From Edie: Discover practical and faith-centered ways to stay creative when your writing feels stalled. These 15 strategies will help you renew your mind, refresh your creativity, and navigate unproductive seasons with hope, rest, and spiritual renewal.
How Writers Can Stay Creative in Unproductive Seasons: 15 Ways to Renew Your Mind, Faith, and Writing Life
by DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills
Writers often face rejection, deadlines, and doubt. We may say we trust God with our writing, but when a season feels barren, that trust can be tested. November’s image of bleak fields after harvest is not a picture of discouragement but a reminder of God’s promise of renewal.
We’ve planted words, nurtured them with prayer and edits, and released them to our readers. Sometimes a new contract doesn’t come, or fresh ideas seem as bare as empty fields. But those fields are resting, just like we need to breathe new life into our minds and bodies. The farmer trusts God for spring to plant new growth, and we writers can trust God to rejuvenation our hearts, minds, and creativity for the next project.
When you feel unproductive, the following 15 ideas can pull the weeds from your thoughts and prepare for the fertile season ahead.
- 1. Celebrate the blessings of the past year. Pause to remember personal and writing related moments that remind us of God’s faithfulness.
- 2. Embrace life experiences; they nurture our faith and our craft. With God, nothing is wasted.
- 3. Experiment with genre. Make it fun. You might be delightfully surprised at the result.
- 4. Explore nature. A hike, long walk, or a country drive refuels and sparks our creativity.
- 5. Get creative for Christmas! Design a personal card for family and friends that has audio and video.
- 6. Nap, yes nap. Add to your storehouse of sleep. It will make you stronger, happier, and more creative.
- 7. Plan a getaway. Whether it is short or long, plan for the time away to be restful and a memory maker.
- 8. Practice thankfulness to God for where you are in your writing, even if it’s not where you hoped. Thankfulness fertilizes the fields of our mind for challenges to become opportunities.
- 9. Reread encouraging emails and texts from readers who value what you’ve written. If this hasn’t been a habit in the past, now is the time to begin collecting them.
- 10. Read fiction and nonfiction. Let other writers know you appreciate their work.
- 11. Register for a writer’s conference either in-person or digital. Both fuel growth and connections.
- 12. Try a new creative outlet. Register for an art class, flower arranging, cake decorating, jewelry design, quilting, photography, woodcraft, or any venture that stretches your creativity.
- 13. Study how-to books to your storehouse of writing, marketing, and promotion aids.
- 14. Trust God’s timing for future harvests.
- 15. Volunteer for a project that gives back to others and brings joy.
A barren season doesn’t mean the end of our writing life. November reminds us that rest prepares the soil for renewal. Writers, too, can use this season to prepare their minds for new and exciting writing projects.
Do you have a tip to pass on about unproductive writing times?
TWEETABLE
She is the former director of the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, Mountainside Marketing Retreat, and Mountainside Novelist Retreat with social media specialist Edie Melson. Connect here: DIANNMILLS.COM
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