Finding Inspiration Again
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For the last five or so years, I have struggled to write consistently. I used to be able to sit down for an hour or two and write without any trouble. I could write 2,000 to 5,000 words on a good day, 5,000+ on a great day. The last time I was able to do that, I wrote and published eight books in one year. That’s not a flex, it’s just a fact. Ever since, finding inspiration and consistency in my writing has been a struggle.
It concerns me because writing is what I do. I was created to write. It is my calling and my purpose and without it, I just feel useless. Lost. Pointless. I have been in prayer with the Lord about it more than once because I need to know what I’m supposed to do. How do I get my mojo back?
“A single failure doesn’t necessarily mean that you haven’t been called to create, but you should be in a ‘continual process of discernment,’ on the lookout for patterns and listening to the counsel of others to identify the gifts God has given you.”
Called to Create, Jordan Raynor
Creating a New Process
In 2023, I started making myself sit down and write for fifteen minutes a day, just to get back into the habit of writing daily. I created a ritual around it, starting with boiling water in the electric kettle for tea. I plugged in my pink lights, put on my headphones, and found a playlist for the story I was working on, sat down, and set a timer for 15 minutes.
My writing success is usually judged by how many words I’m able to write in a day. But now, my only goal when I sat down was to write for 15 minutes. It didn’t matter if I wrote 2 words or 802. If I completed my 15 minutes, I succeeded. I won. I beat my brain.
After several days of making tea, plugging in my lights, putting on my headphones, finding music, and setting a timer, I started writing for twenty minutes, just to get the scene finished. One fifteen-minute sprint turned into two timed fifteen-minute sprints. Then three. Then just writing to write because I wanted to get the story written. Finally, I sat down on the last day of April 2023, and in one day, I wrote the last 10,000 words in the first book I had written from start to finish in almost five years.
But, only a few months later, writing still didn’t come as easy for me as it once did. I spent time in prayer asking the Lord to return the joy of writing. Return the ability to sit down for more than a few minutes at a time and do the thing I know I was created to do. Why give me a talent that I can’t use? Why is it so hard to sit down and do the thing that brings me so much joy?
Starting a New Project
July 2023, God put it on my heart to start this blog. For years now, I’ve had a message for the people of the creative community that I am a part of, but I haven’t been able to find the right way to share it. I’ve had a few false starts in the past (and the rejected videos to prove it), but nothing solid that got my message of fearlessness to the people it’s meant for. This blog gives me that platform, as well as the writing outlet that I’ve needed. Because even though this isn’t a fiction blog, I am writing. And the words that I’m writing are just as much the words on my heart as the ones that create worlds and characters and magic.
Just because it doesn’t look the way we want it to, or it doesn’t look the way it used to, doesn’t mean that our creating has changed. It just means that we’ve reached the next level of our creation journey.
So, if you’ve been struggling to find the next step in your journey the way I have, take the time to step back and figure out where you’re meant to go from where you are.
Do you have a message that you need to get out? Something that has been heavy on your heart for some time, but you haven’t had the time or energy to explore it? Is there a hobby or something that has been nagging at you, but you’ve been too afraid to try it? Take this in-between time to explore that message. Start writing or researching, whatever you need to do to hone your message and start getting it to the people you want to reach.
Do you want to get to the next level of whatever you’re doing? Now is the time to start getting better at what you do. Don’t stop moving. Momentum comes in different ways. It doesn’t always have to be physical momentum. Sometimes, we need mental momentum to be able to get to the next step. Sometimes we get so caught up in making moves and making money and creating things, that we don’t stop to consider that we need to be nourishing our minds as well.
So, take stock of where you are and where you want to be. And figure out what it’s going to take to get you there.
Invest in yourself
Whatever this looks like to you, whether it means you need to invest in your own improvement. Take a class or buy a book. Find a mentor to guide you to the next step or help you fill in the gaps between what you know and what you don’t. You can’t expect others to take a chance on you or your creations or to be willing to invest in you if you’re not willing to take a chance and invest in yourself.
Make a list
Make a list of everything you learn about yourself. Everything you’ve accomplished and everything you haven’t, everything you want to accomplish in the future and everything it’s going to take to get there, and everything that you know and everything you don’t. Then, one by one, start doing everything you need to do to get where you want to be. This isn’t a get rich quick scheme or even a recipe for success, but it is a surefire way to start moving forward. You may discover along the way that you’re headed in the wrong direction. You may discover that what you thought you wanted, you no longer do, but that’s okay. You’re only coming closer and closer to who and where you want to be.
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