How to say ‘yes’ to writing, even when you don’t feel like it
Sometimes writing is easy. The ideas and the words just flow. You don’t even notice the time passing.
Most of the time it feels like work. Eliminate distractions and get into a flow and it goes okay.
However sometimes it feels completely impossible.
You have the time and the space, but you don’t have any ideas. Or motivation. Or anything.
This is for that time.
If knuckling down to write your blog or your newsletter feels just too difficult right now, some of these counterintuitive ideas might help.
Start with the headline
Usually I start writing with an idea that has been bubbling away for a couple of days, or with a question someone has asked me. Good headlines are important, and I usually leave writing them until the end. But sometimes the end feels impossibly far away, because it feels too hard to get started in the first place. Sometimes trying to find even one worthwhile idea is too much.
If you’re stuck and floundering to find a foothold, turn your writing process upside down and begin with the headline. It can kickstart your writing. Sometimes getting a great headline is not only something to tick off your writing ‘to do’ list, but the trigger that sparks you into writing the whole thing.
I use Co-Schedule’s headline analyzer to help me pin down a topic and an approach to that topic that readers might like.
Type in the words that are floating around in your mind, and try turning them into headlines. Some of them will be ridiculous, but you’ll quickly see how some of them could be turned into something with potential. If you can make yourself laugh while you’re doing it, that’s even better. Ideas flow more easily when you’re light hearted.
Finding a high scoring idea in the right combination of words can inspire you to write something that lives up to its promise.
Fiddle with the order of the words, swap in some more impactful verbs or nouns, try to make your headline as clear and full of promise as possible, and you’ll find yourself writing by accident. In fact, crafting a good headline is a microcosm of the whole writing process. Play with it, turn into a game, you can trick yourself into getting started.
Once you’ve got a great clickable headline staring back at you, just waiting for a story, like a dog wagging its tail at you pleading for a walk, you might not be able to resist.
2. Time limit
If your energy levels are low, and your attention span has shrivelled up, promise yourself that you only have to do it for a very short time. Just write for 10 minutes and no more. After 10 minutes you can give up if you want.
No preconceptions, no judgement, just pen to paper and scribble for 10 minutes with no stopping. It doesn’t matter what you write, but what usually happens once you’ve got a few lines of gobbledegook out of the way is that the idea you’re trying to catch swims into focus.
After 10 minutes you’re allowed to stop, knowing that you’ve managed to write at least something. But what often happens is that you find yourself getting into the swing of it, so you’re fine to carry on.
It’s the writing equivalent of putting your trainers on when you don’t feel like running, or just running to the next lamp post when you want to stop.
Making the goal much smaller is sometimes all you need to do to counteract your own resistance.
3. Go for a walk
Sitting slumped at a desk staring at a screen isn’t great for creativity, so go for a walk instead.
The rhythm of walking sometimes shakes ideas into place. Moving and breathing more deeply in the fresh air will wake you up and get things firing in your brain. Whether you’re walking in natural landscape or city streets, or somewhere in between, you’ll see things that can change your view.
Make an effort to notice your surroundings while you’re walking. Read signs, look for patterns, stop and pay attention to things that you usually stride right on past. Feed your curiosity. Even if you don’t consciously think about your writing challenge or lack of inspiration when you’re out, you’ll often find you’ve come back with at least a fragment of an idea.
Scribble that slip of an idea down in a notebook, and leave it to simmer for a few hours, or overnight.
4.Raid your ideas bank
If you don’t have one yet, you’ll have to create one. A notebook full of ideas for blogs and other content is something you can do to prepare for times like these when your ideas and energy is low.
Fill it with ideas during those rare magically productive times when you are feeling creative. Think of it like making jam out of a glut of summer strawberries, or pickling the produce of a good harvest. Just like preserving fruit and vegetables gives you something to eat in winter when nothing is growing outside, preserving ideas for when you’re feeling empty is good practice.
Good stuff to write down -
questions customers ask you
headlines that catch your eye
lines or lyrics that catch your ear
scraps of research that you know your clients would find useful
- basically keep a collection of starting points that your future self will thank you for.
If you’ve already got one, raid it. If you don’t, start one now.
A great exercise to begin a notebook is to come up with 20 blog ideas in 20 minutes.
5. Draw, scribble, build
Capturing your ideas in a different way can help you start writing. Some people swear by drawing mind maps to help them shape ideas into some kind of order, others like sketching storyboards. Making it visual can stir up your creativity. Doodling, drawing pictures, sketching patterns can all help.
Work with a pencil, on paper. Anything that requires you to link your hand and your mind can wake up that bit of the brain you need for writing and get you back into gear.
If you can’t write because you don’t know how to shape your ideas into something readable, start with a mind map. Look for the patterns and the links between the notes you’ve jotted down. Shape it away from the blank white page, and only go back to it once you’ve got a rough structure.
If you can’t write because you feel like you have no ideas AT ALL, try these jumping off points.
The question clients always ask me first is …….
Or
The biggest lesson I’ve learnt so far in business/life is …..
Make rough notes on paper. You could even combine this with the ‘write for 10 minutes’ exercise.
If the ideas start flowing, keep going.
If not, put the paper away and look at it again tomorrow. Even if it’s only a sentence or a few words, there will almost certainly be something worth working with in your scribbled notes. The ideas will have had time to percolate, and you’ll have built yourself a starting block that you can launch from.
Happy writing!
NB I used three of these techniques to write this blog. Plus a bonus one. When the words won’t come, try starting with a picture.
