Persistence in Creative Writing

Have you ever had an awesome idea and,considerable amount of time and I would advise
inspired, you begin to write your book with freshthat you employ this for as long as you can: just
vigor and enthusiasm? Then, after a fewgive yourself an hour or two during which you
chapters, your enthusiasm wanes and you beginpromise yourself that you will use all the emotional
to get very fatigued.and creative energy you have inside you for that
You are not alone. Despite being passionate aboutday, to write fresh work. The good thing about
their craft, most writers come to get tired ofthis is, after you sleep, you feel refreshed and
writing sooner or later. Writing with the mostyour battery is recharged. However, all good
creativity you can muster is one of the mostthings come to an end and it is realistic to expect
emotionally draining activities you can do in yourthat you will reach 'burnout' with this tactic after a
spare time. Setting goals can help, but settingfew months. Just make sure it is a genuine
plans out on a piece of paper that you "must" doburnout and that you are not simply making an
X, Y or Z amount of pages takes away theexcuse not to write. Remember, you are the one
willingness to do so and can force you to writewho wants to complete this work more than
when you really aren't feeling creative at all.anyone!
Forcing creative writing upon yourself can, if youFinally, if you really can't write anything for that
are not careful, make you hate the past-timeday, there are two options available to you. The
that you once loved.first is to do no writing at all, no editing, nothing at
Nonetheless, once you reach the point ofall. Take a complete break. This can actually be
extreme fatigue, it is vital that you have a stepextremely helpful when you are as emotionally
by step plan. This is because you will have a cleardrained as many writers are after one big 'push'.
idea of what has to be done, so that when youThe second is, if you still have the energy to
are feeling in a creative mood, you can just jumpwork on something at least, editing. You can edit
right back into it, rather than thinking, "what onand revise your previous writing and make sure it
earth do I have to do now?"is in tip-top shape. You are going to have to do
Some experienced authors set aside a time eachthis some time or another so even if you can't
day that they must write. This can work for awrite you are not losing any time at all if you edit.