This happened to me with my art, not writing. But still a creative process. I fell away from it for a while and then when I came back to it, it’s like all my skill disappeared. I lost my style. Making art was frustrating, because I wanted to be as good as I used to be.
What actually helped me was when I stopped focusing so much on how good it was and started focusing on just enjoying the creative process. I stopped doing it for other people and what they wanted out of an end result, and started doing it for me and what I needed out of the act of creating.
I’m still not as good as I used to be, but I’ve found a new style that is uniquely mine, and I have slowly been improving with practice. Which feels good, and is great, but isn’t the point. I still get frustrated if I focus too much on where I’m at with my skill. I have to remind myself that I’m not doing it to be good at it. I’m doing it because I enjoy it. That helps immensely, and then being good at it just comes naturally with time and practice, as long as you don’t focus on it and allow yourself to get frustrated because you’re not where you want to be yet. It’s a process, and you have to trust it and be patient and kind with yourself.
I honestly don’t think I’ve developed a unique writing voice yet. I’m not focused on making all my writing sound consistent and have a certain aesthetic or style. I find that it takes away from me giving the characters unique voices when I focus too much on my own voice. It’s not my story. It’s the characters. That may just be me though. Hell, maybe that is my style, who knows?
To write my character’s voices though, I really focus on developing them and getting into their heads. I take a step out of my comfort zone and who I am, and I become someone else. I look at things from as many different perspectives as possible and then decide which one fits the character I am writing for in that moment most. It takes practice, and a lot of just writing scenes out for the character, even if they aren’t really relevant to the story or plot.
That’s what first drafts are for, messing around and figuring things out, especially the characters. You can always cut scenes later in the next drafts, but that doesn’t mean those scenes didn’t play an important part in developing the character. They helped you as a write to figure out who they are and find their voice. And that in invaluable.
So don’t be afraid to play around and explore your characters, even outside of their story or plot. Imagine them in all sorts of different circumstances and write out how they would act in those scenarios. Have fun with it!
There are a few tricks. Making playlists for your story or characters, or making pinterest boards or some other visual aesthetics that relate to your writing, drafting out in depth profiles and biographies for your characters, focusing on world building, etc. But if you want the hard truth, this is it.
Sometimes you have to just write, even if you aren’t feeling it.
Writing isn’t always fun. It’s wonderful when it is, but a lot of it is hard work too. And the hardest work is getting started. Once you get a momentum going though, it becomes more fun.
Now, I’m not saying there won’t be times when you get creative/writer’s block, and just cannot write no matter what you try. Those times are best spent taking a step back from your writing, experiencing life, maybe doing some reading instead, and the most important part, allowing yourself not to feel guilty about not writing. If you train your brain to associate feelings of guilt, or dread, or anything negative, with writing, then you’ll never break out of that writer’s block. Be kind to yourself and train your brain to associate writing with good feelings. Again, enjoying the process rather than the outcome is also important for this.
But, writer’s block aside, sometimes you can write, you just don’t feel like writing. And that’s when you have to just force yourself to do it anyways. Put in the work, and eventually you’ll get that momentum I mentioned before going, and you’ll find that you enjoy it again.
I’ve been looking for that too, and it’s really hard to find. This site is a good starting place though, and I’d be more than happy to be a writting buddy and friend to you. You can always come to me if you want to gush about your stories and ideas, and I will listen and encourage you. I’ve been looking for people that I can do the same with for a long time now, so I know how frustrating it can be when you have all these wonderful story ideas and thoughts and just no outlet to share them. Having a community of friends who are just as excited about your stories as you are can really help. So, if you ever need someone to bounce ideas off of, or just to hype you up, my door is always open to you.
I’m Xelyn, by the way. I don’t believe I’ve seen you around these forums before, so it’s nice to meet you. I hope you find what you’re looking for, and with any luck, I hope you found my advice helpful.
now i’m better but i still can’t do the things I was able to do at the time, like write a 400 word poem in one sitting
Nice to meet you, Emilia. We can share projects and stuff if you want. This is what I am working on at the moment:
Record for me!