Aug 26 2009
How to write when you don’t want to
We all have days when we just don’t want to write, when it feels like work, when it feels like we just have nothing to say, when we can find a million and one things to do that don’t involve writing and that all seem terribly urgent (but aren’t). Once in a while it’s okay to be compassionate with yourself, but if you have too many of those days you’ll lose momentum. You’ll glance down at your journal and realize that you haven’t written in months. So, here’s my list of things that I can do when I don’t feel like writing, but know I should. I hope that readers will add to this list, since I can always use suggestions myself.
1. Pick a writing topic that lets you whine a little, like how to write when you don’t wan to. 
2. Disconnect from the Internet so you can’t convince yourself that reading another self-improvement article (and then another . . . and another) will get you into your groove again.
3. Don’t clean your house. Don’t cook. Have sandwiches for dinner.
4. (Thanks to Natalie Goldberg for this one) Open your journal and start a page with “I remember” or “I know.” Set a timer for 10 (or 20 or 30 minutes) and write the whole time.
5. Fill an entire page of your journal with a single word again and again. Pick a word that’s fun to say or that has multiple meanings. Half of writing if physical and once you’ve been at it for a little while, you’ll have loosened up.
6. Take your notebook and go to the park or a coffee house or the library. Best if it’s somewhere that you don’t have anything to do but write.
7. Give yourself a deadline. Set a minimum page limit and a date by which you must have finished it. Don’t worry about what you write, but fill the pages.
8. Make lists. They’re often easier than prose. If you’re feeling especially fluid, turn them into list poems.
9. Pick a page from your journal and copy the lines backwords or in mixed up orders until you find something interesting in it.
10. Make a writing date with a friend that you’d feel bad breaking.
11. Turn your notebook sideways (you rebel you).
12. Go somewhere public and just copy down everything you hear people say. Even if you’re uninspired today, you might be glad to have that dialogue someday.
13. If you have a project that you’re working on, and you can’t force yourself to keep writing it, write something completely different. Let the story go for a while, and just write something else.
Anyone have any other good suggestions for hwo to get writing?
I personally really like writing prompts. Sometime when you are inspired write the first line of like 60 essays/stories/whatever. Save them in a document somewhere. When you can’t do anything else on what you want to work on, pull that out, choose one at random and write on that topic. You know you’re just going to delete it so you don’t have to focus on what happens 4 chapters in the future or even 4 minutes into the future. you don’t feel confined to the tone or theme of a story, and can just write some messed up crazy fiction. And when your done, sometimes you don’t even delete it, it’s so good. Just save it for later.
However, the one I find the most effective for writing what you are trying to write is skip the part you don’t feel like writing. I actually wrote a journal post about it today on today.com ironically. I had a tough bit I was making excuses not to write, so I skipped it to write a cool fight scene instead. I wrote like 10 pages no problem. Now I feel motivated enough to go back and write the trouble scene next time I sit down….. additionally I know how it is going to turn out, so I have some clues how to write it.