Writing is NOT tiring (and “burnout” and “writer’s block” are both myths)

It’s not possible to run out of ideas.

If you think you’ve run out of ideas, you can always just write about what it’s like to be out of ideas.

You don’t need to go get more life experiences to clear up your writer’s block. Writer’s block doesn’t come from a lack of life experience.

More life experience will always make your work better, but that’s not an excuse to avoid practicing working with what you already have. Little kids write stories just for fun all the time before they learn they should be worried about their writing not being good enough.

“What about burnout? Don’t you sometimes just need a break?”

By “writer’s block”, I’m talking about when you’re staring at a blank page and can’t think of anything to write.

Burnout is something different. That’s when you’ve been forcing yourself to endure tiring conditions for too long and get fatigued.

Writing is not, by itself, tiring. But, if you’re too rigid in how you allow yourself to do it, you could end up with both writer’s block and burnout.

If writing is tiring for you, then there’s something tiring about the way you’re writing. The physical movement of typing on the keys or dragging a pen across the paper doesn’t have to be tiring.

You can experiment with focusing on your physical sensations while allowing the words to come out on their own. It doesn’t have to be tiring.

“But, isn’t writing tiring on the brain?”

It’s not your brain. It’s your body. Maybe you’re sitting in an uncomfortable position, or maybe you’re squinting your eyes as you try to think hard, or whatever. It’s all physical.

Just because it feels like a “mental” workout doesn’t mean it’s not physical. You can’t feel your brain, because there are no sensory receptors inside your brain.

So, whatever you’re feeling is something else.

“You’re saying fatigue is a delusion?”

I’m not saying fatigue is a delusion. I’m saying fatigue is your physical body getting tired.

And, I’m saying that writing makes it so tired because of the way you’re writing.

If you stop trying so hard, you’re likely to find that you can go for longer periods of time without needing time off to gain new life experiences.

See also: Here’s the thing with writer’s block


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

>