What kills your mood? What do you do to get yourself back in the mood? For several months now, my mind has just been coming up with new story idea after new story idea. Then suddenly, a couple of days ago, it all stopped.
Sometimes I need to fill the well. Take a break from writing and do some reading for a change. Erotica, history, Wikipedia, whatever works.
It's very easy to get in a vicious cycle with artistic work. You have a bad day (it happens!), so you try twice as hard the next day. Instead, you end up forcing it, which backfires. Now you have 2 bad days in a row, and you try even harder, and it backfires even harder, and now you have 3 bad days. Or, alternatively, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. You have a bad day. The next day your motivation is low because you expect another bad day. Maybe you don't even start working at all. That makes it a bad day, and now you have 2 bad days in a row, and with every bad day that passes it becomes harder to get back in the saddle. So yeah, "relax, take a break" is great advice. I've had weeks during which I was just not feeling it. And that's totally fine! It's just a hobby.
Tiredness kills my mood more than anything else, and there's not much that can be done about that save from rest and sleep, but that's not always possible with a hectic schedule. I've learned to go with the flow, if I'm tired, I just don't bother trying to write. I've long since given up trying to force things, I let the muse dictate when I can be creative, and if she's not visiting me then I try and tempt her by reading lots or scouring Deviant Art for pics that might inspire me. Sooner or later she always returns, and then I make hay while the sun shines.
I seem to have the opposite problem. I'm most creative while I'm under stress. It's when I have other things I have to do, that's when I want to write most. When I'm finally home and have nothing I have to do, my creativity fades away.
Seriously, I just put in a full shift at work where throughout my shift, I kept thinking about things I wanted to write. The moment, I got home, my brain shut down and I watched Youtube like a zombie.
I try very hard to write something every day, even on those days where I'm to tired and I'm not forcing it, I'll go in and maybe edit my story or something and try to add a few sentences. Even if it's just two hundred words of crap, it's not wasted, I'm keeping the muscle memory in shape. When you get home, before you put youtube on, try and force yourself to spend just half an hour writing, even if it doesn't produce something worth keeping. In time this will lead to longer more productive writing sessions.
I find keeping a schedule a big help. But then I was pretty burnt out at the end of Lois Lane's Night Out.
Strongly agree with both of you. Just starting is half the battle, but forming a habit is even better. If writing becomes part of your daily routine, then you get rid of the tough moment when you have to make the decision whether to write or not. That decision point is the moment your lizard brain can get in the way and say "why not just doomscroll for 2 hours instead?", which is the dangerous question you want to avoid.
