Finders, Keepers: How to Discover (and Keep) Your Writing Joy
How to write with joy and enjoy the creative process of writing
About three years ago, I spotted another author’s social media post about the “literary hustle.”
Oops! I thought. When did writing get to be reduced to a “hustle?”
Or is this the inevitable fallout when we only look to the product—or payouts—from the writing life—but ignore or grumble about the process?
Here are four ways to find and keep the joy in daily writing:
Change it up: Remember when you were a child with a coloring book? As your crayons scuffed across those pages, you weren’t pre-casting yourself as the next Frida Kahlo. You were playing. You were creating. Experimenting. As writers, we need to give ourselves an artistic recess with no rules or expectations or limits. Or how about doing a Mary Oliver who, in one interview, said she went “outdoors and waits, pen poised, for whatever comes?”
Write by hand: Some days, I ignore my laptop to take out my pen and writing journal. In my journal pages, I re-find and re-love the real me. I ask bold questions. Sometimes, I even attempt an answer. In my hand-written pages, I return to that part of myself that once fell in love with books and stories.
Try a new genre: This spring, I participated in Writers Digest’s “Poem a Day” challenge for National Poetry Month, 2025. As a narrative writer (fiction and nonfiction), what do I know about poetic craft or forms or rules? Nothing. Nada. Zippo. But I turned up at that writing desk every morning, grinning like a kid.
Make meaning: In his book, “The Van Gogh Blues” psychologist, author and creativity coach Eric Maisel, PhD, posits that when creators get depressed or “blah” about our work (which we do) most of the time, it’s about not making meaning (forgive my paraphrasing). So instead of chasing the always-changing publishing trends, let’s create what Maisel calls “worthy work”—work that aligns with our personal life missions.
Finally, in his fine essay in “Creative Nonfiction Magazine,” the late Brian Doyle wrote: “One of the things that we do not talk about when we talk about writing is the sound and scent and sensuality of it, the scratching and hammering and tapping, the pitter of pencils and the scribble and scrawl of pens.”
Thank you for this joyful advice, Mr. Doyle!