I’m an educator by day, a writer by night. Like many people, I spend much of my work day desk-bound, and flipping the mental switch between work-mode and writer-mode can be tough, especially since post-pandemic means the day job and writer’s desk is frequently the same one. Sometimes I open Scrivener to my Work in Progress, then find myself sitting like a car with the engine idling, but the driver hasn’t turned up. Or that the spirit is willing, as someone once said, but the flesh is weak.
Here are some of the jump leads I use to boost myself back into writing…
- Honour your space. This may sound like procrastination, but bear with me here. I clean my desk (yes, with polish and a dust cloth), get rid of papers, cups, wrappers, prune the stack of books that has accumulated to one side. When I’ve cleaned and pruned I add something new and either inspiring or comforting: a vase of fresh flowers, a rock, a picture of my cat. At the moment I’m fascinated by a cross section of wood – the tones, the cracks, the textures. I think this works because it’s about sending a message to myself, that this writing life is worthy. Worthy of care.
- Switch writing mode. This can be something as simple as switching from Scrivener to Word, but when I need a reboot I switch seats to an armchair, and write with a pen, in a notebook. I’ve become very choosy about the pen (fountain), the ink (blue or purple) and the notebook (hardback, cream paper, good quality). I write with a cursive style, and there’s something about the action of making the letter shapes that’s creative in a different way. Liberating.
- Go for a walk. There’s something about physical movement after too long stuck at a desk that goes way beyond the health and exercise benefits, I believe. After twenty minutes or so of striding out, things start to loosen in my brain, and I come back clear headed and ready to rumble.
- Brain dump. At stressful times of the year, no matter how much I want to write, my brain is too fried to get into the sweet spot. So I make a to do list, or free-write about whatever is frazzling around in my head. This one is definitely beneficial for those insomniac periods too!
- Tarot. I don’t “believe” in the Tarot as some kind of fortune telling tool. In her excellent book Tarot for Self Care, Minerva Siegel talks about the Tarot as a tool for self-analysis, exercising your intuition and self-empowerment. This is how it works for me, as a tool for reflection that helps me to see things in my life from a different perspective, to make connections and links. I return to my writing calmer and in a more centred frame of mind. I think other people might turn to meditation and other practices in a similar way.
- Read. People say different things about this. Some people don’t read at all when they’re writing because they’re worried about it affecting them, other people don’t find that at all. For me, I write romance, and while I’m writing I read in different genres, especially non-fiction. It gives my creating brain a rest, and I’m storing up images and facts which are probably going to go into the mix and come out in some warped way in a future story.
For what it’s worth, here are my six verbotens when I’m in the writing weeds, dead end thieves of time that will lead nowhere except down: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Email, Pinterest, Amazon.
Do any of these strike a chord? Do you do something similar? I’d love to hear about your getting back on the horse hacks!