Keep calm and...

The end of May has arrived, my friends. It was bound to happen sometime, wasn’t it? Tomorrow, we put the wedding cake together. Saturday, I’ll be able to think again. I look forward to it, I really do. I have so many things I want to do, that I just can’t do without full brain power. It’s taking up too much space. I don’t like that.

I digress.

For the final of the month, I have one thing I want to remind you, when you feel like you’re in that rut. One more thing that you should do, no matter how you’re feeling about your writing. One more thing that you should always keep in mind.

Carry On

Bet you didn’t see that coming!

Yeah, of course, keep going. Carry on. You’re a writer, aren’t you? So write. But remember that you don’t have to write the things society says you have to write. You don’t even have to write the things your head wants to write. In fact, I’d say that you should be writing the things your heart wants you to write. That way, you’ll be less likely to fall out of love with it at all.

Point is, it doesn’t matter if you’ve tried every single thing I mentioned this month and none of them have worked. It doesn’t matter if you’ve tried a million other things, and you still feel like you’re in a rut. Eventually, the writing itself will help get you out of it. It’ll remind you how great it is, how wonderful it is to be writing. The story will draw you in again, and you’ll fall in love just like you did when you first started writing. It will happen. You know that, because you’ve experienced it before. I know it, for the same reason.

So keep going.

Stay strong.

Never let your tired mind convince you that this isn’t good anymore.

Don’t let life drag you down.

You’re a writer, aren’t you? Well, writers write. It’s what we do. No, we may not be constantly writing our novels, but we are always writing. Even if that writing is only in a humble blog post, which will only ever be read by a few hundred people.

Keep writing.

Don’t Stop.

Let those words draw you back in again.

You know they will.

[love]

{Rani D.}

Hairy

Well, we’ve come to the last week of May. June starts this weekend. I think this was one of the fastest months of my life, if only because my mother and I for some reason volunteered to make and decorate a wedding cake (which we really don’t do), and the culmination is finally coming together. The cake will be on the table on Saturday. It’s currently in the freezer, entirely undecorated. If I had a better camera on my phone, I’d say you could find pictures on Instagram (but I promise to remedy that, soon).

All month long, we’ve been talking about ways to get yourself out of a writing rut. We’ve discussed many of the methods I use myself, or have used in the past. Because of that, I think they might work for you—and I wanted to share them.

This week, however, we have two of the most important ways to keep yourself in the writing mind, even when you think your writing is nothing more than a rut itself.

Get a Haircut

I’ll be real honest with you. I might’ve chosen this title because I’ll finally be getting an actual haircut today, after spending over far too long with very shaggy hair. But I also have a very legitimate point here.

You need to get a fresh perspective on what you’re doing. You really do. You need to look at things with fresh eyes, with a new level of understanding. In fact, you might say you need to look at this as though you’re a different person altogether. Say, a person who just got a haircut.

It’s okay to take a break from writing. I’m always sure to tell that to every writer I know. If you’re not writing, it doesn’t mean you’re not a writer. It means you’re smart. You don’t want to burn out. But when you’re not writing because you’re in the rut, there’s a problem.

So don’t think of it as a rut, and look at your writing as though you’ve never seen it before. Look at it through editor’s eyes, through reader’s eyes, through any eyes but yours. Look at it from every angle except the one you’ve been using, and then make some decisions about it.

When you look at your work through fresh eyes, you’ll be able to see the things that need tweaking, the things that might need to change, and even the things that are amazing and that you should definitely keep. It’ll make a big difference, even if you don’t feel like it will.

Give it a try. Put on some rose colored glasses and take a new look at your work. See what you find. You never know until you try.

[love]

{Rani D.}

Nostalgia

For the month of May, we’re discussing the many ways to get yourself out of a writing rut. Especially after writing over a dozen books, I’ve found that it can eventually feel monotonous and like nothing about this matters at all. Believe me, I know how that feels. I know how awful it feels to be stuck in that place of “does this matter at all?” and I know it can be a struggle to break out of it. That’s why we’re discussing my personal methods, all month long.

Tuesday, we talked about the importance of getting reviewed, to help yourself out of a rut. Today, I want to keep our discussion in the same vein.

Read your old reviews

Of course, this only counts if you’ve actually published or been reviewed on works you wrote a few years back—but really, we’ve been talking as though you’ve written over a dozen works, so this shouldn’t be too hard to do.

Remember the first book you ever published? Go read the reviews on that book. I don’t care how bad you think the book is, or how well it was received in general. I just want you to go read those reviews.

For me, that book is Telekinetic. And yes, as many of you well know, I’m entirely out of love for that book. It has problems. I want to go back and rewrite it, because I love the story but I do not like the way I wrote it. But, I do occasionally go back and read the reviews for Telekinetic.

Why?

Because I learn something from them, every time.

I relearn the things people have always loved about my writing, I remember what it was like to be publishing my very first book, and I learn even more things I could be doing to make my writing better now.

And yes, I realize that this advice is extremely similar to what I talked about on Tuesday, but this time, it’s a little different. This time, it’s more about the nostalgia of it.

There’s something extremely telling, about the first work a writer releases. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but the first release is usually the one we’re able to look at constructively, no matter what. So going back and looking at those reviews, the good ones and the bad ones, is a great way to learn something, and to remember what it was like to be in love with writing, like you were back then.

And for those of you who haven’t published yet, but still find yourself in the rut? I highly recommend that you start sending your works out to people, once you’ve finished writing them. Ask them for an honest review. Then, the next time you find yourself in this rut, you can go back and read the things they wrote.

I still have notes like that from Telekinetic as well—and I go back to them every few months, just as a reminder.

Don’t be afraid to be reviewed, and don’t be afraid of the past. Both are things we learn a great deal from.

[love]

{Rani Divine}