What to Write When Writing No Longer Excites You

How writing into the silence awakens the voice you’ve been longing to hear

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I spend my days proofreading, editing, and formatting other writer’s work. I love this part of my writer’s life, but this is soul-crushing and voice-enslaving work.

When you spend as much time as I do immersed in a babel of writer’s voices, your own writing voice slowly starts to fade away, and you may find it hard to tap into it when the time comes for you to sit and write your own story.

So what do I do when the cacophony becomes so loud that I barely hear myself think?

I get up, grab a sheet of paper, and move around the house as far from my office chair and my laptop as I possibly can. Sometimes I even find myself writing while standing.

The point here is to change your perspective on writing.

I can already guess the thoughts running through your mind.

Write what?

When I’m teaching creative writing to my students, I like to use an analogy my teacher in the sacred alchemy of writing preached.

I turn to my class and I question.

“Do you ask yourselves why you pray?”