Writing, Rebooting, Reviving: Finding My Words Again

Writing to most people if not all, is a talent and gift. For some, it’s business and for others, it’s a hobby to de-stress and entertain others.

For those who use writing as a business, they have to write whether they feel like it or not. They need to keep their end of the bargain to get their cheque. Non-commercial writers mostly write out of inspiration, but when life gets in the way, the tendency to lose steam and relegate it to the background is pretty high.

Source: Twitter

I came across some tweets by my fellow Afrobloggers members about having fallen out of love with writing and the frustrations they are feeling. I can totally relate considering the ‘writing drought’ I experienced last year. I had to pull the brakes on extensive writing because I had taken up an intensive online postgraduate course for two years. I thought I could juggle both but I had to be honest with myself about the consequent stress and make a choice.

By God’s grace, I was able to complete the course and I was excited to get back to writing. There were days I would open a new page ready to type away only to find myself staring at the blinking cursor on the page with my mind completely blank. I had experienced this before so I did not fret. I knew I had to give myself time to orient my mind back to it.

But as the weeks stretched into months, I began to get anxious.  Have I lost it? Does that mean I’m no longer a writer? Does it mean I never was? Because if I was, then I shouldn’t lose it, right? Wrong.

It reminded me of the saying that if you don’t use it, you lose it. It applies to language and the creative arts. I decided to go to the Giver of all good gifts and ask Him to restore and renew my writing for His glory. Sometimes, my humanness would get the upper side and I’d be anxious but most times, I surrendered it to God to fix me.

Image credit: Nappy

As I waited on God to revive my writing cap, I decided to quit seeing it as only an inspiration but also as a discipline. I purposed to try my hands on the Bloganuary writing prompts by WordPress. Then I realized that I hadn’t lost it after all. It had just gone on hibernation waiting to be re-awakened.

My advice to my fellow writers and bloggers who feel like they have fallen out of love with writing, find something to write anyway. It might not be the best but write it anyway. It may take longer than you expect to come back to full form but it does get better, I promise.

Perhaps you can start with how frustrated you feel about your writing drought and see how it goes?

I can’t wait to read it.

Have you ever experienced a writing drought and overcome it? How did you feel during that time and what did you do to come out of it? Kindly share as someone may need it. Thanks for reading.

© 2024 Josephine Amoako

Join my WhatsApp channel here.