How to Write When You’re Struggling
Writing is fun, sometimes. When the words are flowing, it seems like you could write forever. People talk about this as being “in the zone”. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. Sometimes, it seems like it’s a struggle to even come up with a complete sentence that you’re happy with. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a book, if you write articles for your own website, are writing for a newsletter, or you’re just coming up with the letter to send out with your holiday cards, it’s important to know how to write when you’re struggling.
Here are a few tips that can help if you need to write when you’re struggling.
Determine When You Write Your Best
Everyone is different, so there is no set rule for this. What is important is to figure out what works best for you. If you write the best in the mornings, then try to clear your schedule on the days when you want to write.
Knowing how to write when you’re struggling is about more than just the time of day though. You should also consider whether you write better while at a desk, the kitchen table, or locked away in the bedroom. Background noise is another factor – do you need complete silence, some light background music, or do you write your best when you’re surrounded by the regular commotion of your family?
Avoid Distractions
This is a big one that many people just don’t understand at first. After you figure out WHERE and WHEN you do your best writing, you should focus on WRITING. Don’t try to write while you watch tv and don’t schedule your writing time while you’re also trying to cook dinner. If you need to write, do whatever you can to reduce the potential distractions that are lurking around to eat away at your focus.
In some cases, that might even mean you need to hire a babysitter, turn off your cell phone or take the dog for a long walk before you get started.
Write
One of the hardest parts of writing anything is simply getting started. Once you are in the flow, it seems as though the words just come tumbling out, but staring at the a blank page is intimidating, and a huge waste of time.
If you’re struggling to get started, just start writing ANYTHING. You can use writing prompts to help, or you can simply just start writing about your topic, without worrying about whether or not it’s any good, or whether it’s what you really want to say about the topic.
By just getting something down on paper, you’ll get your writing muscles engaged. Pretty soon that “flow” that can be so elusive will show up. You may end up with something that is useable, but if not, at least you were able to get started.
Now you have a few tips that will help you write when you’re struggling. After you’ve finished writing, cleaning up and editing, you should take the extra step and run your document through an online spell checker. If what you wrote was worth the time to write it, it’s worth the time to make sure it’s all spelled correctly!
