I’ve been in a writing funk. A real writing funk. I want to write, I want to with every ounce of my being, but every time I sit in front of my laptop, I freeze. My mind wanders, but not in the good, creative way. More so in the “so, you forgot to do this…” way. And that’s just annoying.

So I’ve been in a funk.

But then last week I got to see my friend Jenny, who’s an amazing writer (you should probably go buy her book right now), and inspirational person. She told me about some of her negative moments in writing, and how she pushed through them. And it reminded me of a quote Harlan Coben once wrote –

“Only bad writers think they’re good.”

So back to Jenny, I told her about some of my issues with my writing and she told me how sometimes telling a different story helps. Maybe my characters are right, but the story is wrong.

And you know what? She was absolutely right.

So two days ago I sat down in front of my laptop and for the first time I didn’t freeze. I didn’t choke or cry or slam my laptop shut. (Let’s be honest, I’ll never slam my laptop shut. Why would I want to hurt it?) Instead of dreading writing a scene, I kind of thought of something fun my characters might want to do. And I wrote that scene. I don’t know if I’ll end up using it in the end, but I’m so glad I wrote it, because it let me explore them some more, get to know them a little better. Let them have fun and, in the process, let me have fun. And it was so nice, stretching my fingers like that.

So, I think I’m back. I’m pushing back my negativity and worries and moving forward because it’s all I can do. And we’ll see what happens.

(Incidentally, this goes nicely with WFMAD’s Day 1 prompt.)