There’s no rule that says once you’ve found a way of writing that works, you have to stick with it forever. The process that carried you through your last novel might not suit the next one. A method that works for the opening chapters might stall halfway through. Your writing process is allowed to change as you, and your stories, change.
Experiment with different processes. From book to book, from chapter to chapter.
Whenever you feel your writing life needs an injection of novelty, try a different approach to getting the words done.
There are so many ways to play with this. If you usually write on a laptop, try writing by hand. If you write in the mornings, try a late-night session. Swap your desk for a café, the library, the couch, or the backyard.
If you always plot, try discovery writing a chapter and see where it takes you. If you always write organically, try making an outline. Write in short timed sprints, or settle in for one long session. Write out of order. Write the scene you’re most excited about first. Change your music, your font, your software.
Some of these experiments will fail. That’s fine. Others might open up something new in your writing that you never would have found if you’d kept doing things the same way.
This can be useful when struggling with writer’s block or any time you’re feeling stagnant or uninspired.
Often when the words dry up, it isn’t because you’ve run out of ideas or lost your ability to write. Sometimes, the routine itself has gone stale, or your nervous system needs a sparkle of novelty and joyful experimentation. A small shift in how, when or where you write can be enough to wake your creativity up and get things moving again.
Treat your process as something to play with, not something to get right.
