Writing slumps are the worst. You’re doing great, getting so many words in, the most motivated you have in ages, and then SPLAT! Right into the slump. It comes out of nowhere, and suddenly you can’t write anymore. No matter what you do, you can’t get out of the slump and you feel as if you’re digging the hole deeper instead of climbing out.
“The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.”
—Julia Cameron
How do you get out of a slump that seems to come out of nowhere? I’ll talk about a few methods that work for me. Maybe they’ll help you out, too.
Writing Sprints
A writing sprint is the process of timing yourself for a given amount of time, putting everything else away, and just writing for that time. They work for me, because my biggest hurdle when writing is starting. Writing sprints give me a distinct starting time and I have to write during it or my word count stays at zero at the end. It’s sort of a peer pressure thing for me.
Sprinto on Discord is a bot that will facilitate writing sprints for you. I’ve shared an example of what this looks like. It’s easy to use if you know how to do slash commands on the platform. This is where I do most of my sprints.
I also use Pomodoros, which are like writing sprints with built-in breaks, too. A Pomodoro is a sprint that can be used for anything. They’re typically in intervals of 25 minutes on and 5 minutes off with a 10 minute break after 4 Pomodoros. It’s called a Pomodoro because the inventor of the method, Francesco Cirillo, used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer. Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato.
Focus To-Do is available for free on most platforms including Apple Watch. If you’re looking for gamified software, there’s Spirit City: Lofi Sessions ($12) and On-Together: Virtual Co-Working ($10) on Steam. Both are games with avatars and pets you can collect by being productive.
Finally, there’s 4thewords, which is another gamified platform available in browser. It has a free tier, but the best options are paid ($10/month & $14/month). You defeat monsters by writing words in a time limit. Each monster has its own time and word limits, and it’s fun to fight them all.
If any of these work for you, great! I tend to use all of them at different times. Just whatever calls to me at the moment.
Change up Your Environment
I have three writing devices: my desktop, my laptop, and my phone. My primary space is at my desktop, but sometimes I need to move away from it. Stretching my legs out in bed on my laptop helps. Or maybe I need to sit in the kitchen or in the bathtub and write on my phone.
The brain likes novelty. Sometimes being in the same spaces for too long grows stale and you need to move to a new place to refresh your brain and creativity. That might look like physically moving locations—say to a coffee shop or library—or simply changing the way your current environment looks. Writing by candlelight, changing your font/color, or changing the music you’re listening to. Whatever helps trick your brain into thinking you’re in a new place.
Body Doubling
Body doubling is the act of being productive quietly alongside someone else. It’s primarily recommended by therapists for people with ADHD, but I’ve found it works for me, too. Knowing that someone else is getting something done beside me (or muted in a voice chat) is the peer pressure I need to get work done, too.
I personally like screensharing what I’m doing, too, so my body double buddies can see I’m getting something done. They don’t usually actively look at what I’m doing, but knowing that they can helps me to keep going.
Switch Projects
I have a million projects I can work on at any given time, so I might be speaking from the wrong perspective here, but I find sometimes moving onto a different project and taking a break from the one I’m on helps me to refill my motivation for the first project. My motivation might be for one of my other projects and not the one I want it to be.
A break from your current project could give you new perspective on it. Sometimes you just need to step away, and if you still have energy to work on something, work on something else.
Refill Your Creative Well
The most important thing you can do when a writing slump hits you is refill your creative well. Your creative well is what you pull from to be creative, and sometimes it runs dry. To refill it, read other stories, play video games, watch movies, and consume media of all kinds. We draw our ideas from other places, so rest, enjoy media, and refill your well with things you enjoy until you feel like trying again.
Conclusion
Funnily enough, I had trouble writing this Pep Talk. The words would not come and I had to take a step back and evaluate what I wanted from this article. What helped me get over the hump was to outline what I wanted the post to say and fill it out as the inspiration hit me. Obviously, I did finish the post.
Sometimes getting words on the page is a struggle, but you can do it. Find what method works for you and work through it. Good luck!
