So, Writer’s Block is a term all writers are familiar with.
Like, it’s so common that if you are a writer you must’ve heard of it before and most likely experienced it first hand too.
But today I’m going to divert a little of your attention from writer’s block to another smiliar term, that is, writer’s fatigue. Hundreds of other people talk about writer’s block and how to beat it.
I’m going to talk about something similar but far much different.
I’m going to talk about writer’s fatigue.
Maybe many of you have heard about that term too, or—I seriously don’t hope so—have experienced it too. Because writer’s fatigue is dangerous.
And I’m here to tell you that it is curable, it can be fixed.
And I can say that so confidently because I’ve gone through this phase and I’ve come out of it.
What is Writer’s Fatigue and How is it Different From Writer’s Block?
When I was 16 years old, after I had published my first poetry book on Amazon Kindle, I experienced writer’s fatigue.
I was that writer who never really suffered from writer’s block (fingers crossed so I don’t jinx it), but when it at last hit, it hit hard.
I still remember it as vivid as ever, it was the month of October—summer going away, the dawn of winter—and I remembered, just all of a sudden—loosing all my will to write.
No warning beforehand.
It was like I just didn’t want to write, not like I couldn’t. I could write just fine, but I felt sick after writing a few lines at most, and then I’d just want to stop.
So I just didn’t bother, I stopped writing.
It was like I didn’t want to be an author anymore, I didn’t know what I wanted to be.
I was so doubtful of my future. So afraid.
I even write in my journal about it, made a poem for my love for writing, and all that cheesy drama to bring my aspiration of being an author back.
Easier said than done.
I became a scaredy cat at that time.
I was literally so afraid that I started searching for its answer everywhere—and even cried tears of hope if I came near it.
For a reading list to get you out of the rut, see this Self-Help Books I Read to Launch my Blog and Work on Myself.
I was so scared of this—scared that I wasn’t going to be a writer, and I kept these fears in the foreground of my mind.
All things aside, I just wanted to write.
I found out the answer to this later on; on the Internet, turned out there was a whole new term for this that I didn’t know about.
Writer’s Fatigue. A burnout for the writers.
All hopes of ever becoming a writer failed at that time. I saw that I was suffering from most of the symptoms of writer’s fatigue. I was doomed.
The writers will understand me.
Writer’s fatigue was when you were so tired of writing, and grinding, and pushing, and using your mental energy that your mind at last got so stuck that it just stopped. And it took a step back.
And this thing that once used to give me pleasure and a rush of adrenaline, was now messing with my head.
This was writer’s fatigue.
To express my love for my books and my stories, I even wrote it a poem. This may sound like a love poem, and it is one, just it is directed to my book series at that time that I wasn’t able to complete.
I know that I made mistakes.
But you know that I love you.
Can we please start anew?
I want to be with you.
Can we please start anew?
Don’t you love me too?
So please start anew.
How I Overcame Writer’s Fatigue
I took a break.
So, people everywhere on the Internet were telling me to take a break, and that writer’s fatigue was curable, no matter how much I was convinced otherwise.
So, I took a simple break, without much hopes that it’d bring a change.
It was not like I was sure or relieved that I would get better now; I just put my faith in it because I had no other choice.
I didn’t write for some time. I only read my favourite novels, not any self help books as I frequently do. And I didn’t take the strain.
I came across my why.
It’s not like I didn’t know my why before. Of course I did. I had always known my why.
It had been etched in my mind with some permanent ink and it wasn’t ever going away. It was just getting shadowed over by the material achievements and ambitions.
Why did I write stories? Because I wanted an escape. Many people do, I know, and so did I.
I wanted an escape from school, the drama, the friends, and don’t get me started on the studies.
If you ask me, I hated studying.
I wanted to do something in my life that would actually bring a change or something. I wanted to do something major and I knew that studying math and science that you weren’t to think about when you grew up, wasn’t my idea for phenomenal.
My idea, for something great and awesome, was to write stories.
Write stories so fascinating and so helpful for myself and the people too, that everyone liked my work.
That was the reason I began writing.
It was a really selfish reason and I loved it.
As I was growing up, however, I realised that just becoming an author wasn’t done, at least not for me.
I wanted to be the best author.
I wanted to be the perfect author (though I later realised that perfection didn’t exist, at least not in humans. That realisation in itself prompted this blog post: The Thing About Perfection is that It isnt’s Oxygen. You Don’t Need it to Survive).
But what could I do?
I had seen a dream and I was striving to accomplish it.
And to compete it, I was just taking stress. And it was so bad for me.
I realised that I needed to stop.
I needed to just slow down, and hold on as I reconnected with my why.
And guess what, today I’m writing again.
I know, burnout seems scary, to begin with. It’s a terrifying and horrible experience and trust me, I can say. It’s almost like depression, at least for me it was.
But I just want to tell everyone here that burnout isn’t permanent.
A great quote I once read somewhere, which soothed my mind, was that burnout existed because people thought that rest was a reward rather than a right. It stuck with me.
Because I always thought the same thing.
If any of you is suffering from burnout, and would want to have some inspiration to keep going, I suggest you a reading list that I have read and they have helped me to a great extent:
Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad, by Austin Kleon
Start with Why, by Simon Sinek
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, by Eric Jorgenson
These three books helped me a lot, I could never express it in words.
Aside from it, my family was always there with me, telling me to hold on. And I did.
And I have defeated burnout now.
As Austin Kleon says in his book Steal Like An Artist, “When you reach the end of the rope, tie a knot and hang on.“
How You Can Defeat Writer’s Block or Fatigue or Burnout
My Checklist for Overcoming Writer’s Block or Fatigue
Stop writing. The worst you can do during a writer’s fatigue is to keep on writing. No, stop it. Read obsessively, only the books that interest you.
Reconnect with your why. Find out why you began doing this in the first place.
Consume art and craft. If you’ve been only creating for a long time, a fatigue might mean that you need to stop and enjoy others’ creation for a while too.
Let go of things for a little time. It’s hard, and unattractive, but it works wonders. You need to let go every once in a while and see where life takes you.
Believe in yourself and your dream.
Fall in love with the little things, the old TV shows, the summer sunshine, the feeling of creating something.
Change directions for a little while. If you were a writer, try out drawing, painting, sketching. Intermingle things up, don’t just be invested in one.
Learn some skill. Coding? Blogging? Musical instruments?
Listen to music.
Spend time with loved ones.
Make friends.
Smile more often.
Laugh the loudest in the room.
I’m sure some miracle will happen; you’ll see magic happening in front of your own eyes as you’ll see yourself healing from the scars of writing furiously and continuously and you’ll realise that you always liked the process since the beginning.
Your vision was just clouded with the image of the published book in front of you and that was driving you for the goal.
In truth, we shouldn’t be goal-driven at all.
We should learn to enjoy the process, the becoming.
Because we all didn’t just want to become authors since the very beginning.
We all started with wanting to write stories. Just stories. Whether it’s a short story or a full length novel. We all fell in love with the writing process.
And we all still love it, we just don’t see it.
Don’t let that love for writing die. Take a break from writing, and in no time you’ll be fully energised again.
You’ll be that writing machine you were.
Keep calm, don’t panic, and best of luck!
