The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now #349 -- But I Don't Want to Write

What do you do when don't feel like writing? How do you make yourself write?

I know this isn't the answer most new writers want to hear, but most of the time if I don't feel like writing then I simply don't write. Forcing the muse, so to speak, at least for me, can do more harm than good. Chances are, if I really, really don't feel up to writing, I'm not going to like what I've written.

Now, on the flip side of that, there are times when I simply don't have the luxury of not writing. Deadlines could be pressing. I might need to get some key story segments out of the way before a busy week at work, or a pending vacation (yeah, what are those again?). Regardless, I just might not have time to spend away from the story. In those times, I really have to trick my brain into tapping into the subconscious part of writing.

I can sometimes do that by using a writing prompt, or by reading a short story, or perhaps even by skipping ahead to a part I feel more in tune with (and then once my brain is lost in writing again, coming back to the sticky part).

However, this doesn't always work, and quite often I simply have to trudge through the stuff I simply don't feel like doing. It doesn't make for the most inspired fiction, but it does make fiction take shape. And sometimes that's the best you can get, and all that you need in that moment.