I can’t take it. I don’t think I’ll be able to write anymore. Here I am at 10:30pm with a panic attack because I don’t have any words to say. Even these words I’m writing feel fake and empty, but I’m too scared to take a break. I was praying I’d get one last chance, but I don’t think I’ll be able to write anymore. I’m frightened. I woke up this morning with last night’s dreams erased, all my ideas gone and my imagination replaced. Right now, I can’t breathe. I don’t hear the words inside my head begging to be put on a page, and it might be the end of me. I don’t think I’ll be able to write anymore. All I can feel in my chest is guilt and dread; my passion is lost, misplaced, stolen, or maybe dead. Please, no. Why aren’t my fingers sparking or my thoughts racing or my secrets asking to be read? I don’t think I’ll be able to write anymore. Why did you give me this gift, this outlet, this fire, if you were just gonna take it? Please, if you were going to shred my heart, have the courage to break it. I hope this is a lesson, a test, a trial, a phase, a joke, a mistake?
And no, this isn’t a work of fiction. It’s from me. I don’t think I’ll be able to write anymore.
–RAR
Narrative Nonfiction
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Hey, listen. this is completely normal. Every single writer goes through this. In middle school I was a writing machine. It was fun. It’s what I did to get away from the stresses of everything else. The ideas were flowing and my fingers would fly over my keyboard. Then one day, I was out of inspiration. Life took over and I focused more on my math test or a date or a sleepover, rather than on writing. Then I made it my major in college, and things were never the same.
Writing became a chore, something I had to force myself to do. Very rarely was I ever inspired to write. But I had a deadline coming up, so I forced myself to sit down and get some words on the page. Most of what I wrote was garbage, but after I forced myself to write for 10-15 minutes, I started to get into a little groove. And that’s how it goes from now on, and my writing is better than it was when I found it easy and fun.
You’re evolving to the next stage of your writing development. When it becomes less fun, but you become more determined. You have to choose if you want to force yourself to sit down and write every day, even when you don’t want to. Find some writing exercises and just do them. If your writing is bad, that’s okay. The good writing will come with time.
Welcome to the guild of professional writers. You’ll soon learn than no writer actually likes the process of writing. It’s so hard. But when you have that final product in your hand, after 3 drafts or 6, you’ll be more proud than you ever were of those works you thought were great on the first draft. And, you’ll more appreciate the times you are inspired now, because you’ll see how rare and valuable they are.
I thought I was the only one who went/is going through this, and it means a lot to know that I’m not alone. Thank you so much for your advice 🙂
Yeah! What LindsayB said. I definitely have times where I feel like what I used to write was so much better, and maybe I was just going through a phase and burned out all my good writing. It’s completely normal for this to happen. I find it helps if I listen to music with really good lyrics. That usually inspires me. Also, when Hemingway felt this way, he said ““All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say.” If you absolutely can’t find anything to write about, try starting with one true sentence and going from there. You got this!!!
Don’t give up! If you ever need anything or anyone to talk with i am here for you!