23
Why do you need to force yourself? Is there a deadline?
Normally I never force myself.
this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2026
23 points (89.7% liked)
No Stupid Questions
47709 readers
592 users here now
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.
All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.
Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.
If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.
Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.
If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.
Credits
Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!
The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
80% of the bullshit you come up with when you're not having a flash of inspiration is still good enough to fill the gaps over. You just want to make sure it's thematically consistent with the core idea you had. And also have a solid editor
A poet friend once advised me: "it's not your guts, don’t make it precious to you, just write what comes, it's not identity or possession, mine it later for good bits".
Write garbage for a few minutes when you start. Plan on throwing that away. Warm up. Stretch the brain then put it to work. It's low risk.
Stephen King has stated multiple times in his musings (especially when speaking about the dark tower saga) about the importance of just writing. Not liking/loving/etc just doing a lot of it. Just write.
“Don't wait for the muse. As I've said, he's a hardheaded guy who's not susceptible to a lot of creative fluttering. This isn't the Ouija board or the spirit-world we're talking about here, but just another job like laying pipe or driving long-haul trucks. Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you're going to be every day from nine 'til noon. or seven 'til three. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later he'll start showing up.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Inspiration and motivation can be fleeting in all aspects of life, and so discipline can be more reliable.
Some progress is better than no progress.
When I was younger there was a hot new book called The Artist's Way. I never finished it, I don't even know if I would recommend it, but one of the practices it recommends is morning pages, and morning pages helped me.
What you do is you get a pen and a notebook, and write three pages every morning. If you miss a morning, wait til next morning and write three pages. It doesn't have to be good or even sensical. A lot of my early morning pages were line after line of "I don't want to do this, this is bullshit, I'm just kiiiiiiiilllllllling trees and wasting space this is dumb". Eventually I got bored of writing that stuff and started writing other things, but it took a long time.
The trick is you gotta do it every day, even on days you don't want to. No one but you can make you write so if you don't do it, you won't do it.
I’m a professional writer and this is the way. You’ve just got to force yourself to write. Even if it’s nonsense. Even if you don’t want to. Especially if you don’t want to.
People ask what the difference is between a professional writer and an amateur. Some might say it’s getting paid, but that’s not true - plenty of professional writers don’t get paid. The difference is discipline. When you’re a professional writer you need to be able to turn it on every single day, even when there’s not an ounce of inspiration in your body.
Just like when you feel like not doing anything else, you just get going and sometimes just starting anyway pays off and you get into a good flow
Are we talking fiction or non-fiction? Obligated writing (school, work) or voluntary writing (journaling, fun)? Getting over a hump (dealing with writer's block) or getting started in the first place?
It's really hard to give advice without knowing the context of the problem.
I just got into a habit. I listen to the same few playlists, sit with my coffee in the same chair, keep distractions away from me (out of arm's reach) and I write. It was hard to keep up for a while at first, but now it's not so hard even on 'off days'. Usually, I just turn those into revision days. I also take breaks so I don't burn out, toooooooo hard.
Try recording yourself talking about the subject out loud in private. Like, in a car. I use a program called audacity to make a transcript, then I take parts I like to write. I find it's easier to talk about things than write when experiencing block.
A lot of it is repetition, and showing up every day with a quota to fill. The other part is not overthinking everything and letting your ideas flow freely.
Just write anything. Eventually you start to have ideas of how to build on what you started. The real trick is understanding that a first draft is supposed to be bad. Don't worry about doing it right. Do it first. Then clean it up later.
Set a timer. Sit. Write bullshit until timer yells.
The secret seems to lie in not giving a shit what you write.
You just do it. I've written 2 novels and half way through my 3rd. You just crack on and develop the ideas you have as you go. It's a long process with plenty of rewriting and editing, but you end up with something intricate that you have crafted.
- Write a word. Any word will do. Is there a synonym that is more in line with what you're (supposed to be) writing? If so I replace it. If not, that's fine.
- Expand it into a sentence. Again, anything will do.
- Does this connect to what you're (supposed to be) writing? If so, perfect. If not, that's fine.
- Expand into a paragraph.
- Proofread, refine, and focus in it being a quality paragraph.
- Can it be rewritten to fit into what you're (supposed to be) writing?
- If yes, add it to your writing. If not, you are at least warmed up now. File it in case you're later writing something else where it fits.
Repeat if necessary
...that's usually how I get my creativity going, even if I do not feel inspired. I've found that motivation and inspiration out of nothing is rare. But once you're writing something, anything, you're at least getting into the right headspace.
How do you go shopping if you are not hungry?