When Writing is an Uphill Struggle

How do we keep going when the words won’t come?

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, was punished by Zeus for being devious, by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity.

Sometimes writing feels a bit like that: we force ourselves to keep plodding on even when it feels as though we are getting nowhere. How can we get beyond those non productive days? Should we just give up or is there a way of rekindling our enthusiasm?

Well, there are no easy answers, but I have come up with a list of things I have found helpful and I hope you find them useful too:

 1.     Step away from the keyboard. When you do something else like going for a walk, or even performing a household chore, the ideas that had refused to emerge when you were sat at your computer, might now emerge naturally.

 2.     Read other writers whose novels you admire. Sometimes their eloquence is contagious and when you come back to your w.i.p you feel more inspired.

 3.     Watch television. Visual input can be helpful, helping us to reimagine our own scenes, and the plots of other dramas can give us ideas for our own.

 4.     Keep going. Sometimes we just have to dig deep and access that inner grit. Even if the words are poor initially, we can’t edit a blank page, and later on we can revisit our writing and hopefully change it for the better.

 5.     Find a reward. Make sure there’s a bottle of wine in the fridge or a packet of biscuits in the cupboard, then tell yourself you can have a treat when you have written x words or y pages. It’s not great for our waistlines but it definitely helps our written productivity.

 Now, I just need to follow my own advice…!