By Penny Reeve

There are days when being a writer is amazing! We write wonderful words. Lots of them. We make connections with an agent or publisher. They request our manuscript. Our beta readers love our writing. Our blog followers double. We attend conferences and come away with new friends, new directions, new inspiration, and truckloads of encouragement. Those are the good days. But…

There are also other days.

Days when the dream seems too hard. When the words don’t come and when they do, they read like rubbish. When platform building feels more like a curse than an opportunity, and readers won’t leave reviews. There are the hard days. The discouragement days. And whether or not the good days ‘outnumber the bad’ (to quote the Bard of Nottingham), knowing what to do in the face of discouragement is crucial.

Here are five strategies I’ve found useful when discouragement lurks alongside my writing life:

1) Bring your discouragements before God.

Set aside a block of time and lay the causes of your discouragement before our heavenly Father. Journal about your hopes and the disappointments at hand. Seek God’s perspective in the moment. Ask Him to show you what the next thing will be, even if it’s a little thing, a small obedience. Question yourself about where you have placed your hope, and if you feel you’ve misplaced your treasure (Matthew 6:21), seek ways to realign with Kingdom values. Depending on the level of discouragement, this might take more than one session, and may even need to become part of your writing routine.

2)  Connect with a writing friend who tells you the truth.

If you are anything like me, discouragement brings cynicism. This is why we need friends who tell you the truth, the whole truth. “But I need to hear encouraging things when I’m feeling down,” you may argue. Well, yes… but will you believe them? Discouragement has a tendency to distort the truth and focus on the negative. Which is why we need friends who can pull us up for self pity, tell us if something isn’t working and prod us to keep going, all because they believe in our writing so deeply. These are the friends we need when we are discouraged. Connect with them, listen to what they have to say and get back to work (even if it’s in bite-sized pieces).

3) Write something fun.

Sometimes discouragement comes because the writing we’ve been doing is hard work. We’ve edited until we dream in commas. We’ve submitted and been rejected so many times we’re doubting our ability. We need time to put aside expectations and deadlines and remember why we are writing in the first place! Write something fun, without fear of an appraisal. Try a new genre, write without punctuation, dip your toes in poetry. Write because you want to, not because you are aiming for perfection. Writing something fun can breathe new life into discouraged creativity.

4) Read something wonderful.

Another strategy to avoid discouragement is to delve into something wonderful and reemember why we love words and language. If you’ve been studying craft books and learning about good writing, skip the non-fiction and choose a beautifully written novel. Choose something from an author whose writing you admire, or a recent award winner. Kate DiCamillo is an author I return to regularly for this type of literary refreshment. I love her use of language and story. Reading her work never ceases to inspire me to keep striving, even when the work I’m doing is hard.

5) Make a plan.

Not only can discouragement hit hard, it can also swerve us off course. By deliberately creating realistic plans (even in small scale) we can continue making progress on writing goals despite the let downs. I recommend thinking ahead to this time next year and asking yourself two questions:

1. a) What one thing would you like to see changed in your writing life by then?
2. b) What do you need to do today/this week/this month in order to make that more likely?

For example: If I’d like to pitch a manuscript to an editor, I need to make sure I’m setting realistic goals for getting the writing done. If I’m launching a book, what can I do now to realistically engage with my audience in preparation. If I’d like to write a book on a new topic, where will I start my research?
Make a plan for what needs to happen this week – discouragement or not – to get to where you are headed.

Discouragement will come and go in a writer’s life. I believe it’s part of the course. The difference lies in how we face it and whether or not we let it have the last word.

Have you faced discouragement in your writing journey?

What inspires/encourages you to keep going?

I’d love to add your suggestions to my list of strategies for dealing with discouragement!

Penny Reeve (also writing as Penny Jaye and Ella Shine) is the award winning, Australian author of more than 25 books for children. She writes picture books, junior fiction, children’s Bible studies and young adult fiction. She has presented writing workshops on writing for children, as well as delivering a keynote, at Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. You can learn more about Penny and sign up for her email newsletters at www.pennyreeve.com