Young Writers Society

I was wondering if its natural to have points in your life where you find it harder to put what your thinking into words/ where you lose a ability to imagine like you once could. It seemed to easy before where I could illustrate what i wanted to say but my messages come out fuzzy and I have a complete inability to make anything flow well while sounding good.


Has this happened to you? Do you think this is normal I just might not be getting enough sleep or something? opinions?

It's normal. Perfectly normal.

You have two options:

1- Write through it. Tough it out and keep writing horrible stuff until you get the groove back, and edit that bad stuff later. Never stop for anything.

2- Take a break. Absorb new information, new surroundings, new books. Follow everything that interests you. See where new inspiration leads. Recharge.

No particular way to get the groove back is better than the other, but some people say to hold off writer's block you should write constantly. I disagree because sometimes you honestly do need a break. Life can wear you down.

Only lately. You're lucky! Everything I write is horrible >.<

Nah, kidding.

These periods of writing rubbishly (totally a word) happen for various reasons.

Stress and anxiety are real muse killers because they have a way of constantly tearing you back to the real world, or nagging away at the back of your brain when you're trying to be creative.

Remedy: Freewrite. Sit down and write as much as you can in a set amount of time, about anything and everything that comes to mind. Sometimes life can clog up your creativity and you need to flush out all the junk. It's good therapy, too, and the things you write and emotions you discover can be used later.

Perfection complex's usually sneak up on you, just like low self esteem. Your writing may be the same as normal, but you'll be beating yourself up a lot more. Maybe you're becoming more aware of your writing, rather than writing worse. Putting pressure on yourself to write better makes things harder because then you're adding this to the factor above.

Remedy:Write for fun. Write fast and with little thought and don't look back! Even if you write is complete slosh, you can edit later. Like Rosie said, never stop for anything. Your fingers will get creaky and it'll be harder to start again.


Take advantage of the situation. According to The Cambridge Intro to Creative Writing these periods of not being able to make your writing flow are just as important as the prefered periods of being able to write like the wind. This is the perfect opportunity to ignore the flow and just scribble what comes to mind.

Also, this may be a point when things in your mind are being reorganised while you're not watching and it will have an effect on your writing. Just go with it. Things won't fit together and your favourite writing techniques will break on you, but that could just be because you're growing as a writer. It's like when you lose your baby teeth for the bigger ones to come through.

Thanks Tenyo! That really helped me identify the problem with my writing.

I think I have the quality of Perfection complex's because recently I went through all my reviews and found that not many people agree with the way I write.

I think my mind is also being reorganized, as you stated, because I am maturing as a person, and attempting to see the world even more dynamically as it truly is.

I thought for a minute I lost my ability to write due to becoming more right brained while working on my math for college, silly right! I think I have come to the conclusion that utilizing both sides of the brain is best when becoming a writer and person.