An 8-step Guide to Healing from Burnout (and Falling in Love with Writing Again)

By L.E. Williams

What do you do when writing feels like a chore?

Imagine with me for a moment, dear writer. A writer, scrolling listlessly through a cluttered document of half-finished scenes and bare beginnings of ideas. Inspiration ran dry days—weeks—months ago. Brainstorming anything is nothing less than tedious, and writing feels more like pulling teeth than an expression of the creative spirit. 

Sound familiar?

Well then, you’re not alone. Because in that little example, I wasn’t describing you, my theoretical reader. I was describing myself.

You see, for quite a while (most of my collegiate career, to be exact), I stopped writing. To be sure, my gloriously massive Google Doc titled “story scraps” slowly grew over time, but from roughly July 2017 to April 2020, I simply…didn’t. 

Why bring up my years-long burnout? Well, dear writer, sometimes it helps to hear from someone who understands. Who’s been in your shoes, and come out on the other side of it. I promise you, dear writer, that writing can feel magical again. 

Perhaps, unlike yours truly, you haven’t had the experience of being burned out and uninspired for several years. Instead, maybe the act of writing has inexplicably felt flat and stale for some while, like an opened box of cereal forgotten on the bottom shelf. 

So, in this article, I offer some tips, tricks, and words of wisdom to help you recover from burnout and fall in love with writing again. 

1. Take a Step Back from Writing

The first step in recovering from burnout is to, seemingly counterintuitively, take a break. 

Okay, Elizabeth, I hear someone say in the imaginary audience, but I’m already on a break. I haven’t written anything for two weeks!

Yes, well, hear me out. 

Even if you haven’t written anything for days, weeks, or months, chances are you might still be “on duty” in your head. The words may not be flowing, but that doesn’t stop the nagging thought, “I should be writing,” running through your brain on an annoyingly constant basis. Or perhaps you have the burning desire to write, but the words simply aren’t coming. 

Whatever the case may be, consider taking a step back from writing for a spell. Take a break intentionally, restfully, and guiltlessly. 

Allow your creativity to breathe. It’s like resting a sore muscle or a sprained ankle—pushing your body beyond what it can reasonably bear more often than not damages it further. 

2. Immerse Yourself in Art and Stories

Now that you’re on a break, what do you do with all the time you were spending banging your head on the keyboard?

Well, one tip that has helped me immensely (seriously, I cannot emphasize how helpful it’s been) is to immerse myself in art and stories, especially ones that I already knew and loved.

Listen to music. Watch that gripping new Netflix show (or, you know, the new season of The Mandalorian). Re-read your favorite novel. Play a video game. 

This way, the part of you that hungers for beauty and creativity and stories can be filled up without feeling the pressure of having to create it. There is a time to give and a time to be filled, dear writer. Allow yourself to rest in this way too. 

3. Identify the Source of Your Burnout

This is both the easiest and most difficult step, dear writer. Self-reflection can be a difficult process, I’ve found (I’m an Enneagram 9, so I don’t know if that has anything to do with it), but remains a good and necessary work. 

Do you feel crippled by perfectionism?  (I have an article on that scheduled for later this November, so stay tuned.) Is school or work stressing you out? Are you afraid of rejection? Is there something in your life that’s giving you a lot of worry or pain? 

Any number of these things can cause even the most starry-eyed of writers to find their work dull and humdrum. Plus, regardless of your opinions on the subject, we are living in the midst of a global pandemic. COVID-19 is a heavy subject to have on the back of one’s mind even if you aren’t battling a creative burnout. 

Dig deep, dear writer. I won’t lie to you: it can be difficult and humbling, but getting at the heart of the matter now can save you a lot of time and heartache in the future. 

4. Invest in Your Spiritual Life

Regardless of what may be going on in your day-to-day existence, investing some time in your spiritual life is a step well worth taking. 

Now, I’m not saying that you just need to go and pray and your discouragement and burnout will magically get fixed. Life is unfortunately a bit more complicated than that.

Instead, refresh yourself with the knowledge that God loves you, and He’s proud of you.

Take a long walk and talk to God about your burnout—it’s okay to be frank or simply complain about it; I assure you He can handle it. Read some encouraging passages in the Bible. Listen to uplifting music—personally, I’ve found a lot of joy in Tenth Avenue North, the Oh Hellos, and Stella Stagecoach, to name a few. 

You are loved, dear writer. Perhaps, during this dry spell, you aren’t feeling that love at the moment. But regardless, it is there. Take refuge and comfort in that, my friend.

5. Dust Off a Beloved Manuscript

After you’ve taken a break from writing, filled yourself with good and beautiful things, and taken the time for a moment or two of self-reflection, the time will come where you find yourself wanting to pick up the pen again. (Or, more accurately, the keyboard, but that metaphor doesn’t carry quite the same “oomph,” don’t you think?)

Thus, as the first small step back into writing, consider returning to something already dear and familiar to you.

This could look like brushing off a story you’ve had sitting around in your metaphorical closet for the past five years. Or writing a scene from the point of view of your favorite character. Or picking up that piece of fanfiction about your favorite movie. Whatever particular thing fills you with happiness and excitement, no matter how small that feeling is—hold onto it, and use it.

6. Explore Unknown Territories

Perhaps you’ve tried returning to a project or character that you loved, but writing still feels like the creative equivalent of slogging through a mud puddle. Now what?

Well, maybe you’ve discovered that you might not be quite ready to start back at creating yet. In that case, start back at step #1 and go through the list again. (It’s quite handy that I put all my recommendations into a numbered list, is it not?) 

However, if you feel you are indeed ready, but your typical writerly scribblings aren’t filling you with joy, now might be the time to experiment with a different medium or genre. If you’re a novelist, perhaps try your hand at writing a screenplay or stage play. If you primarily write prose, try penning a poem or two. If your sci-fi adventure has felt like a roadblock lately, veer into fantasy or sci-fi. Venture outside and compose a haiku. 

Experimenting with something new is particularly useful if you find yourself often falling into the comparison trap. Chances are, you’re quite familiar with the conventions and clichés of your preferred genre, and that knowledge at this stage in the process often contributes to bogging down your creativity further. However, by trying something entirely new, you can circumvent this difficulty altogether and find freedom in the exploration of the unknown. 

7. Take the Pressure Off

My penultimate piece of advice for recovering from burnout and rediscovering your love for writing is to take the pressure off.

Now, what do I mean by that?

First and foremost, take away the expectation to make something good. In fact, I would recommend going a step further and push aside the goal to make something cohesive.

Instead, try picking the aspect of writing you like best and simply have fun with it.

Do you love writing dialogue? Try writing a conversation between two characters without any description whatsoever, or the bare minimum of description such as: “Character A picks up mug,” “Character B sits down,” “Character C pets cat,” etc., etc. Does worldbuilding fascinate you? Brainstorm ideas for a new society, or sketch out some intriguing costumes for a character to wear. Is writing description your jam? Write a paragraph without bothering with any of that pesky dialogue. Do you have the perfect idea for a scene, but no idea where it would fit into your current project? Write away without worrying about fitting it in.

Don’t be afraid to just write scraps and pieces, dear writer. This writing doesn’t have to go anywhere or be seen by anybody. There’s a time and place for showing people your work, but now might not be that time. Though, granted, having someone read your work and rave over it can be a much-needed confidence boost, in my experience, the very thought of someone looking over your work with a critical eye can just deepen the lack of motivation you might be feeling. 

Another specific exercise that helped me whilst I was in the deepest throes of my own burnout is something my English professor calls “freewriting.” The only rule with this activity is that you don’t stop writing, even if you’re at a complete loss for words. The idea is to keep your pencil always in motion, even if you’re scribbling nonsense. 

Create with reckless abandon, dear writer--just make. It can be the most cliched piece of fiction ever to grace the fair halls of Microsoft Word, but it will be something that you made. Take courage, and keep moving forward. 

8. Be at Peace with the Process

Be patient with yourself, dear writer. I know it can be frustrating to watch the days go by without any seeming progress on getting out of your writing slump, but deep down, you are healing. Recovering from burnout, like anything else, is a process. 

You won’t always be in the bogged down, uninspired place you might be now. Your words will come back, perhaps slowly, perhaps quickly, or perhaps somewhere in between, and it will feel like you’ve discovered the magic of creating words and stories all over again.

Right now, remember to keep taking good care of yourself, dear writer.  You are deeply loved by the One who gave you that creative spark, and deeply known. God has a plan for you, and your writing is a beautiful, important part of that plan, even if it feels flat and useless at the moment.

It will be okay. I promise. 

Have you ever experienced burnout? What tends to be your biggest cause of burnout? What is your go-to method to falling back in love with your writing?