When you’re writing, if you are not able to go inside your story and inside your protagonist’s mind, and let go of reality for that period, it means your creativity is blocked. This can get to the extreme where it’s difficult to put words on the page. The story is there in your mind, you can taste it, but you’re unable to represent it so that others can enjoy in it. Below, we have shown several ways, which you can use whenever you feel you are not enjoying the process of creating and executing a story on the page. The good thing about the tips below is that if they work once for you, they will work every single time – so make time, a weekly schedule where you can incorporate each piece of advice to reach your full creative potential.

1. Time for yourself

Plenty of world famous authors claim that they take daily walks in nature to clear and relax their minds. This might not be easy for you to do, especially if you live in a big city where greenery is rare, but there are other activities you enjoy. Be it cooking, dancing, exercising or knitting – anything will work, as long as you take the time to do something you enjoy. Maybe pick up drawing, or painting – activities that will allow you to use your creativity in a different manner than writing. The goal in taking time for yourself is not only to relax your mind and be creative in a different way, but also put distance between your own self and the problems in the real world.

2. Research and learn

Take time during the day, or week, to learn something new about the craft. There are plenty of online courses that focus on plotting, for example, or structure, or style. Additionally, there are plenty of books that focus on writing and structure. However, reading books on the craft might make you feel inadequate. You might find yourself thinking “I can’t write like this,” or, “I don’t write like this.” That’s alright. Whenever you find yourself harboring these thoughts, just remind yourself that you are reading the books in order to learn how to get better. And then, of course, you must continue writing, and experiment in writing using the tips and advice from the books.

3. Silence your inner critic

Every artist has an inner critic who can stop you in your tracks, even if you’re writing a story at full throttle. During the writing process, you must find a way to silence the critic, and feel free. One way of doing this is to remember that it’s not the end of the world if your first draft of a story is not a masterpiece. Follow your instinct when you write, instead of thinking too much about how you’re writing. Remember the more you write, the more you will learn, not only how to write better, but you will also be able to take notice of what is difficult for you, and you will know what you need to focus on in order to get better.

4. Edit your current work

As previously said, you must remember that it is not the end of the world if the first draft of your story is far from perfect, or even genuinely good. You can always edit it. However, during the editing process you must remind yourself that you are editing the story to improve it – and not allow yourself to be brought down because the first draft is not good. Additionally, plenty of writers say that before they write for the day, they take the time to edit what they’ve written the day before. This can be really helpful in a novel – not only will you ease yourself back into the world you’ve created, but you will also be inspired to continue and see where your story will take you.

5. Follow tangents

The best ideas come to us after a series of “what if” questions about our story and then following the tangent through cause and effect, and seeing where it takes us. Following tangents is a very good way of improving a story, and it is important that you allow yourself to follow them when they appear. A tangent can transform a story so much that it might be unrecognizable from where you initially wanted to take it – but that doesn’t mean it has been improved. That is, as always, for you to decide whether you will use the new story, born from the tangent, or stick with the original. If you decide to stick with the original story, you can use the tangents you’ve followed to create and write different, new stories.

Image credit: Pixabay

Georgina Roy wants to live in a world filled with magic. As an art student, she’s moonlighting as a writer and is content to fill notebooks and sketchbooks with magical creatures and amazing new worlds. When she is not at school, or scribbling away in a notebook, you can usually find her curled up, reading a good urban fantasy novel, or writing on her laptop, trying to create her own.