Meg Dowell Writes

As much as you probably love writing, some projects don’t appeal to you the same way as others. Sometimes you’re tired or annoyed or it’s raining outside and you just don’t want to write anything. Taking small breaks from writing when you’re “just not feeling it” is fine, except when you realize you’re on deadline and absolutely cannot afford to not write.

It happens to everyone. Here are a few solutions to get you through it.

Write a little, take a short break, write a little more

If having to do an entire writing project all at once is feeling a bit overwhelming today, get it done in very short writing sprints. Write 100 words, take a two-minute break, write 100 more words. Once you start writing, you might actually find that continuing on after 100 words isn’t as hard as you thought. Tell yourself you don’t have to get it all done in one sitting … but if you do, well, that’s not so bad, is it?

Move away from your normal writing space

Sometimes we’re blocked because we’ve unknowingly spent too much time in one spot lately. Or that place has become too full of distractions (note for above: when you take a break, don’t take a break in your writing space or you’ll end up surrounded by break-like items). Often all we need to do is pick up our laptop and move somewhere else. A different room if we’re at home, a different table if we’re at Starbucks. Moving across your office, from one side of the room to the other, might even be enough.

Seriously, just start typing words

The hardest part about starting something you’ve been putting off is … starting. Often there’s no rhyme or reason for procrastinating, and we just have to do the absolute best we can. Open up that document and just start typing words. They don’t even have to make sense, they don’t have to be grammatically correct, you don’t even have to start at the beginning. But once you get going, you’ll be fine. You’ll have that thing written and submitted in no time. It’s sort of like tricking your brain into thinking you’re just going to write a bunch of nonsense. Which you might. At first.

Struggling on Deadline Day happens to everyone. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer or that you don’t enjoy what you do. It just means you’ve had an off day or two and need to catch up. You WILL get it done. You CAN get it done. GO NOW DO IT WRITE NOW GOGOGOGOGOGO!

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.