Holly Black's Tumblr

Oh, yes.

All the time.

Right now, I just finished revising a book that I’ve been working on for more than a year. My brain is tired. All I want to do is read a lot and sleep and get ready for the holidays. I want to clean my office and clean my kitchen and cook ALL THE THINGS. I want to answer all my asks on tumblr and google weird things and maybe even hang out with my husband and my friends.

And I can do all those things, sure, but I have to start the next book too. It’s normal to want to avoid writing. Writing is work. It can be fun work sometimes, but it’s still work. Reading is always fun, but writing isn’t.

Just push through. Give yourself permission to write a fun scene that you’ve been looking forward to. Let yourself do some research instead of getting actual pages. Take a break. Go for a walk. Write the scene anyway and see if it gets fun. Get another cup of coffee. Brainstorm. Try a free writing exercise. Go back and see if you need to know more about your characters or about your story. Try and play the thing through from the antagonist’s point of view. Make a writing date so that you’re inspired by the good habits of your writing buddies. Change the location of where you write. If you usually write on a computer, write longhand (and visa versa), or just bite the bullet and write today knowing that today is going to be one of those days where you hate every minute of it and worry over whether those words are good tomorrow.

Hope that helps!