Keep the Joy in Your Writing (4 Tips)
Photo of a person holding a green pencil to write on a page.
About three years ago, I spotted a social media post by another author: “‘Taking a break from the ‘literary hustle.’”
Hustle? I thought. Really? When did creativity and art become a hustle?
Here, we could quote recent statistics about 40% fewer people reading books. Or we could cite publishers’ diminished (or no) marketing budgets. Or we could chat about our dual (and dueling?) roles as authors and marketers.
But marketing and hustling aside, I believe that we need to take time to relish the process as well as the product (of writing)?
Here are my four tips to keep the joy in your daily writing:
Axe the technology: Some mornings, 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. In my hand-written pages, I return to that Irish kid (me!) who once fell in love with books and stories.
Switch up the format: Remember when you were a child with a coloring book? As your crayons scuffed across those pages, you weren’t competing for any awards or prizes. You were playing. You were creating. Experimenting. As writers, we need to give ourselves an artistic recess with no rules or expectations or limits.
Try a new genre: I love an online writing prompt—especially in a genre outside my comfort zone. Try it. Or sign up for a daily poem in your in-box from the Academy of American Poets. The opening line of a poem may inspire you to write joyfully.
The meaning of life and art: Each time we sit down to write, let’s create what psychologist, author and creativity coach Eric Maisel, PhD calls “worthy work.”* Or let’s make sure your writing aligns with our individual life values and missions.
These days, there are lots of personal and public reasons not to feel joy. Some days, it’s downright impossible. Yet, this is when writers, writing and creating matters. So we may as well enjoy our artistic process.
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Check out my writing workshop, “Writing for Comfort and Joy.” Happy to customize this workshop for your group, wellness or writing center.
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*Quote from The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression, (New World Library, 2007)