Writing When You Don't Want To (Guest Post)

Hey there guys! My name is Sarah. Luke is one of my oldest friends and always a great encouragement when it comes to writing, so I was thrilled when he asked if I would write a post for his blog! And by thrilled I mean I thought it was really cool… But in the midst of life's craziness, this task kinda got lost in the pile of other things that I need or want to do. Now it's down to the night I have to send it in to Luke. It's now or never. Do I want to write it? Yes! Do I want to write it now? No… It's a Friday night. I want to curl up on a couch and watch a movie and drink hot chocolate. But instead, I need to write a blog post and I haven't even picked a topic. Hmmmm how about “How to write when you don't want to?” That seems applicable. I can't be the only one with this problem. The constant paradox of wanting to write but not wanting to write in that moment… What do you do in that situation?

Tip #1: Write SOMETHING. How many articles/blog posts have this as their main point? Probably all of them… But that's what came to mind, and it is ULTRA important for writing. When you don't know what to write, know that that doesn't matter. Write whatever comes to mind first. It doesn't have to be good. You don't have to get it right on the first try. You can come back and change it later, but you're not going to get anywhere if you don't start walking. Pick a random direction and get moving. Once you get moving, you'll start seeing more of what's ahead and you can pick a destination. After this you may decide to backtrack and try an entirely different path. But now you know where you want to go, which you wouldn't have known if you hadn't gone down the other path first. So just start writing. It will either take you where you want to go or show you the way. But you won't see it until you start.

Tip #2:  RELAX. I find that when I think to hard about what I'm going to do, I just get frazzled about it and end up either not doing anything or doing a sloppy job. When I have an assignment like a paper for school or (cough) a blog post, I'll start thinking too hard about what the people reading it are going to think of it. I want people to think I'm super smart and did a bang up job. It's the same with a book. I want it to become a bestseller and have a devoted fandom following and have a movie made out of it that everyone will say is not as good but love it anyway. This is a LOT of stress. And it really cramps your style. You're going to do your best if you let the words flow naturally as you think of them, not analyzing every word to see if it's unique enough but not totally ridiculous because you don't want to be cliché but you also don't want to make it obvious that you don't want to be cliché… Have fun with it. Be yourself. Do what you want to do in your book. Pour your soul into it, not the soul that you think will most easily become famous. Make it your own, because that's what's going to make it great.

Tip #3: REPEAT. Relax. And write. Write and relax. Once you get writing the words will start flowing onto the page and your writing will take you from there. Every once in a while you might run out of steam and will need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and remember these tips again. Relax, don't let perfection hold you back, and get writing. Once you get into your story you will be able to see what needs to happen, but you need to explore first. And to explore you need to be daring. Get out there. Do the unconventional thing. Or if your instincts randomly tell you to do the conventional thing, do that. But do something. You can never sit still in your writing. Start off running, and see what you can see. And don't be afraid to go on the road you want to take. If you like it, chances are others will like it too.

And there you have it. That's what can happen when you sit down and say “I'm just going to write whatever comes to mind.” It doesn't always matter if you're giving the same advice that's been given a thousand times. If I needed to hear it, I'm sure there's someone out there who will appreciate it too. And when you relax and write it in your own words, you put your own spin on it and that can help the reader see it in a different way. I decided to just start writing and see where it took me. And it turned out pretty good, I think. I hope it helps you as much as it helped me. Happy writing, and good luck. :)

~Sarah