Hey! What’s your best ideas/motivations/tips for when u want to do writing, and you have ideas, but the actual writing isn’t coming easily to you? “just buckle down and do it” is so hard sometimes.

bettsfic:

i’m not a fan of buckling down and forcing myself to do stuff tbh so hopefully i can be kinda helpful here. 

things to do when you can’t write:

• make a pinterest board inspired by the story. sometimes seeing lots of pretty colors and visuals helps encourage me to put words along with them.
• make a spotify mix inspired by the story. see above, but with lyrics.
• this involves some pre-work, but i keep a google doc of writing prompts. sometimes if i can’t write the story i’m working on, i pick out a prompt and start drafting it just to keep my brain moving.
• reread what i’ve written so far. sometimes it helps me gain enough momentum to write a few more words, which snowball into even more. sometimes i also print a story out and mark all over it with colored pens and highlighters to feel more productive and look at pretty colors.
• go for a walk or stand outside a while (this one is donated by @celestialdisturbances but i also do this sometimes, usually while listening to the mix i made)
• read/watch something that inspired you in the past that you haven’t revisited in a while. my go-to is Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”, which i read aloud to myself in its entirety
• make a bullet-point list of everything that has happened so far in the story. sometimes i try to make it fit into different plot structure forms to see how solid it is, and sometimes filling in blanks of established structures helps me figure out where to go next.
• take a nap!! this one is the most important. sometimes the reason i can’t write is because i’m exhausted and i get mad at myself for not having infinite amounts of mental energy. so i lie down and think and think and think and doze. 
• if you can’t sleep, just lie down somewhere – maybe a place you don’t normally lie, like under a table, or in the grass, or somewhere where the view is different than you’re used to and that might be mildly uncomfortable. your creative energy likes it when you are mildly uncomfortable; i highly encourage seeking it out.
• remind myself that i’m allowed to quit. sometimes giving myself an out is enough to re-establish that what i’m doing isn’t compulsory, that i’m doing it because i want to, and if i decide i don’t want to, i can stop. there is too much stigma around quitting things. i am very pro-quitting. do the things that keep your interest, throw everything else out. what you’re left with is the stuff you know you should fight for.