writing from a full creative well | is it always possible for a busy writer?

Do you dream of writing from a full creative well? Do you fantasize of sitting down at your desk, feeling light and happy, without the weight of a goal you feel you can’t reach on your back? Have you ever wondered why writing wasn’t fun anymore and why you couldn’t just enjoy yourself and relax when you pulled up your WIP on your laptop? 

You’ve probably done all of those things if you’re a serious writer. Because you know (oh, do you know) what it’s like to sit down and write even when you don’t feel like it. You know what it’s like to crank out the words, finish the chapter, or hit the deadline, and feel like you’re just surviving. I know what it’s like too. 

I’ve had a few times when the words just flowed, I was squealing in delight at what I was creating, and everything just felt so wonderful and right. But those times have been few and far between. 

Let’s be real. When you’re a young person with a hundred responsibilities—well, it feels like a hundred—like school, work, family, and platform building, who also has serious writing goals, writing can quickly turn into a chore and while you do enjoy it on a certain level, the focus of each writing session can tend to be just getting the words down or hitting the word count goal. Truly and deeply enjoying your writing times can feel like a luxury, a rare gift that is occasionally bestowed upon you when everything’s “just right”. 

But I don’t think you started writing seriously to deeply enjoy writing occasionally. I don’t think you started writing just so you could have more to add to your to-do list (yeah, you definitely didn’t start because of that, absolutely not). I don’t think you started writing because you wanted to have one more thing to stress you out and drain you of energy and joy. 

No, you probably started writing because you felt like you were born to make stories and share a message. You probably started writing because you couldn’t stand the thought of not writing, or because life would be missing something if you couldn’t create with words. 

But when you’re being honest, doesn’t writing sometimes feel like it’s draining you, taking up valuable time, and giving you one more thing to just get through without any joy or happiness? 

I know it sure does feel that way to me a lot of the time. 

So how do we fix this problem? One of the obvious answers would be to spend time everyday refilling our creative well, so that we weren’t always trying to pour from an empty or near empty cup.  Wouldn’t that make writing feel a lot more fun and easy? Wouldn’t that give us the extra energy we need to get new ideas, write faster, and therefore get more done and feel less stressed? 

Well, yes, but because most of us are so busy—which was one of the reasons for our stress in the first place—and taking time to “refill our well” can feel like a waste of time, something to feel guilty about. There’s always more to be done and with such long to-do lists perpetually hung on the walls of our mind, it’s hard to convince ourselves that the more productive thing for us to do is to rest. 

What will happen if I don’t get everything done? 

If I rest I’ll get so far behind that any fun I had will be ruined by the mountain of work that will await me afterward. 

I am very familiar with these kinds of thoughts and fears. Rest of any kind—other than the minimal amount of sleep needed at night—can feel impossible and frivolous sometimes. Have you ever wondered if  there was any other way we could find inspiration, motivation, and energy to restore some of the joy and creativity to our writing? 

I believe there is, but it may be different than you would think. 

Because while taking time to rest and play is extremely important, we can’t always get as much of it as we would like, so we need another way to find motivation and energy to write. 

I believe that way is letting go of stress and worry. 

We’ve all experienced this, stress and worry can drain our energy and creativity like nothing else. It can make us feel like life is heavy and serious, and having creativity and imagination is very hard in that mental state. 

But I’ve recently been working on not worrying as much, even over something like my schedule or to-do list, and I was delighted by how much my creativity and joy increased when I wasn’t worrying! I wasn’t resting anymore than usual, I wasn’t doing anything special. I just wasn’t stressing. 

That experience has made me wonder how my energy and creativity would soar if I let go of even more stress. How would I feel? What would I be able to create? How much easier would writing feel?  I think the sky’s the limit and I’m looking forward to experiencing more joy, more peace, and more flow through letting go of worries and fears. 

What worries and fears can you let go of? What stresses are holding you back from your greatest creativity? What thoughts are you allowing to wear you down, drain your energy, and make life harder than it has to be? 

Are you worried about not having enough time to write?

Are you worried about not hitting your word count goals?

Are you worried that your writing isn’t good enough? 

I would encourage you to get really serious with God about learning to trust him with your worries. Then, with work and prayer, watch yourself become lighter, happier, more joyful, more creative, and more excited to write. 

Rejecting worry and stress is definitely a process and one that I have not mastered yet, but I have gotten a glimpse of what is possible when I give my fears to God and let him take care of them for me and I’m determined to at least master it more than I have now. Peace and joy is worth the hard work and struggle to reject fear. 

I am so excited for you and I as we learn to let go of stress—I think we’re going to find that we have so much more energy and I know we’re going to start having a lot more fun with writing! 

So next time you feel like your creative well is dry but you don’t have a lot of time to rest, try getting quiet for a moment and seeing what worries you can let go of and let God take care of. 

You will probably  find that you have a lot more energy and creativity to work from. ♥️