Five Tips to Write Your Book in Hard Times

How Am I Supposed To Write With All This Going On?

This isn’t just October Surprise, this is something so depressing that I feel unable to write. How do we get to writing with all this sadness and violence going on? Here’s what I’m doing.

1. Turn off the TV. And the internet.

It’s the constant stream of gloomy, negative news into a household that will be getting in your head, even if you aren’t really listening to it. If you’re going to write, get away from the TV and listen to music instead. Here’s an app that stops you from browsing all the bad stuff.

Mac – https://selfcontrolapp.com/

PC – https://getcoldturkey.com

You might like this page too, that only shares happy news: https://www.positive.news/

2. Eat cookies.

Or pancakes. Or anything that makes you feel better. Have a little stack of goodies hidden in your desk and have a nibble when you can’t take it anymore. It’s OK. You’re writing your masterpiece and you need the fuel.

3. Walk it off.

Take a walk for an hour and breathe in deep. If you live in a city, go buy a pencil sharpener, a coffee, or browse a book store somewhere, and pound those streets. Take some old bread out and feed the ducks. Anything, just get on your feet out walking away from your writer’s cave. When you get back you’ll feel more settled and ready to write.

4. Read a book you love.

Anything that makes you feel better. It can be a chapter of Harry Potter, or a fairy tale. Just take your mind out of the world’s problems for a while.

5. Use it.

What makes you angry and upset might help you write a character’s voice or a particularly harrowing scene. Try writing your thoughts down and see if they start forming a story. Some of the best writing has come out of war (Salinger wrote The Catcher in The Rye in the trenches of WWII) or mental illness (The Bell Jar was written when Sylvia Plath was clinically depressed) or personal disaster (The Diving Bell and The Butterfly was written by Dominique Bauby by moving his eyes after he suffered a strike and got locked-in syndrome).

If you still feel terrible, there’s always a kitten in a basket to be had. Here’s one on me: