Tuesday, May 24, 2011

When the words dry up


The question posed by the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog this month was: "What do you do when you lose your writing mojo?"
 
This topic hits home with me.  The mojo disappeared several months ago, and I haven’t figured out how to get it back.  This isn’t writer’s block – I could pound out words, and did for weeks after the problem started.

I’ve completely lost faith in my writing.

The story is dull, the carefully outlined plot is boring, the voice is as flat as a C-movie robot’s.  I bore myself.

Still, I’m not willing to completely give up.  I turned to a non-fiction project, and I’m currently in the third draft.  Since it’s an academic project, I’m not worried about voice.  It’s running long, but I’ve decided not to worry about that either.  Yet, anyway.  I’ll break it into two parts, most likely, assuming I find an agent or publisher.  I’m not thrilled about self-publishing, but I could go indy.

Once I finish my non-fiction project, I hope my creativity will return.  It’s happened before.  Or I might just decide that non-fiction is my strength, and I’ll sit back to read and enjoy other writers’ fiction.  I refuse to give up, but I am willing to be realistic.

What do you do when you lose your writing mojo?