How to Revive Your Writing Life
After the birth of my second child, my mental health plummeted, snuffing out my once-robust writing life. Where I used to write almost daily for a rapt blog audience, my motivation, inspiration, and creative endurance evaporated. That was back in 2016, and I’m just now started to understand how much of my person I lost in that time. I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, and to have that cornerstone of my identity stripped away was devastating.
At the time this post publishes, we’re at the very beginning of 2024, and it was last year—eight years after postpartum anxiety robbed me of my words—that my writing life returned. I haven’t been in a dire mental state that entire time (I spent about a year in true survival mode and since then have been to therapy, taken prescription antidepressants, and healed in so many ways), but it took almost a decade for that part of myself to feel safe coming back.
Maybe you’ve experienced something similar. I hope your writing didn’t take eight years to come back, but maybe it did. Maybe it’s been gone for even longer than that. When I looked at the different elements that came into play to breathe new life into my writing life last year, it all boiled down to one thing: community.
Seek positive accountability
The first spark that lit up my writing was joining a volunteer editorial staff for a magazine. This publication was new, and the staff was (and still are) eager, intelligent, innovative, and collaborative. God dropped this opportunity into my lap, and as part of my new role as a contributing editor was to contribute: to write and submit my own work.
While a big part of me was wildly intimidated by this expectation, I also felt like I was now a part of a creative community—and I wanted to prove myself. This editorial staff and magazine publication has provided an environment of positive accountability where I am motivated to sit and write because someone on the other end is enthusiastic about consuming my words.
I didn’t used to need that external expectation, but when my renewed writing life was so fragile, that accountability was encouraging and motivating in the best ways.
If you are looking for positive accountability, look to writing groups, a writing coach, or writing opportunities for publications you care about. When someone is expecting you to write—and that someone is kind, encouraging, and in a place you want to be creatively—the writing accountability will be exciting.
Curate your social media feeds
In 2023 I started following more writers and editors on social media, resulting in a curated Instagram feed that kept the writing craft front and center every time I opened the app. This format of community allows me to be intentional about what I’m consuming on the internet and also makes me feel a part of a creative club that has similar dreams, practices, and challenges.
Because I trained the algorithms to serve me writing content, I’ve been inspired and learning almost daily. So even when I’m in a creative rut or haven’t opened my draft in a while, social media kindly won’t let me forget what I really want to do. And speaking of that creative slump? My Instagram feed is there to remind me that it won’t last forever and that I’m not the only one experiencing it.
These outlets for community were the beginnings of a very real rebirth in my writing life, and I am so excited for what’s coming in 2024.
Looking ahead with intention
When I reflected on my past year of writing revival, I found three words to describe it: rediscovered, fragile, timid. While those second two don’t represent the empowered writer I want to be, they are honest reflections of the current state of my writing life. So when I thought about what I wanted 2024 to mean for my writing, I thought about how I wanted to feel by the end of the year (not what I wanted to do).
In 2024, I want to feel convicted in what I write; connected to my writing self, the writing community, and my reader; and fresh with ideas, motivation, and energy. This year I’m letting those experiences guide how and what I write. I jotted down a little of possible writing projects and possible action steps to get me started on creating those feelings in my writing life on a regular basis.
Rediscovering my writing life was the biggest gift I didn’t even think to ask for, and I’m going to nurture it over this next year.
If this process is something that sparks your interest, you’ll want to do two things:
Listen to episode 17 of The Memoir Method Podcast where I go even deeper into my writing reflections and intentions.
Sign up for Identity: A Writing Intentions Workshop. This experience will take you through the exact process I applied to reflect on my writing year and set resonant intentions. Workshop participants receive a custom workbook as well as a 10-day integration practice.
