Some days, you have no desire to write. Well, you do, but you just aren’t in the mindset for it. No matter what you seem to write or type out, it all looks like trash that needs to be cast away so no one knows you came up with something so vile. It happens. Any writer who says it doesn’t is either lying or doesn’t write. It’s that simple.
You need to push through those days. It’s difficult, I know. No matter what you put down, it doesn’t seem worth of the space on the page. Your creativity is lacking and you’re struggling just to maintain the physical act of punching keys on the keyboard. The sentences you write out don’t appear to be pushing the story in any useful way, your descriptions are the literary equivalent of drawing a stick figure, and coffee seems to have little to know effect on your creative nervous system. We’ve all been there. It’s looking up from the abyss and seeing a slight beam of light that’s so far away, you think you’ll never be able to feel its warmth. Don’t worry, it’ll come.
In these cases, you need to take the struggle bus and plow that fucker right through the wall. The constant pecking at keys can help stimulate your brain to start getting in the mode of creating something, anything, and you’ll be able to build upon that little speck of light and pull yourself out of the cavernous hole you find yourself in. It can take a while, it may not even work for that day, but eventually you’ll be adding to your magnum opus and you’ll be flying through chapters. Now, this is pretty unrealistic but the point I’m driving my struggle bus towards is you’ll eventually work through that mental block and catch your stride. Creating will come easier to you and you’ll only have to worry about the grammatical mistakes you make by writing so fast.
It’s doubtful you’ll finish your story that night or that month even, but writing on the days you don’t feel like anything is working are the days that finish books. If you only write on the days you feel inspired, you’ll never finish anything and the gleaming story in your head will be a movie that’s only seen by you. You need to push through that block and finish. Write every day. Push through the tough days and the good days will become that much easier and you’ll find that you begin to have many more of them. Keep at it, keep plugging away. It’s like Mohammad Ali said when they asked him how many sit-ups he does. “I don’t count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting, because that’s what makes you a champion.” Be a champion. Pushing yourself to write on your worst days are the ones that are going to make you a better writer.
Drew Schroeder 