There’s a special kind of writing slump that sneaks up on people if they’re not careful. It’s sometimes not the one where you’ve got zero motivation, but the one where your words feel… stale. The same old metaphors. The same style. The same syntax. It becomes a formula of sorts and doesn’t feel fresh. It gets old.
I think a big culprit behind this is writing without reading.
When we only pour out words but never take any in, our writing starts to echo itself. It’s like talking to yourself in a room with no one else around. Eventually, you’ll run out of new things to say.
Reading gives life to your work. It stretches your brain into shapes you wouldn’t find on your own. You pick up little tricks without even realizing it. This could be a fun phrase, a surprising metaphor, or a way to pace a scene. Sometimes it’s not even about the writing itself but about remembering why you wanted to write in the first place. Books can also remind us of the wonder that made us pull out a pen or our laptop in the first place.
I didn’t read much throughout college and good gracious, it showed in my writing. Everything I wrote felt…Safe. The echo chamber became comfortable. Because, you see, a crappy side effect of not reading is sometimes not even REALIZING the echo chamber your writing is becoming until you sit down with a fresh pair of eyes and you find your own writing boring! It’s bland. It’s missing something. But when I began to pick up reading again (post college), I found writing easier and the quality better.
So if you’re in a slump, maybe the best cure isn’t another thousand words of pushing through. Maybe it’s picking up something off your shelf, letting someone else’s voice break through the echo chamber, and remembering that writing is, at its core, a conversation between you, your imagination, your inspiration, and your readers. And you can’t hold up your end of the conversation if you’re not listening, too.
Anyways, happy Tuesday, and thanks for dropping by and reading my little mini-rant.
K byeeee
By the Brooke 