When I first started writing in earnest, I read that Stephen King and Brandon Sanderson and other write daily, rain or shine, in sickness and in health. I heard that if you want to be a better writer, you need to make it a habit and write every day.

The more I write, though, the more convinced I am that most people aren’t going to reach that lofty goal. Most people have families, get sick, have to take care of their dog or spend the day arguing with insurance. While a few people might recharge their energy by writing, a lot of us use up our finite energy to write.

The way I think of it is like this: writing requires a certain amount of emotional and intellectual energy. If that energy is sucked up by other things, like preparing for the birth of a baby, searching for a job, or caring for an ailing parent, there isn’t going to be as much of that emotional or intellectual energy available. Mental illness or social problems can siphon away that currency too.

So how can you find ways to motivate yourself to write even when life is sapping you of energy?

1. Hack Your Brain

So many self-help books recommend you reward yourself for accomplishing tasks. But with my ADHD brain, I’ve found that doesn’t really work. My brain isn’t good at starting hard tasks with just a vague promise of something at the end. Instead, I try to associate writing (hard) with something exciting like eating chocolate or listening to my favorite music (fun). By associating something fun with writing, that fun rubs off on writing and makes it easier for me to want to do it.

Another related thing you can do is to change how you talk about writing. If you always say, “I have to go write,” it’s training your brain to see writing as arduous work that you don’t enjoy. If you practice saying “I get to write,” or “I have thing fascinating puzzle I’m trying to work out with my story,” you are telling your brain that writing and story creation is a really cool thing that you enjoy and want to do more.

2. Make it a Habit

Habits are hard to establish, but also very hard to break. Wouldn’t it be great to have a hard-to-break writing habit? Find a time of day and a place where you can go regularly. Set it up in a specific way, whether that’s with your favorite mug of tea or coffee or a special blanket, so that your brain associates a specific physical feeling with writing.

When I outline, I enjoy scribbling out my ideas on a whiteboard. When writing, I have a special gaming chair I write in. And for editing, I have a red fountain pen that I love to edit with that makes it a lot more fun for me.

Then do your very best to stick with it for a month. After a month, our brains start recognizing repetitive tasks and turn them into habits.

3. Write ANYTHING

Starting is the hardest part of writing. You can have tons of ideas, characters, magic systems, and worldbuilding tidbits, but still have no motivation to actually sit down and write. When that happens, I find that if I do freewrites, it loosens up my brain and makes it easier to write what I actually want to write.

It doesn’t have to be much; just five minutes is plenty. You don’t have to have structure, a plan, and it doesn’t have to make sense. You can spout gibberish for five minutes if you want. But I find that getting my fingers typing gets my brain loosened up and ready to write what I really want.

4. Give Yourself Permission to Suck at Writing

I feel like this is important no matter what stage of writing or motivation you are at. It’s absolutely ok to write something that sucks and then fix it later. Don’t let the pressure of producing something perfect stop you from producing anything at all.

I like to think of the first words I set down as my raw clay. Editing is where I take those words, my clay, and form them into something better that more closely resembles the final product.

You can’t make a pot without clay. You can’t make a story without words. So give yourself permission to write a bunch of words that aren’t organized into a masterpiece. Let them be rough and messy and full of creative potential, and just get them on the page.

5. Re-Evaluate What You’re Writing

Sometimes I do all this, and I still can’t find the energy to go back to my work in progress. If I’ve found a time and place to write, I’ve loosened myself up, and given myself permission to suck, and I still can’t write, then I need to reevaluate what I’m trying to write. I often recognize that something is wrong with what I was writing and I need to address whatever is bugging me about it. Maybe the story’s structure is too rough, or a character’s arc is missing parts. Maybe my story doesn’t flow logically, and I need to rearrange the sequence of scenes.

6. Allow Yourself to Take a Break

Sometimes we are in a moment in our lives when writing just isn’t going to happen. Sometimes, no matter what we do to try to rekindle that love of writing, we just can’t rustle up the energy to write.

That’s ok. Taking care of yourself is more important than writing. Sleep is more important. Brains don’t work without sleep or rest. You can give yourself permission to be sick, to be exhausted, to be too wrapped up in your family or job hunting or moving or whatever. It’s ok to pause your writing to take care of yourself.

I’ve found that when I run out of gas, it takes time for me to rejuvenate. But once I have, I come back roaring.

What I Do During the Tough Times

I’ve always got a lot of things going on. Family illness, personal mental health struggles, kids, husband in the army/away with the army/moving because of the army, etc. I often really struggle to find the energy to work on anything because my mental and emotional energy has been sucked up by life.

So last year, instead of trying to force myself to work on a book that I knew would require a lot of energy, I worked on something that recharged my energies instead: a Star Wars Clone Wars/Bad Batch fanfiction story. There’s no stress attached to it: I can’t make money off it, I can practice writing and story structure without feeling like I have to make everything perfect, and I genuinely enjoy playing in a universe that I have loved since I was little.

More Ideas to Help Motivate You

If you’d like some other strategies for writing when you have no motivation, you can check out another of my articles, 11 Ways to Stay Motivated While Writing a Novel, and check out this video:

Conclusion

This is a personal decision. I decided that the chances of me becoming successful with my writing were too low to justify selling my soul and my health for. Other people might be more comfortable with the risk or more confident in their abilities. But I wanted to write this to remind people—including myself—that it’s ok and healthy to recharge your batteries and not beat yourself up over not writing or writing the “wrong” thing when times get tough.