There is no feeling quite like that of being super inspired. Your mind is bubbling over with amazing ideas. The plot bunnies won’t stop multiplying. You’d need to live another ten lifetimes to have a chance of writing all these cool books that you’ve just thought up plots for. The feeling of overflowing with creativity is amazing. But inspiration like is rare, and sometimes there are dry spells in your writing life where it can feel like you’re never going to have another original thought again. Maybe sometimes you start to wonder if you’re running out of new and fresh ideas. I know I have.
There have been times when I’ve been thinking over my writing and realised that I haven’t had a new plot bunny in months. I’ll look at all the books I dearly want to work on in the future, and realise that most of them are ideas I’ve already written at least a first draft for. I go to my files looking for fresh ideas, and there’s nothing new there. And then I start to wonder, are the ideas running out? Am I becoming somehow, less creative?
I don’t believe that’s true. I don’t think we’re ever going to run out of ideas. But I do believe that this feeling of being without ideas, and the worry about losing that spark of creativity is real. And I believe that there are some good reasons why we might sometimes feel that way.
Creative Burnout
Sometimes, if I’ve been working non-stop at a crazy breakneck speed for too long, I can start to burn out. It’s not that I’m becoming less creative, or that I’ve forgotten how to find beautiful new ideas. It’s that I’m exhausted. I’ve written so much and drawn on my creativity too much without giving myself time to replenish the well. At this point, I have to step away, take a break from writing and recharge my creative batteries for a while. Sometimes we have to stop and rest before the ideas will come flowing back.
This Stage Of Writing Isn’t Conducive to New Ideas
I don’t know if this is just me, but there are certain stages of the writing process where I feel inherently less susceptible to coming up with new book ideas. For me, this is usually during the editing stages, where I’m so focused on making what I already have work that I’m not in a head space where I’m ready to generate new ideas. I’m firmly in the ‘fix things’ space, and because of that I don’t tend to generate too many new book ideas. Usually when I finish editing though, the inspiration will come back.
Not Actively Recording Ideas
As writers, we tend to have ideas all the time. Just, sometimes we don’t always notice them. sometimes it’s just a sentence fragment, or a brief wondering about ‘what if this was to happen?’ But often we forget to write them down and so they drift away again. then, when we’re looking for new ideas to write, there’s nothing in the notebooks waiting for us and it can seem like we’re not coming up with any new ideas, or thinking any creative thoughts. Recording even the small ideas gives us a jumping off point when we’re looking for something to write at a later date. Plus, recording ideas as they come to you trains you to be actively aware of your inspiration and that can often have the effect of making you more creative, or at least feel more obviously creative.
The world is such so full of unique and interesting things that I don’t believe we’re ever going to run out of stories to tell and things to write about. Sometimes it might not feel that way and it might feel like we’re never going to have a good idea ever again, it’s important to remember that that isn’t true. It just means that maybe we’re not in a place that is very conductive to inspiration, whether because we’re out of practice looking for ideas, we’re burned out, or we’re just not in the right head space at the moment. Be patient. Take time to surround yourself with things you love and that make you want to create. You will get there in the end.
Do you ever worry that you’re running out of new ideas? How do you combat these feelings? Are there parts of the writing process that feel inherently less conducive to inspiring new ideas? Let’s chat!
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