4 Energetic and Easy Ways To Pursue a Mental Writing Diet

Overthinking is an abuse of your imagination.

“Writing will be the end of me….” I shut my eyes and told myself before I headed out for job-hunting opportunities.

Writing daily without deadlines, someone to scream over our heads, and without an inch of shameful thought never motivated me to work. The 9–5 system crushed me, where:

• Employees compete with each other
• Bosses scream
• You’re never paid enough
• You work hard to the point that gym membership becomes useless
• You forgot who you are

In other words, if you’re a writer, either you’re a maniac home-based writer or a dead soul working 9–5 in an organization.

I recently found a new term: “writer’s diet” when reading a book. A writer’s diet means taking a break from writing and enjoying the process to come back stronger.

As each phase of our lives envelopes, a chapter and a writing diet provide you with full stops. If you ever:

• Feel drastic, lonely, overwhelmed
• Have little money on the plate
• Hate writing
• On the verge of killing characters

Take a break from writing and enjoy the process for a while. How? Below are 4 ways to practice your writing diet without sacrificing your writing career.

1. Prepare your knives

If you’re a writer, I am sure you have collections of:

• Dear diary notes
• Sad sobbing story letter
• Endless drafts

I want you to pick those things out. Shhh… I won’t tell anyone. Scan your notes using the scanner app. Once they are on your MS Word, use the following knives:

• Extra words knife: delete unnecessary words.
• Additional information: you’re not an express donor. Delete any unwanted information.
• Extra justification: remove any signs of over-telling.
• Wrong words: use the right synonyms.
• Lift the cream: delete adverbs, boring sentence starters, and conjunctions.

Pro tip: use Grammarly.

Our ignorance leaves us vulnerable to mistakes despite Grammarly. Butcher the words/sentences yourself and then recheck them with Grammarly. This practice will allow you to learn drafting and checking errors efficiently.

2. Write on the wall

“Call me Grafitti,” (my notes demanded.)

My notes range from to-do stickers, notepads, restroom notebooks, and phone diaries. I am happy to announce I’ve never written on a currency note. God bless me for that.

(Sure, I had the urge, I won’t deny). When we write, we become skilled at it. New words start flowing.

If you give yourself the task of writing 10 headlines in a notebook daily, you’ll have an enormous collection of good ones by the end of the week. The things we often do, we become skilled at them. But how do we preserve our ideas?

• Step #1: Install different color stickers and notes everywhere, including the restroom, bedroom, garden, and kitchen.
• Step #2: Designate a fine day to review all your notes.
• Step #3: Select the best headlines or ideas. Maybe mix and match them.
• Step #4: Rinse and repeat.

Our mind has an endless supply of ideas. Use them wisely.

3. Taking sides in active/passive war

Jamie Cattanach wrote:

“Using the passive voice distances the subject from the action of the sentence, which leads to less clarity and urgency.”

What are the active and passive verbs?

Though I don’t remember most of the grammar lessons I learned in school, active and passive voice always frightened me. Passive voice includes “to be.” There’s a reason for this (madness.)

Bilingual speakers like those who speak French, Turkish, Japanese, and Hindi think differently.

Learning Turkish, I realized that verbs come in the end for them. For example:

• (English): I will not do my homework
• (Turkish): My homework do not, will I
• (French): I not will do my homework

This was indeed a bit easy. Being bilingual is the real reason to mess up passive and active voices because many writers process information differently. As they say, passive voice is harmful. For that, here are a few tricks to combat them:

• Use passive to the active tool: download here.
• Handcraft them yourself: put the subject first, carried by the verb and object.

Make sure you don’t take sides in the active-passive war. Go with the habit that makes you money.

4. Write the unusual. Say the weird

I am an open-hearted fan of:

• Bathroom singing
• Dreaming of the unknown
• Thinking of scenarios that will never happen

The above habits have:

Upside: boosts creativity

Downside: neighbors might call you mad. Your cat will be terrified. You’re eligible for the term “maniac.”

As a writer, I can’t believe that no one took you for a manic. Writers are walking, breathing maniacs. We kill people in stories. My love, embrace your imagination.

Allow yourself to live lives inside your mind that you could never do in a physical lifetime. Enjoy moments inside your head. Follow these simple practices:

• Find an obsession: start a new Netflix series, a book, or an audiobook.
• Travel: get excited and dream about enjoying the new place.
• Change yourself: get inspired by a character and change yourself.
• Record yourself: record yourself singing or making new songs to make you happier.

Encourage excitement. Our task is to be mindful and happy. The rest of the worldly tasks can wait.

Final thoughts:

When you’re not writing or taking a break, it’s time to make it worthwhile. Remember that there’s *no* getting away from being a writer.

Think about it yourself, how can you demand heaven while living in heaven? You can’t!