A Writer’s Greatest Challenge
What do you write when you can’t think about what to write?
Writing has definitely become one of my favorite hobbies in recent years. I write something virtually every day of my life, and that’s before considering what I write on Medium. It’s always fun being able to put my ideas on paper for others to get a visual of my thoughts. Never has there ever been a single moment when I’ve felt as though writing was a chore, and quite frankly I don’t believe that I ever will.
Writing is literally an extension of myself, and I aim to put even more of it out there as my days go on. I’ve never had any doubts about the writing that I reveal to others, knowing they may draw inspiration from my works. Some may love my writings while some may hate them, and regardless of the response I love and respect all of them. But there are great challenges with writing, and I would say that one of the greatest of them all is when you struggle to figure out what to write next.
Perhaps you’re a writer who enjoys posting an article once each week or month. Maybe you’re a writer who aims to produce a work of literature every single day. Or you could simply be a writer that sort of falls in between both of these characters. Well, it doesn’t really matter, you know regardless that this problem ails you from time to time, and there can be no escaping it.
I’ve yet to really find a solution to the problem of running out of ideas myself, and I absolutely abhor when it presents itself to me. It can come blindly and hit me out of the blue when I feel most confident getting behind my desk with my pen or keyboard at the ready. Or sometimes, it arrives late, afflicting me right in the middle of my most fervent drafts. It’s truly a writer’s worst nightmare when they run out of ideas.
I’ve heard the stories of how some writers often give up on their writing for the day when this problem presents itself. For them the ideas have to be fresh and prolific in order to let the ideas flow consistently. They can’t simply have a half-finished article that sounds good so far, it has to be complete. So, when they run out of ideas mid-article, they often scrap their work entirely, giving up before the ideas return.
And I often questioned this mentality when they spoke to me about it, since it seems like a waste of hard work. How could you possibly throw away something that sounds so grand, just because you ran out of the next idea? Couldn’t you just come back to it later? The answer they gave me was, “no.” You see, they explained that even though they may arrive at their idea later, it won’t be consistent enough to match the rhythm that the writing was already following.
It would be like attaching a dirt road to a freeway, and the pathway would transform from a smooth structure to one of the most rugged in an instance. And at that point, I understood exactly what they meant, and honed it dearly to heart. But what they couldn’t answer correctly, in my opinion, was what they said they would do next.
After scrapping the article, these writers said that they would postpone their pen or keyboard until their next designated writing period. This is a big deal, because this could mean anywhere from 24 hours of no writing to even a month depending on the writer. And such a hiatus all because they ran out of ideas on what to write next. This answer just wasn’t acceptable for me, and so I challenged it, and arrived at a different approach.
For myself, I never truly have a particular topic that I think about writing from the beginning of my day. I never wake up and think about life, or perception or emotions and aim to write about that at the end of the day. Instead, I take a very, “in-the-moment” approach to what I write. So, if I think about puppies or love, then I’ll write about it right then and there without any hesitation.
But then comes the challenge of running out of ideas on what to write next, so then I take my next step. Instead of just quitting for the day, I simply write about something else. For me, my mind is already in a creative space, and by moving on to writing something else, I am keeping it in that space that it needs to stay within. So maybe puppies aren’t the best idea for me at that particular moment, so instead I’ll move on to writing about kittens.
This has worked wonders for me and is why I am able to keep on writing and writing without any end. I don’t just give up and call it a day, I think of more articles to keep my mind at bay. But nothing gives my mind more pleasure, than to figure out the minds of my readers and fellow writers. So let me propose a question.
