Writing When You Don’t Want to Write

Sometimes even doing the thing you love seems like an impossible task.

I love writing. If you’ve read any of my articles or found out anything about me on the internet, you’d know that. Writing is something that’s always been there for me — ever since I was a little girl — and it’s something that’s here for me now.

But that doesn’t mean writing is always easy.

At the end of 2020, I was experiencing a bit of what one might call a writing renaissance. I was writing almost every day, almost completing a novel from scratch and writing articles, blog posts, and journaling. After a bit of a dry spell over the summer and when COVID first hit, it’s like a switch had flipped and I couldn’t get enough words out.

But now that’s changed.

Sometimes it’s hard to write. That switch has been flipped yet again and words that were bringing me joy are making me pause. Sometimes personal tragedies bubble up and the words that were saving your year aren’t enough to save you anymore.

That’s where I’m at now. But I’m not going to stop writing. Even when it’s the last thing I want to do and the words come out as tears fall. Because I still believe in the power of words and, most importantly, in myself as a writer.

If you’re a writer, too, then you know how important belief in the power of your own words is. You believe in the importance that a single word — a single syllable — can hold. You believe that writing can heal. So don’t give up, even when picking up a pen or moving your fingers across the keyboard triggers an ache in your heart and a heaviness over your mind.

The words might come at a painstaking trudge, but they’ll come. And those same words will save you, just like they have before.

Previously published in Write Like a Girl