For When You Feel Like You Can't Write

Think about the little things.

Hi friends.

I have been thinking about you, us, how we are all doing right now. So I am just sending out a small pep talk here for those of us overwhelmed by the state of the world and feeling disconnected in part (or in whole) from our creative selves.

How can I write, we think. With all of this going on.

I write this for those of us who are distracted, unmotivated, or generally too frazzled to go anywhere near our notebook or computer. You have momentarily diverged from the creative road. You are walking in the gutter parallel to it, or perhaps through darkened tunnels where you can’t see the end, or maybe overgrown woods, pushing branches out of your face as you move toward the edge of nowhere.

I know that you know this, but I’ll repeat it once again: Writing will make you feel better. It will help release stress or tension in your life. Your day will go a little more smoothly if you can just write down a few ideas. Catch your breath. Capture a few feelings.

What I want for you is to return to the well-grooved path of your words. It didn’t go anywhere. It’s still there. It’s always there.

You can start small, just to get yourself back on the page. You can write about the smallest noises or smells or sights from your life. You can document the quietest moment from your day. Think about nothing but that. Describe it, detail it. Focus on something tiny and personal and intimate. Something you saw on a walk or on your daily commute. Something you have actively observed. This is what we do as writers. We take in the world around us. Not just the big dramatic scenes. But the little things. The little things matter, too. You matter. We all matter.

Sit down and do that for a while. There. You have written.

Stay steady,

Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on bluesky and instagram.