racoma.netI love to write. I write to live. I live to love.

There’s a sense of loss and frustration that comes when a person starts writing for a living. In a way, it takes out the enjoyment even from that one thing that you love doing. They say that if you choose a job you love, you will never have to work a day in your life. But one way or another, the stress gets to you, the pressure gets to you, and sometimes even people get to you.

You get burned out.

But you cannot always remain stuck in a rut. Sure, if you’re a creative genius you can take a hiatus from writing for two years, and get that masterpiece published when you get back on track, and you will probably earn both the critical and commercial acclaim that you feel is due you. This isn’t always the case, though, especially if you’re a regular Joe trying to squeeze out your creative juices every day just so you can pay the bills, send your kids to school and save up for retirement. Sometimes you have to compromise creativity and settle for something satisfactory, yet not always the perfect and ideal situation.

I’ve been through this kind of predicament several times, and I’m thankful I have so far always come out of it a better person. What do I do? Here are a few things I’ve tried.

Take a break. Writing can sometimes take much effort. Sometimes, you just let your mind ramble on and on while your fingers deftly twiddle with the keyboard. Sometimes your brain just stops churning out intelligible thoughts. When this happens, I try to take a break. Sometimes it’s just for a quick 15-minute nap. Sometimes it’s just a five-minute break to stretch my back, arms and fingers. Sometimes I sleep it off altogether.

Do something else. When I get tired from writing, I take the opportunity to do other tasks, like brew a pot of coffee, take a shower, wash the car, or just about anything. This helps me in two fronts. First, it takes my mind off what I’m currently doing, which consequently makes me think about other things–things that I might ultimately be able to relate with what I am working on. Second, I sometimes get inspiration to think about other ideas that might be good to work on at a later time. The challenge here is keeping track of these ideas.

Drive. Or basically just go elsewhere! My wife and I love just driving around. But since gas is so expensive these days, we make sure we go out and drive when we actually have somewhere to go. I realized how enjoyable running errands can be, especially if you get to spend the time with loved ones. Just being on the road, we talk about a lot of things. We also talk about what we observe around us–the people, the places, the cars! Sometimes we just take a stopover at open houses and take a tour. Boy, that could be fun.

Read. This should probably be a given already. You are as good a writer as the material you read. I believe a person’s writing persona is a synthesis of the things he reads. It’s like how a singer or songwriter is influenced by other singers and songwriters, or like how a painter is influenced by other artists. Similarly, what you write and how you write is also brought about by influences from various media. Actually, you can even be better if you are able to improve on these influences. You’ve probably run out of ideas, so it’s a good thing to read up. Sometimes you get inspiration. Sometimes you find great references. But many times what’s important is that you get to see the world through the eyes of someone else from his or her words.

Great writing is brought about by a good mix of talent and discipline. Discipline is an attitude, a state of mind developed through the years. But talent can sometimes be fickle. Sometimes it’s there, but sometimes it fizzles out. When you get burned out, try to refresh, relax and rethink.

image credit: flickr/digitalparadox