Beyond mastering their craft, every writer needs a healthy and sustainable writing practice that includes periods of inspiration (query, research, observation), expression (writing, sharing), and restoration (reflection, celebration, rest).
Inspiration
Inspiration is a main catalyst for creativity. We absorb information in a number of ways and are impacted by it. If the impact sparks a noticeable emotion or interest, we seek its meaning or significance. We find connections that often call us to respond.
I mentioned that inspiration is a catalyst, and I purposely did not qualify it as positive or negative, because it’s not. However to produce good things you must seek positive inspiration to catalyze positive expression. In a workshop I teach about writing well, I share the following ways to stay positively inspired:
Pray/read the Bible or an inspirational text. Engage with the Creator.
Read good books.
Take writing workshops and classes.
Read writing memoirs like Remember Rapture by bell hooks, Black Women Writers at Work by Claudia Tate, ed., Ann Lamott’s Bird By Bird, or Amy Tan’s Where the Past Begins, Shonda Rimes’s Year of Yes.
Watch documentaries on the lives of writers: Amy Tan's Unintended Memoir, Maya Angelou’s And Still I Rise, and Tony Morrison’s The Pieces I Am.
Search your memory. Recall good or significant times.
Go to a concert or listen to music.
Visit a museum.
See a play.
Get outside in nature. Take a walk on the beach or in a mountain. Stroll through a botanical garden.
Talk through your ideas with a supportive and encouraging person.
What are other ways you stay inspired?
Expression
A healthy way to express our responses is necessary to keep up from suppressing or bottling up our emotions, thoughts, or ideas. We were made for collaboration, connection, and community. When we keep things inside or to ourselves, we may find ourselves dealing with a variety of consequences such as frustration, anxiety, and depression. And I'd dare say some of what you may be calling writer's block has some relationship to challenges with feeling confident in expressing your responses in writing in a constructive and healthy way.
If you are not writing or producing something after being inspired, you may feel unsettled and frustrated not realizing that your next step in the cycle is to EXPRESS—
Write
Teach
Preach
Lead a workshop
Blog
Podcast
Go live on your favorite social media platform
Journal
Mentor, counsel, or coach
Ah, instant relief!
Expression is pouring out. It is producing something based on what was poured in. You weren't meant to keep all the things you've learned and experienced inside. You must let it out.
(A note: For some of us dealing with bottled emotions related to things that have hurt us in the past, we may have to seek help from a license professional counselor. We may have to express our negative and raw emotions in a safe environment and begin healing those hurts before they can be channeled into something good and positive. Others of us may have sought this kind of help and are healing and growing. Yet, as we write, we find expression unusually difficult. Outside feedback may help you hone your expression: join a writer's group, get a manuscript critique, or seek a writing coach.)
What we desire deep inside and what has been designed for our betterment is to produce something positive and beneficial to ourselves and others. It is how we realize our highest, most noble, and fulfilling expression.
Restoration
Expression is depleting—and not in a bad way but in a natural kind of way. You empty something that was full, and it is now empty again. To be used again, that vessel must be refilled. Restoration refills, refuels, and rebuilds what's been depleted. Restoration is an active and intentional process that includes
Reflection—looking back on what's been accomplished, recounting what's happened
Celebration—applying gratitude, thanksgiving, and joy to the end of a process of accomplishing a goal or the lessons learned
Rest—stepping away from the work that led up to the accomplishment no matter how big or small
Restoration can happen in a five-minute break or a five-month sabbatical. You can take a moment after each to-do item on your list is accomplished to restore and get geared up for the next item. You can look at the list as a whole and restore after the full project is complete. However you restore, make sure it matches the level of your pouring out. There may be seasons where more frequent moments of restoration are needed. Don't deny yourself what you need to pour well.
Recognizing the speed and intensity of your writing cycle and the needs you have for keeping it healthy are what can sustain your writing practice over the long haul of your current project or the lifetime of writing ahead of you.
Check in: Are you writing well?
“Are Writers More Prone to Depression and Anxiety?”
“3 Ways the Pray Hear Write Practice Enhances Your Spiritual Writing Life”
“4 Ways to Approach Prayer for Your Writing”
“Eat to Write: Foods That Nourish a Healthy Writing Practice”
“Transform Your Writing with These 3 Focuses”
On-Demand Workshop: Healing for a Writer’s Soul