In fact, I wrote this post when I was not in the mood to write! So you already have the proof - you can still create good quality content that is useful to the others even when you are not in the mood to write!
So you are not in the mood to write. I get it. There are days when you just don’t feel like writing. You might be overwhelmed. You might be tired. You might be bored with your “routine”.
Or there will be just no reason for you to be so! You are just not in the mood to write, right? No explanations needed!
Well, but you have a business to run. You have a blog that needs to be updated; newsletters that need to be scheduled! Social media updates that need to go out. Guest posts, that free e-book, that report, and that Kindle e-book that you’re planning to launch in a month - all of these scream at you for attention.
So what are you going to do? Pass this day with the “excuse” that you are not in the mood to write? Stay in the couch with your favourite movie? Or are you going to step out of your comfort zone, pull up your sleeves, and create something useful?
Well, if you are lazy to write, that is a different story. I can advice you to push and push! But you are not in the mood, you poor thing! What am I going to tell you?
I’ve got something to tell you actually! Let’s open up.
Tame your writing muscle
You might have already heard that - writing is just like exercising. The more you write the better you get at it and the easier it becomes.
When you walk on the treadmill or hit the gym for the first time, you would feel muscle cramps for the first couple of days.
But then once you start doing things consistently, you get more and more energy. You don’t get muscle cramps anymore. You don’t feel exhausted at the end of the session but the more sessions you do the more energised you become. The more you exercise, the lesser you find yourself seeking excuses to skip a session!
Am I right?
The same concept works with writing too! By exercising more, you are taming your muscles. You train them to tolerate more and to push more. You train your muscles that it is “OK” to be worked up. And then you know you have successfully tamed them when you don’t get the cramps anymore and when you are pumped up.
Writing works similarly. When you practice it in a regular manner, the more you write, the better you get at it. And when you have successfully tamed your brain muscles (and also your finger bones?!) you will find that you don’t feel uncomfortable or feel stressed about having to write when you are not in the mood to do so.
In fact, you won’t encounter a “not in the mood to write” moment!
Writing will become your casual habit. You won’t need a “perfect” condition to start writing and you won’t find excuses for not to write. Your writing muscles will be so trained that you can just write in any situation.
If you are not in the mood to write, no problem! You will still manage to write anyway. And let me point out that this tip is the main reason I am writing this post right now while I am not in the “mood” to write (or do any kind of serious work for that matter).
Consistency is the key
Just in close connection with what I said about taming your writing muscle, consistency helps with getting serious about your writing. When you consistently write, you naturally get to tame your writing muscle! And writing becomes a casual habit to you.
Apart from this, doing something consistently will help with scaling your efforts. Be it publishing blog posts on your own blog, or guest blogging or doing something differently, you can only start to see scalable results, if you do that for a consistent amount of time, right?
One guest post on a big blog will only give you a spike in the traffic and a spike in the number of subscribers. But when you do it consistently, you can build your own kingdom in the blogosphere. That’s the power of consistency.
There are two ways in which consistency can help you with “writing when you are not in the mood”:
(i) When you develop the habit of writing consistently, you tame your writing muscle and you don’t have to have the mood to write!
(ii) When you write consistently you will have enough material to cover you for days when you are not in the mood.
Even though there are 2 options I always find (i) to work more effectively than (ii). But both of them do work and are direct benefits of writing consistently.
So how do you develop a habit of writing consistently?
I can give you many tips on this. But the primary tip is this - Just write everyday, no matter what! It doesn’t have to be stellar writing. It doesn’t have to be the content for a novel.
Over the time you will just casually write a blog post. But when you start, you may not be able to use all of your writing - that is OK. The most important thing here is to WRITE EVERYDAY.
Do this consistently for a few days (I don’t know, 12, 27 or 30 days!) until you make it a habit.
“I don’t have the time” is not an excuse! You have to make the time to write.
Break the routine
So you are not in the mood to write! May be your “routine” is making you feel bored. Do you always write on your working desk? May be that’s what is boring you!
Or do you always work on the couch? You should try writing in a different room in your house.
Do you spend a lot of time writing/working in your home? You should try the nearest coffee shop, or a different location that you can think of!
Just change the location. Your mind will feel fresh and you will get into the mood. Many times boredom blocks your writing ability. So just make sure you don’t let yourself to get bored easily.
Take a lot of breaks. Change your working schedule to your liking (that is the plus of being an entrepreneur, right?)
Travel a lot. This keeps your mind fresh and clears the blocks. You can kick boredom in the butt when you travel a lot and feed your mind and eyes with new things (be it location, projects, people - whatever!).
Be prepared for rainy days
Lastly, let’s face - sometimes you are just not in the mood! Even after all this, you still might not feel like writing. I call these days as rainy days.
You just have to let go. You just have to let yourself take a break. Be nice to yourself and don’t push too much.
At the same time, make sure you are prepared for rainy days. When you don’t write one day, then you might have missed that day’s chunk of writing. And that might reflect somewhere in your output.
When you don’t write one day, you might not have the material for your blog post. Or you might have to skip the newsletter. Or you might have to postpone your guest post.
So on days when you are pumped up with motivation and zeal, make sure to go a step or two ahead and do some extra writing. More importantly, have an editorial calendar and stick to the schedule. This way you can easily prepare your blog posts ahead.
Even if you miss writing in one or two rainy days or on days when you are unwell, you can still have yourself covered.
Wrapping up
What do you do on days when you don’t feel like writing? Again, I say this - if you are lazy about writing, that is a different story and the tips I shared in this post might not apply to you.
This post is for you if you usually do good at writing, but sometimes you find yourself to be not in the mood to write. In that case, these tips will surely help you - these tips come from my personal experience; especially #1 is my favourite.
Do you encounter “I’m not in the mood to write” days? If so, how often? Do you find these tips useful? Or at least does any of these make sense to you?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Ugh…I fail miserably in this department. I always seem to be not in the mood but when I get inspired, I could pump out 5k words. It’s rare though which is why I’ve been “trying” to build a habit of writing daily. It’s just….HARD. It’s like waking up early for me! Haha!
Look at my blog, it’s like 1 post a week. I could barely chuck them out LOL!
My initial optimistic goal back then was 5 PER WEEK. Guess that ain’t happening anytime soon!
I do appreciate the tips Jane. I promise Ill keep working on it and applying your tips.
Hey Dennis I totally get you
I was like that before - used to write 5000 words one day and then nothing for two weeks lol. But consistency is important in a business - that only can provide you with scalable results.
I hope you hit your goal. Good luck!
Let me say something here Dennis, and sorry for coming in-between Jane
Your one post is a killer post Dennis, which is worth much more than those daily posts people put up, so you do that one well and you are good to go
Feel free to share your opinion Harleena
I appreciate that!
Really good post! This problem is something that every blogger will face at certain point. It will probably be during first couple of years, until you get some routine, establish yourself as a writer etc. What can also have an impact on your mood for writing is how pleased are you with everything you’ve done so far? For example, if you expected that your posts will reach to more people than they actually did it can affect your mood. You won’t feel so inspired for writing the next post.
At the end, whoever faces this problem should know that it’s something that happened to all of us and you just need to find a way to get over it.
Nice post different from the regular posts is seen here.
The main problem with the most of the bloggers is this procrastinatiion.I hope by following these tips would help me avoid procrastinating.Thanks for the post
Hi Jane,
Great post here.
Taming your writing muscles - that point is spot on. WHen you write more, the better you become.
I write every single day … I work on new posts, update posts that’s been sitting in the draft section, etc. Because I know that in order for me to get better, I have to practice my craft. And the more I do it, the easier and faster it becomes.
Also, your prepare for a rainy day point is good as well. I currently have 48 drafts and when I don’t feel like writing or aren’t in my blogging groove. So I think I’m good for a while.
Great points.
- Andrew
48 drafts is a great thing Andrew. That should cover you for a while! Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts here
Hi Jane
Is it a post or truly a magic trick that must work if someone follows all the tips mentioned in this wonderful article. I can’t believe you were not in the mood to write while writing this post. Even if I believe you are true, how awesomely you must be writing when you are in the mood.
It is very right that practice makes a person perfect. You must also be knowing that the most wonderful post on how to write a good post was published on CopyBlogger a few years ago. Its lengthy was simply 450 words and nothing else in it except just one advice in repetition to write more and more to become a great writer.
Consistency is also must to develop a habit first and then make it a casual happy. A good writer is one who don’t wait for any kind of arrival of thoughts and explore the required thoughts to convert them into words for the guidance of his readers.
Thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful post of great value.
Hey Mi, yes I actually wrote this post when I am not in the mood - believe me
As I say tip #1 is the main reason it happened to me. I find myself writing more and more easily everyday as I keep writing.
Of course I was not able to do it in a day! It took quite some months of practice - consistency is the key to form a habit
Thanks for your comment.
Hi Jane,
I agree with Muba here, tough to imagine you weren’t in the mood to write when you wrote this one
But you are right, when one’s not in the mood, it really gets tough to put your heart and mind into your work - the words just don’t flow when there is no will I would say. The only way I get to it daily is by sitting to write, like making it a daily ritual, and it works best for me that ways.
Once you have a schedule, you will get down to it, no matter what. I don’t always write posts or articles! Oh no…writing can be anything - like newsletter, ideas, small snippets, emails, comments, and forums.
Speaking of much, nowadays I am spending a LOT of time doing up the forum on my blog and taking care of the growing community there. So, to encourage new members, I visit ALL their blogs, read, comment, and share their posts. That’s very much part of writing! At least for me it is as my comments turn pretty long…lol…
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice, rest of the week
Harleena, can’t deny the fact is commenting on other blogs is absolutely part of writing. It IS writing. In fact I see blog commenting as a form of guest blogging
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views here. More power to you in building your forum!
Nice information…
To be truthful, I am not in the mood right now. LOL. I wasn’t even going to read this post, but decided to click on it anyway because of your good track record.
I think breaking my routine is the best advice for me right now - even changing my location. That is what I am going to try anyway.
Thanks again, Amy
Thanks for giving my post a chance to get read by you when you were not in the mood
Yes moving away from the routine desk helps a lot!
Hi Jane
I am laughing myself out. I can’t believe that you weren’t in the mood of writing, yet you came out with this awesome post.
You are right that consistency is the key and breaking the routine is a great benefit to writers. I have decided to break my routine so I write anywhere that an idea hits my head; thanks to smartphone.
What a great post. Thank you for the insight.
Hey Awazie, glad that you found the post useful even if I had written it when I am not in the mood. Consistency definitely helps to scale one’s efforts!
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Jane,
4,000, 5,000 or 6,000 words or more, I write daily. No excuses. I take days off from working but usually 1 a week, and even then, I get in at least a few thousand words. Writing for me is like brushing my teeth. It’s a habit. I don’t think about it. It’s routine at this point, and it’s my joy to write.
I agree 100% with these tips and totally vibe with the advice; just write already. We have writing muscles. Write daily to flex them, and make writing a habit. If you’re not in the mood you’ll still write, no problems, to churn out A1 content.
Ryan
Yup a habit just like brushing teeth, I agree! It was initially hard for me to get into that habit. I was dragging my feet to write even 500 words a day! Heck, I was not even writing everyday.
But once I got into that habit, things started rolling and now I don’t even feel that I am writing everyday. It has become a casual habit and it feels strange if I don’t write one day
Great stuff Jane.
Not in a mood - Covered almost 3k words.
What if you are in a Mood? - XXXX words
I think this post is going to change everyone’s mind.
Glad you liked the post Abdul! Thanks for your comment
Bhanu says
Nice post after reading this way of thinking is completely changed thank you so much…. I also have a blog and yu ll find latest technology updates and blogger tips (TECHBULK) Thanks for giving this oppurtunity @admin
Hi Jane,
Its simple but awesome post. Truly speaking, I was not in mood to write anything while reading your post, but wanna write something now. Your ideas are brilliant and yes, regularity is the key to improve our writing talent.
You’re very exact at the 3rd point. My routine home job always make me to feel tired and I used to change my working time to write better. Sometimes, I take power nap to get refreshed. I do agree with your other points too.
You ideas to write when not in mood are executable, will try to follow them
kanagu says
This is a test comment
Thanks for the comment!
dicks says
I am always not in a mood to write, but I will follow your rule to be consistent and hopefully one day my mood will turn around.