{"id":10631,"date":"2021-02-03T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/?p=10631"},"modified":"2021-02-03T09:01:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T15:01:01","slug":"writers-burnout-a-writers-worst-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2021\/02\/03\/writers-burnout-a-writers-worst-nightmare\/","title":{"rendered":"Writer&#8217;s Burnout: A Writer&#8217;s Worst Nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, I stumbled upon an article by<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thewritepractice.com\/writers-burnout\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">writerspractice.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The article is about writer&#8217;s burnout: what it is, how it happens, and how to overcome it. Before reading this article, I had never heard of writer\u2019s burnout, but it 100% described what I am going through. The article describes it as \u201clooking at the page, hating the page, and questioning your entire identity as a writer, all for an extended period of time\u201d which puts exactly how I\u2019ve been feeling into words. Honestly, writing in general has been difficult for me lately, and I have been rethinking my entire life because I feel so lost and confused. The steps the article lists to overcome writer\u2019s burnout really helped, and they are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Recognize the Problem<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>\u201cYou can\u2019t move on without first recognizing that maybe something is wrong. Have you ever thought, \u2018I just have nothing to say, no words to write.I don\u2019t care about writing anymore. I have no new creative ideas. I never want to write again.\u2019If so, you might be going through a writer\u2019s burnout.\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> In the process of NaNoWriMo, I felt like a failure. Every day, I\u2019d wake up, pull out my laptop, and swear I was going to make progress. Instead, I stared at that stupid, blinking bar for hours on end, before finally closing my laptop to hide under my mountain of blankets, as if hiding would make the shame and disappointment disappear. As someone who is somewhat of a perfectionist and planner, I try to be in complete control of all things in my life, but with this project, I felt totally out of my element. I\u2019m not a novelist, and I never claimed to be, but maybe that was the problem. I think I went into this assignment with the wrong mindset. I went in not believing in myself, and I think I set my own self up for failure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don\u2019t Stop Writing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>\u201cWrite through the toil. It\u2019s the only way to get to the other side.\u201d <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I did it; I stopped writing. I gave in to the burn out and fear of imperfection, and that was my second mistake. I get so caught up in wanting everything I put my name on to be the best that I forget how to just write. It\u2019s so tiring trying to be perfect all the time, but I feel so much pressure to do so. I often say, \u201cIf it\u2019s not the best or it\u2019s not perfect, why even do it?\u201d I have slowly come to the realization that that isn\u2019t the best mentality to have, but I\u2019ve had that mindset for so long that I just don\u2019t know how to break it. I should\u2019ve pressed on. I should\u2019ve followed through with my daily goals instead of simply avoiding them in fear not being good enough. Sometimes, I think, you just have to do the things you dread in order to become stronger and better.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Find Yourself (again)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>\u201cWhen you\u2019re feeling lost in your writing, try taking a moment to remember who you are as a writer, and more importantly why you write. Remember your audience, your message, and most importantly, your voice.\u201d <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As much as I hate to admit this, I have lost myself as a writer. I can\u2019t even remember why I started writing or why I love(d) it. Last year, I had so much passion and drive for writing and for literary, but now, everything seems so bleak. I don&#8217;t know what it is, but I can\u2019t seem to find that spark that I once had. I\u2019ve lost my voice, and I don\u2019t know how to get it back, but I fear I\u2019ve lost it forever, which breaks my heart.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don\u2019t Try to Explain Yourself<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>\u201cIt\u2019s a complicated and messy thing to try to explain why you set aside your most important projects. At first, even you might not know exactly why you had to switch gears, and that\u2019s okay.\u201d <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I struggled with this a lot during NaNoWriMo. During the break, for my story, I talked to women, including my own mother, about their struggles with infertility and pregnancy loss. I heard some of the most moving, emotional, and inspiring stories. I thought that because I had taken the initiative to get these real-life stories that I\u2019d be more enthused to write this story, but instead I felt inept. I couldn\u2019t figure out how to translate such important, powerful stories into my own writing, so I didn\u2019t. I worked on other things, so I could say I had a productive day, but when my fellow writers were sharing their daily goal accomplishments, I was shoving my head deeper into my sheets. I felt embarrassed to tell them that I hadn\u2019t made much progress in my story, so I countered it with the fact that I\u2019d been working and that my home life is crazy, which isn\u2019t false, but I felt the need to explain. I felt like I\u2019d let them down, but really, I had let myself down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NaNoWriMo is not for the weak, and for most of the month, I considered myself weak, and even writing this feels like a cop-out. However, in writing and reflecting on the month, I realize that while writer\u2019s burnout is a thing, and I have definitely been experiencing the struggles of it, I am not defined by a word count or an assignment. My self-worth should not be determined by whether or not I adequately completed something, and I should stop holding myself to these impossible standards. I\u2019ve always wanted to be a writer, and I am. To be a writer, means to write, so I\u2019m gonna do just that. I\u2019m gonna write every day, and I won\u2019t worry about meeting a word count or completing an assignment that I don\u2019t care about. I\u2019m just going to write simply because it makes me feel good, and maybe, in that. I will overcome this writer\u2019s burnout, and find my voice again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I stumbled upon an article by writerspractice.com. The article is about writer&#8217;s burnout: what it is, how it happens, and how to overcome it. Before reading this article, I had never heard of writer\u2019s burnout, but it 100% described what I am going through. The article describes it as \u201clooking at the page, hating &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/2021\/02\/03\/writers-burnout-a-writers-worst-nightmare\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Writer&#8217;s Burnout: A Writer&#8217;s Worst Nightmare&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10631"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11306,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10631\/revisions\/11306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.msabrookhaven.org\/literary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}