How to Be a Writer When Your Muse Goes on Holiday

I love writing, always have. But there are days when the mental process of forcing words onto the illuminated screen in front of me causes my forehead to bleed from the pressure as my brain begins to liquefy into puddles inside my skull cavity.

My day job as an Online Editor / Marketing for NetRegistry in Sydney involves writing any copy requested by our customers. I can be spruiking business software in the morning, selling the virtues of aged care by lunchtime and spending the afternoon injecting passion into copy on Latin dancing.  

Today is one of those days where the part of my brain that wanted to be a professional writer seems to be lying in the foetal position as it is repeatedly kicked by my boredom threshold. Today, the juices aren’t so much flowing, as congealing in a sticky mass at the base of my cerebral cortex.

But the tasks still need to be written, deadlines are still approaching and bosses still like to hear the tap-tap-tapping of fingers on keys.

So, as I warm up my brain and try to jumpstart the creative neurons, I thought I’d give you…

Five Tips to Get Writing When You Want to Watch Telly Instead!

1. Have a Schedule

I have a number of writing duties in my role. Not only do I write customer websites, but also all of the NetRegistry newsletters, news centre articles, corporate blogs, and any marketing material required. On top of this I am NetRegistry’s major contributor to Nett Magazine, submitting anywhere between 6-10 pages of articles and contributions each month.

Human nature always means that when confronted with a variety of tasks, we always complete those we enjoy first and keep putting off the bad ones until they pile up in a scary in-tray full of pain and suffering. To avoid this, I sat down with MS Outlook one morning and scheduled my time. Two hours in the morning for research and reading. Two hours on producing newsletter articles and marketing. Similarly, the afternoon has 2.5 hours devoted to clearing customer projects before I finish the day with 2 hours preparing content for Nett Magazine

This method means that all of my tasks receive attention every day and nothing ever has the chance to fall too far behind. It also means I’ve eliminated the dilemma of choice – if it is 1.00pm, I have to start writing those six dry webpages on Customer Relationship Management software.

If you are an amateur, scheduling becomes even more important as you juggle your writing with your day job. Pick the evenings or weekends that you can devote to your writing and stick to it, whether you feel like it or not.

2. Don’t be scared to write badly

Because I already have my schedule in place, I still write, even if the creativity is more of a chore. Sometimes, just by forcing words onto the paper, shapes and ideas begin to form that can reawaken the inner wordsmith. But even if it doesn’t, when I revisit the pages the following day, they can be the launching pad for the creativity that follows. By going back over writing you aren’t happy with, you eventually define what it is you really want to say, so none of this writing is wasted. The original writing may be poor and muddy, but even a few choice words or a sentence construction that survives your red pen could be the trigger for the redraft that justifies your paycheck.

3. Edit Previous Work

If the words aren’t flowing, I can put the time to better use by revisiting previous articles awaiting a redraft and start attacking them with my red pen. Chopping a word there, refining a sentence here, finding a clearer way of expressing a key point; these are all necessary tasks but are much easier than starting an article from scratch.

In this process, rather than having to find inspiration, I am merely refining previous ideas. This can remind me that I am not a waste of complex proteins attempting to use a pen, but a normal writer with days of brilliance and days of drudge – just like any other.

4. Update the Blog

Plunging into a writing project that you hate can feel like diving into a sub-zero swimming pool. It starts out as an incredibly uncomfortable and shocking experience and it can take a long time to adjust before, gradually, you begin to enjoy swimming about.

So I sometimes dip my toe in the water first.

I have a blog for a number of reasons, and one of them is to give me an avenue to write what I want when most of my writing is for other people. So when the prospect of some painful writing is looming, I can prepare myself by writing on a topic I am enthusiastic about.

This tactic gets me enthusiastic about the use of words again. By reminding myself how enjoyable writing can be, I am in a much better frame of mind to attack the harder task.

5. Avoid Distractions

The most obvious and also the most common problem is the constant distractions that tempt us away from our writing. If, like me, you are easily distracted, you need to remove as many of those distractions before you start. Disconnect the internet if you need to. If you can, work on a PC that doesn’t also have your latest PC Games loaded or tons of high-maintenance applications begging for attention. (I can lose whole days tinkering in iTunes and playing with bittorrents, and that’s before my latest obsession with the Battle for Middle-Earth PC game).

Recently, I was lucky enough to have my department moved into another part of the building. This has been incredibly helpful as we are now away from the constantly ringing phones and hyperactive sales team. Now I can focus on the screen of white MS Word in front of me without looking up every few seconds at a noise, a shout or someone walking past my chair. (Being typically male, I hate having things happen behind my back and always have to turn and look.)

Complete submersion in the writing task is essential if you want to get anything of value. If 100% of your attention is not focused on the words appearing on the screen in front of you, the creative genius is not operating at full potential.

A Writer Writes – Period

It is the ability to write every day, mojo or no mojo, that separates the amateur from the professional writer. There are thousands of amateur writers who dream of being paid every day for simply putting words together – sounds cushy doesn’t it – but just like any job, your enthusiasm for it can be sorely tested.

A professional writer very rarely has the luxury of writing at their own pace. There are deadlines and competing priorities that prevent the ability to treat writing casually. If you are an amateur writer who hopes to become professional one day, it is important to adopt the strategies mentioned above. Without the same commitment to workflow, your professional ambitions may remain just that.