How to Write When You Just Don’t Have the Motivation

By Sean Brenner

Writing can be fun, especially when it’s about a topic you’re passionate about. But no matter how much you enjoy it, there will be times when you just don’t have it in you to write. Maybe you’re tired. Maybe you just can’t muster up the motivation to be productive. Whatever the case, the result is the same: You don’t feel like writing, and trying to force yourself to do it anyway feels like pulling teeth.

Sometimes, this resistance is your body trying to tell you something. Maybe you need a mental health day, or you need to shift your schedule to do something that will give you energy and do the writing later. If one of these options is available to you, it’s worth considering. But when these options aren’t available, you just have to roll the hard six and get the work done. 

In this post, I’ll talk about my methods for writing when I don’t have the motivation.

Take the First Step

As I’ve written before, the blank page is intimidating, and defeating it is key to starting any manuscript. When you don’t have the motivation to write, the blank page is especially imposing, which is why it’s crucial to get at least something written down as soon as possible.

When you don’t have the motivation to write, writing even a paragraph can seem like an impossible task. Start smaller. How about a sentence? It doesn’t matter where in the manuscript that sentence eventually ends up; just string together some words into a usable combination, and start there. 

Once you have something down, you may find you’ve built up a little momentum, and you just need to keep building your manuscript from there. 

After setting down a sentence or two, I often need to pick one of two different approaches to keep moving. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, so it’s up to you to decide which seems best for you in the moment.

Break It Up

The first option is to continue tackling the project in small pieces. With that first sentence, focus on what comes next and build a paragraph out of it and then keep going. If you’re not sure where to go from that paragraph, write another single sentence that might appear anywhere in the manuscript and try to build a paragraph with it.

Take regular—but short—breaks between the pieces of your project. Once you’ve finished a paragraph, take a few minutes to do something else, and then move on to the next paragraph or sentence. Don’t take a break after each sentence, though. Too many breaks will prevent you from building momentum, and that will make the process harder.

This approach can make the task of writing seem more manageable, but it comes with the risk of distracting you and losing momentum. If that seems likely for you, then you might want to give the next method a try.

Maintain Momentum

The approach I use more often (and the one I used to complete this blog post) is the opposite approach. Sometimes, once I have a sentence or two written, it becomes much easier for me to keep writing. If you struggle to write intros, you might find that starting with a random sentence gives you this sort of boost; maybe you start in the middle of the manuscript, write to the end, and then come back to write the beginning. 

If that happens to you, harness that momentum. Avoid distractions as much as possible, and try to keep at it until you lose steam. The more progress you make, the less intimidating the work will seem when you come back to it later.

As the old saying goes, the only way out is through. Make what progress you can. Even if it doesn’t feel like it, you’re moving forward, putting one sentence after another. Sometimes that’s all we can do.