by Edie Melson, @EdieMelson
Between deadlines, edits, and rejections it’s easy to fall out of love with our writing. It can get so bad that we begin to dread sitting down at the keyboard.
When that happens to me my mind begins to reprioritize my life. I can suddenly find a million things more important than putting my rear end in the chair and pounding out words.
When I begin arguing with myself, stating that clean baseboards are more important than word count goals, I know I’m in trouble.
Today, in honor of the upcoming holiday of love, I want to share some tips that help me fall back in love with writing.
8 Tips to Rekindle the Romance of Writing
- Realize that love is a choice—not an emotion. I know that sounds more like marriage counseling than advice for writers, but truth is truth. I’ve made a commitment to what it means to be a writer, and the means not quitting when times get bad.
- Stop the negative talk. The more you bad-mouth writing—even if it’s just in your mind—the more you’ll begin to believe what you’re hearing. This is an important step in returning to that bloom of first love. Don’t taper off the negativity, just stop . . . immediately!
- Make a list of all the things that made you fall in love in the first place. There was a reason you answered the siren call of words. It’s up to you to remember it and then—write it down.
- Set the mood. Just like a marriage is better with an occasional candle-lit dinner, writers also need a little romancing. Choose someplace you love and write there. It could be a coffee shop or a cozy chair by the fireplace at home. Then add a little mood music. Even if you don’t usually write to music, sometimes the change can be just the spark to rekindle the love.
- Make Writing a priority again. When we take something for granted, we tend to push it further down on our priority list. It’s time to remember why you started writing and re-establish it as a major priority.
- Dress it up—your writing space that is. This may mean sprucing up your office, investing in a new writing program (Scrivener, anyone?) or it might just be a new bit of wall art. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just make sure it’s writing related.
- Add a little mystery. Start your writing time with a writing prompt. If you’ve never used one before, you’re in for a treat. It’s something that gets your creativity flowing. You can type writing prompts into a search engine on the Internet and get thousands of them.
- Rekindle the romance. Revisit the things you love to write. If you’re working on book revisions, take time to write a poem, or short story, or devotion. Or maybe just spend some time with old-fashioned pen and paper, journaling.
These are the things I do when I need to fall back in love with the written word. What tips do you have? Be sure to share them in the comments section below.
Maiden of Iron by Edie Melson
A Steampunk Fable
When Marion’s brother is killed in a duel fighting for her honor, their father, the Engineering Guildmaster withdraws refusing to speak with anyone. It’s now up to Marion to save the guild’s children and reclaim the family honor. But will a chance encounter with the prince of thieves be an answered prayer or will he just steal her heart and abandon them all?
Edie Melson—author, blogger, speaker—has a passion to help those who are struggling find the God-given strength they need to triumph through difficult circumstances. She’s written numerous books, including her most recent, fiction, Alone, and nonfiction, While My Child is Away. Her popular blog, The Write Conversation, reaches thousands each month and is a Writer’s Digest Top 101 Websites for Writers.In addition you can find her sharing articles on the military family blog at Guideposts.org. She’s also the director of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference and the Vice President of the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, as well as the Social Media Director for Southern Writers Magazine, Social Media Mentor at My Book Therapy, and the Senior Editor for NovelRocket.com.