Lost Passion for writing?

[D.K. Daniels]

Hey, everyone, I always find it odd to reach out about a question. I am usually good at figuring out my problems, but I just thought I’d ask the question to see if anybody else felt the same. The topic on burnout or perhaps creative exhaustion is what I am asking. For the past few months, I have been struggling to make a decent turn around on my daily word goals. A typical month for me looked about 35k words, and the last six months, I have been struggling even to hit 2k as I don’t have the motivation to write. I either come up with excuses for this and that or hit a blank wall where I never had a problem before. It has been a nightmare to find passion in anything I write anymore, and while I am at it, I used to draft from early morning to noon, but now the only time I can seem to write is upwards of midnight and into the early morning hours. I feel tired all the time from writing just writing a little. Plus, any idea I come up it takes me ages to get it down and done that it loses any value it once had. I used to love writing, though it has turned into a chore. The feeling comes and goes like on again off again, sensation, and I don’t know what to do to get out of this rut. I have tried everything for inspiration, but I can’t seem to focus as I find my mind wandering most days. Has anybody else had this problem where you have fallen out of love with your writing. This may be silly, but sometimes I feel like I am under pressure to impress people, and I have put a lot of mental strain on my ability to create efficiently, and it has turned it into a challenging pastime. Any thoughts? Or am I on this journey alone ah-ha.

[Brayon]

It sucks to hear that man, but it does happen from time to time for all writers. So, you're not alone. You have two paths that you can do. First, you can power through it. Do prompt and practice stories. Anything other than your projects. While at the same time, examine your life and see if there is an issue that is causing the burn-out. Are you going through some romantic troubles? Are you having work issues? Etc. Meditation helps clear the mind, and if you do some before you sit down to write, it may help to get the juices flowing.

The second path... put the pen down and go live. Take a walk around town, breath in some fresh air, go window shopping, anything that takes your mind off of writing. Give it a few days to a few weeks. Then come back to it, and try again.

That's my two copper pieces.

[GabrielCaldwell]

I've definitely had periods where I've 'dried up' and not been writing much at all, and I can't really identify why that is. As it's a hobby, I generally haven't stressed about it too much, and been content to wait for inspiration to come back to me. I think other events in my life have impacted my writing and creativity in ways I didn't expect or exactly note directly (new job, relationship changes, etc.) so you might want to think about what else is going on in your life that is perhaps impacting your writing.

Here's a few ideas that sometimes help me when I want to keep writing something (to get something finished) when I haven't always had the 'inspiration.' I think setting a time limit rather than a word count can be useful. i.e. spend at least 45 minutes working on your writing. A goal should be a target, not a hammer to hit yourself over the head with because you didn't meet it. Second, do you still enjoy rereading the parts of the story you have already written? I sometimes I find that just re-reading what you have already done, making some changes and additions here and there as you go, can get you back into the story and you find yourself falling into writing more for the story. It's not as productive as just sitting down to write 2k a day from the outline, but it can move you forward.

Brayon offers some great ideas on external issues that might be stressing you and causing the slow down, and how perhaps to address those.

But maybe number one, try not to stress too much on what you're not doing. Adjust your goals downward if you have to. I've had days where I've written 5k and days where I've written only a few hundred words. I set my goal at 1,500 a day, but it's just a target to work towards on the day, and I don't worry the next day that I'm now behind 1k because I only write 500 words today.

Good luck!

[D.K. Daniels]

13 hours ago, Brayon said:

It sucks to hear that man, but it does happen from time to time for all writers. So, you're not alone. You have two paths that you can do. First, you can power through it. Do prompt and practice stories. Anything other than your projects. While at the same time, examine your life and see if there is an issue that is causing the burn-out. Are you going through some romantic troubles? Are you having work issues? Etc. Meditation helps clear the mind, and if you do some before you sit down to write, it may help to get the juices flowing.

The second path... put the pen down and go live. Take a walk around town, breath in some fresh air, go window shopping, anything that takes your mind off of writing. Give it a few days to a few weeks. Then come back to it, and try again.

That's my two copper pieces.

Its good to hear lol. I have been trying to come up with other ways to care about the writing I am doing from using music for inspiration to taking prompts, to re-writing a scene from a movie I absolutely hated, though even that is excruciating. I don't believe I am going through anything out of the normal. If anything everything is going good with my partner and I am travelling a lot and enjoying the world around me. I don't take medication, if I can avoid it I will at all costs. Though perhaps one of the problems is that I don't talk to many people other so maybe I am just feeling isolated hmm. Thanks for the feedback

[D.K. Daniels]

13 hours ago, GabrielCaldwell said:

I've definitely had periods where I've 'dried up' and not been writing much at all, and I can't really identify why that is. As it's a hobby, I generally haven't stressed about it too much, and been content to wait for inspiration to come back to me. I think other events in my life have impacted my writing and creativity in ways I didn't expect or exactly note directly (new job, relationship changes, etc.) so you might want to think about what else is going on in your life that is perhaps impacting your writing.

Here's a few ideas that sometimes help me when I want to keep writing something (to get something finished) when I haven't always had the 'inspiration.' I think setting a time limit rather than a word count can be useful. i.e. spend at least 45 minutes working on your writing. A goal should be a target, not a hammer to hit yourself over the head with because you didn't meet it. Second, do you still enjoy rereading the parts of the story you have already written? I sometimes I find that just re-reading what you have already done, making some changes and additions here and there as you go, can get you back into the story and you find yourself falling into writing more for the story. It's not as productive as just sitting down to write 2k a day from the outline, but it can move you forward.

Brayon offers some great ideas on external issues that might be stressing you and causing the slow down, and how perhaps to address those.

But maybe number one, try not to stress too much on what you're not doing. Adjust your goals downward if you have to. I've had days where I've written 5k and days where I've written only a few hundred words. I set my goal at 1,500 a day, but it's just a target to work towards on the day, and I don't worry the next day that I'm now behind 1k because I only write 500 words today.

Good luck!

I haven't really had many changes in the past year or so, so maybe I am getting antsy by not seeing many changes aha. Though when writing is concerned I write between two times and try to get all my work done in that slot. I use the pomodoro technique often as that is how I get a bulk of my work done. However, since I have started to transition over into doing writing as a more serious idea I have not got the time to always worry about whether I feel inspired or not. I have to work everyday and get something done no matter how large or small. Though generally I try to hit 2000 words a day as I know If I want have a book written before the idea stales off I need to be swift with the first draft. The last few weeks I have started to drop working on weekends to give myself some time off and I guess that has been helping so maybe what you say is true. Perhaps I am being to hard on myself and its killing the enjoyment.

[Talo Segura]

I can add only one thing here. I started by reading, I love reading a good book, a great story. I also love a good film. It is not simply the story, in the book or in the film, it's the atmosphere created, and of course, the characters, drama and suspense. I tried my hand at writing and enjoyed it, but inspiration is whimsical, it comes in waves, out of nowhere. So what I would say, is leave the writing aside and just go read a good book. Come back to it when the inspiration hits and you'll whizz through the writing.

[D.K. Daniels]

7 hours ago, Talo Segura said:

I can add only one thing here. I started by reading, I love reading a good book, a great story. I also love a good film. It is not simply the story, in the book or in the film, it's the atmosphere created, and of course, the characters, drama and suspense. I tried my hand at writing and enjoyed it, but inspiration is whimsical, it comes in waves, out of nowhere. So what I would say, is leave the writing aside and just go read a good book. Come back to it when the inspiration hits and you'll whizz through the writing.

Thank you for your incentive. I am a film and gamer buff of sorts, also an avid reader. Inspiration comes and goes, but I believe you can't stop every time you feel uninspired. You'll never have a book written. A few famous authors have mentioned this, that hard word and determination is what gets you through. Stephen King even insists on it. Hard work is what gets you through. Talent is cheeper than table salt. Many authors feel disconnected from the stories they write every so often. I have taken some time off, but it's as if I am finding it mentally exhausting to do anything anymore. Perhaps I am just seeing no result in the current field, and should change my scenery. I am fairly ambitious, I guess seeing little effect after a large return is just wearing thin. Thanks for your opinion

[LJCC]

On 9/2/2019 at 5:16 AM, D.K. Daniels said:

Thank you for your incentive. I am a film and gamer buff of sorts, also an avid reader. Inspiration comes and goes, but I believe you can't stop every time you feel uninspired. You'll never have a book written. A few famous authors have mentioned this, that hard word and determination is what gets you through. Stephen King even insists on it. Hard work is what gets you through. Talent is cheeper than table salt. Many authors feel disconnected from the stories they write every so often. I have taken some time off, but it's as if I am finding it mentally exhausting to do anything anymore. Perhaps I am just seeing no result in the current field, and should change my scenery. I am fairly ambitious, I guess seeing little effect after a large return is just wearing thin. Thanks for your opinion

To be honest, it does take time to get things rolling, especially if you're so focused on writing a story. I've been writing this story for two years, and it's gone through a couple of revisions over the years. For me, the harder part of writing is the voice and the quality of writing I'm aiming for which sometimes doesn't translate especially if you're trying to rush into things. I believe in giving the mind space to rethink and usher in creativity, which takes time and patience. I remember writing this chapter, where it took me an entire day just to google the necessary details before starting on it. Just for that one paragraph that summarises what the character was going through. There was one chapter where it took me three months to write again, all because it was mentally exhausting just to go through the motions of writing it. It honestly just takes time...

What I do to get inspired is read snippets from famous novels, which triggers something in my brain that tells me to write something like it, quality wise and to try to aspire to what I felt when I read it and have it translated into my writing. Or I'd give myself a week to take a break and read a book...

You really can't force your brain to think if it doesn't want to. But you also need to find ways to find some oil to gear the wheels to get yourself going. Doing nothing is the same as giving up.