and have fun with editing.
I just turned in my second book to my editor, along with a synopsis for book 3. I decided to give myself a weekend off before tackling the outline of book 3 and beginning to write it.
That weekend has turned into a week.
Not bad compared to months, I guess, but I think my head was telling me to take a breather before plunging in again. I have a goal (write book 3) and even a schedule, though not a deadline yet, so it’s not that I lack motivation. I’m just taking a breath. Maybe in all the chaos, that’s what you needed to do, too.
Breathers are definitely important. Congrats on your books–with such major accomplishments under your belt, it makes sense for you to take a break and reflect before moving on. In my case, the breathers sometimes stretch on too long. Usually my inner voice lets me know– “you’re stalling!”
Thank you so much for this reminder. Especially point number 5. I lost my job and my father all within the same month. It was difficult to find the energy to write among all my grief. But as a graduate student, I was also under deadline. I learned that writing THROUGH the pain can be cathartic.
Oh my goodness, Sarah– what incredible losses to sustain in such a short time. I’m glad the deadlines, though unforgiving, ended up providing you with some space to heal.