How To Write When You Don’t Feel Like You Have Anything to Say

Enui can be a big ol’ stick that just pounds your drive and creativity into a messy demotivated gelatinous mass.

Sometimes you just get tired of hearing—or seeing—your own voice. You have no brilliant insight. No compelling story.

It’s not even really silence, because that little voice inside your head is reminding you that you’ve got nothing.

Some people call it Writer’s Block or Creative Constipation.

There is good news, though. Oftentimes this just your brain marinating in its own juices as the ideas in there form into something more cohesive.

But if you have to get something out, make a point of just being silly.

Lower the Stakes

I know, I know. Writing is life and the whole of human civilization rests upon your ability to get that perfect tagline, phrase, brochure paragraph, or fan-fiction novella out perfectly the first time.

But that finger of God thing is pretty rare.

What I’m saying is that sometimes you just have to actually pull God’s finger.

By that I mean just start writing and stink up that page.

Just Sit and Type

Here is an example.

“Tiday I woke up and th piggly wiggly down at the end of my magnoli is a southern plant? I don’t know. Haw about galdiolas. Didn’t LBJ say something about Gladiolas. Onem my friends wrote the best joke about LBJ, but I can’t put it here.

Knowing your audience! There is an idea.”

Yeah, I’m keeping all the mistypes and the stream of thought hoodyhoo, unclean, raw, and bubbly. But I ended with the thought of writing something about audience, so there’s that.

You lower the stakes. Remove the pressure. Allow yourself to just stink it up.

Be Curious

Another option is to get curious. Type “I wonder why…” or “I wonder how…” and then see what happens.

“I wonder why we have perfectly good red from beets but we decided chemical would be a better way to go?”

Well, there’s a little research for you. Maybe there is  book in it, like Mark Kurlansky’s Salt, or Mark Kurlansky’s Cod, or Mark Kulansky’s Paper. Or anything by my absolute fave, Mary Roach.

Or maybe there is nothing in it for you to use. And that’s the thing I keep needing to remind myself. The fact that I type it and save it does not mean it MUST see the light of day. That would mean it has to be good. That’s way too much pressure.

It’s okay if what you write is bad, horrible, embarrassing.

Getting it out of your body is like purging yourself of infection. Just get it out.

Make Lists

Hey, how about lists. Sort of a free association:

Kumquats (I always start with kumquats)

Perambulists

Pomegranate

Grenade

Grenada.

Remember when Grenada was in the news?

How crazy was that.

See! Now I can write something silly, interesting, nostalgic, surprising, about Granada. The little island with the big boom.

The Cure for having Nothing to Say

Look, the important things here are:

1) Let yourself write poorly, badly, incompetently if you have to. It’s okay. You are not always going to win a prize. And that’s okay. Be easy on yourself.

And 2) Just write something. It doesn’t matter. A shopping list. Maybe there is something in there that spawns a book, like Mark Kurlansky’s Milk.

Just sit down and mindlessly punch keys to pass the time. You never know what allowing yourself some freedom will do.