The idea of producing one more thing, one more word, one more social media post, or one more query attempt makes you want to cry.

You wonder how this thing you loved morphed into something so draining?

You are not alone, writer.

You are likely experiencing creative burnout or are damn close to it.

Being a Writer Is Taxing

Burnout is a buzzword these days and for good reason. We live in a fast and stressful world.

Creative burnout means there is no gas in the tank and no energy to push the car to the next service station.

It’s a state of mental, physical, and emotional fatigue brought on by chronic levels of excessive stress, and recovery can take months or even years.

We often take for granted the incredible amount of mental energy writing requires, not to mention all the things one must learn to put those words into the hands of readers. That something so thrilling and adventurous could one day exhaust us doesn’t seem possible.

So you commit to doing all the things you believe a successful writer does: Grow your platform, learn marketing, be consistent with social media, make meaningful connections, learn the skills, enhance the skills, read the books, focus on the craft, listen to the podcasts, sign up for newsletters, take the workshops, take the ads course, join the community, write the story, rewrite the story, rewrite the story again, find an editor, plan the next story, write blog posts, build a website, schedule newsletter swaps, make the time to write, sacrifice sleep all while juggling the rest of life–the day job, the family, the partners, the pets, the finances.

Suddenly you realize you’ve gained 15lbs, you’re isolated and unhappy, or worse–you’re resentful. You resent both the writing and anything that gets in its way.

You put all your eggs in one basket and every one of them feels broken.

Creative Burnout Can Happen to Anyone

This is exactly what happened to me at the end of 2022.

On January 1st of 2023, a day that is supposed to be filled with the excitement of embracing new possibilities (or nursing a hangover), I woke up tired. Bone tired and I couldn’t blame it on a good time. The idea of dragging myself to the computer for any reason hurt. It physically hurt. I wasn’t creatively blocked—I was broken. My creative energy (which I define as my ability to make something new) was tapped out. I still wanted to write my stories, still wanted my work—I just didn’t want it to kill me anymore. Something had to change.

When you become pain aware, you naturally seek the cause. For me, that was easy. I was the problem. Well, not exactly. More like my thinking, which led to my actions, was the problem.

My creative ambition, drive, and need to succeed had backfired.

This may not be true for everyone experiencing creative burnout. Sometimes things happen we cannot control and have no hand in creating. Life can throw cruel curveballs.

Personally, I had to figure out how to stop taking on too much, working too hard, and denying myself any semblance of balance. For this, I got help. I turned to resources like Becca Syme’s Dear Writer, Are You Are In Burnout?, James Clear’s Atomic Habits, and Steven Kotler’s The Art of Impossible. 

From those blessed books and the help of folks who loved me, I began to find my way out of the abyss. Slowly. As I write this, I’m still emerging from the muck, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I feel more like myself than I have in a long time.

Here’s the process I used to begin my recovery, which involves phases to first protect and then gradually enhance creative energy.

If you are in a space where it hurts to create and yet you feel you can’t stop because the cost is too high, I sincerely hope this helps.

Three Phases of Recovery from Creative Burnout

The Admission Phase: Identify the contributing factors and their root causes to prepare for surrender.

What are you doing that hurts and why are you doing it? In short—get honest.

My inventory included over-committing and not asking for help, which led to sacrificing sleep, working every extra second, and ignoring my mental and physical health.

The cause: Lack of trust and need for control driven by fear of failure and a misguided belief that I “should be there instead of here.”

Now, I don’t like not having control and the idea of surrendering is hard to swallow. This is where humility comes in. I had to ask myself, “Is what you’re doing now working?” Uh… no.

Okay, Pride, next question: “If the process you’ve got isn’t working and is causing you pain, don’t you think it’s time to try something else?”

Begrudging head-nod from me.

Okay, there’s the willingness needed to move to the next phase.

The Surrender Phase: Otherwise known as pause, rest, reset, and lower expectations.

Sometimes you just need to stop all the things or at least all the things you can. Sometimes your body forces you to—control or not, it hits the brakes.

Personally, I let go of creative commitments. I quit marketing my book. I dropped work back to the bare bones. It sucked. At first, I was embarrassed. I didn’t want to let go of those goals, didn’t want to admit defeat, but doing so gave me room to breathe and think about how I wanted my life to go, and because of that, I moved into the next phase.

The Slow Rebuild Phase: (For which I give credit to Steven Kotler and The Art of Impossible)

Here’s where you slowly begin to get it together again, correcting and healing from what derailed so you can adopt a better process. This phase is ongoing for me and I’ve found it has three parts that work in tandem.

1. Protect your feel-good mechanisms and take care of yourself.

Find ways that naturally elevate your mood and take care of your body.

Get adequate sleep, make the damn doctor’s appointment for the check-up, drink a cup of water for crying out loud, do an exercise you enjoy, fuel your body adequately (no, cookies are not adequate, Stacy), be in nature, lean into gratitude, and practice mindfulness, journal.

I know this sounds like another laundry list of to-do’s, but these matter. A healthy body, mind, and spirit are the keys to your creative juice. And if you need to seek medical and or therapeutic advice, please do so. Don’t hesitate.

Have I done all this perfectly? Hell no. Changing all things at once is a recipe for changing nothing. Pick a couple or only one to start.

2. Make non-negotiable silence and alone time a priority. Steven Kotler terms this “non-time.”

You’re off the grid now. You have time to think, process, and feel. Finding these precious moments is difficult, especially with littles at home, but it’s doable. Twenty minutes is enough to begin, an hour is optimal for me. To make room for this, I wake up earlier but I go to bed earlier now, so I don’t sacrifice my sleep to do it.

Non-negotiable alone time also means not checking my phone first thing in the morning. Instead, I dedicate the minutes to journaling, meditating, and reflecting.

This alone time refuels me and opens my eyes to different perspectives.

3. Set up creative boundaries and slowly reboot your productivity system.

Say no. Unsubscribe. Unfollow. Delete the podcasts. Delete the apps. Pause the notifications. Unclutter your proverbial plate. Let go of all the items on the mental back burner that you have no time for now and won’t in the next six months.

When you’re ready, re-start a gentle writing routine and do your best to incorporate a spirit of play and discovery.

For me, this has been 30 minutes four mornings a week (included in my 60 minutes of non-negotiable alone time.)

I try (and succeed more than I fail) to get 7 hours of sleep. I don’t check my phone and all 600 notifications first thing, and I don’t start work at 3AM anymore.

One of the most eye-opening things I did was create a system to track my feel-good activities, moods, energy levels, and the days I wrote. It’s not fancy. Think bullet journal only messier, but I made a slick one for you. You can get your copy here. The goal was to see what activities boosted my energy and creativity the most. Hands-down exercise, sleep, and reading give me the most bang for my buck. When I do those things consistently, I’m refreshed and more ready to write.

Recovery from Creative Burnout Is Possible

Above all, see it as a lesson and not a failure. Easier said than done, especially when you are in the middle of the muck or the trigger was no fault of your own. Still, we must stand back up, however slowly, however shakily, and find a way to go again if writing is what we want to do.

We must honor the creative energy writing requires as well as all the other items on our plate, otherwise, we risk resenting what we love about our lives. So if you are where I was last year, I want to give you some hope. It can be okay again. Admit, pause, then take small steps to build healthy boundaries, fill the creative well, learn from mistakes (if you made them), and set yourself up for a brighter writing future.

Download The Write Habit: Creative Energy Tracker For Writers from Write It Scared to help you protect and enhance your creative energy. Live well and write better.

Stacy Frazer is a formerly repressed creative soul turned speculative fiction writer, YA fantasy author, Author Accelerator certified book coach, and the founder of Write It Scared. Her mission is to help fiction writers let go of the self-doubt spiral and find clarity and confidence in their stories so they can finish their books.

Stacy firmly believes that the only creative license required to write a novel is one’s lived experience and that you can learn all the tools to craft a book that makes you proud! When not writing, reading, or working with writers, you can find Stacy hanging with her daughter or on the trail with her big goofy labrador, Gus Gus.

You can find her on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Creative Burnout: How to Recover and Enhance Your Creative Energy appeared first on DIY MFA.

1. Craft your premise
2. Learn about your characters and uncover the story’s theme
3. Discover the world
4. Define the main conflict and plot
5. Choose your narrative structure 

Before diving in, examine why you want to write this book. Why are you willing to invest your energy and possibly years of your life into this idea? Dig for those answers and keep them close, because going from an idea to drafting a novel is a long and often arduous process. Remembering why you began and what it means to you will help reignite your fire when the writing gets hard.

What is a story? A quick review:

A story is an emotional experience. It follows a character who wants something badly, is willing to run the gauntlet to get it, and learns lessons that either change them internally, or the world around them.

A story contains five major elements: Character, Conflict, Plot, Theme, and Setting.

Think of the story as a container. The walls of the container are your setting. Inside, you have a character with a problem (conflict), and they go through a series of events (plot) to solve it. The problem, how they solve it, and who they become in the process speaks to the story’s message (theme).

Step 1: Craft Your Premise: 

A premise is the nutshell statement of your story that defines the main character, their world, their wants and motivations, and the obstacles they will face in pursuing their goal. A good premise is the first layer of a strong story foundation, and you will expand on it as you progress through the remaining steps of taking your idea to drafting, so don’t worry if some components are missing when you begin.

Example: How to craft a premise using a modified version of Pixar’s Plot Sketch Formula. 

There once was a __________ (descriptive characteristic, + emotional state/worldview) ________________(main character,) who lived in ____________ (setting) and wanted _________ (character desire at beginning of story).

One day the character’s life unexpectedly changed because of ____________ (event = inciting incident).

This event created a problem for the character, and because of this, the character wanted to _________ (new desire). 

But the _____________ (antagonistic force/ core conflict) stands in their way.

Let’s use the movie Shrek to fill in the blanks.

A rude, self-isolating ogre once lived in a peaceful swamp and wanted to be left alone. One day, a talking donkey and a host of unwanted fairytale creatures invaded his home. The ogre wanted to eliminate his unwelcome guests and confronted the King to regain his land. But the King refused unless the ogre agreed to rescue a princess from a dragon. 

Step 2: Learn about your characters and extrapolate the theme:

Identify your main character’s arc of change.

Characters create the story through their actions. Therefore, understanding what motivates them to act is essential.

Story is about change, especially character change. Understanding how your character will change internally will help define what the story is about (theme) and guide you in taking that idea to drafting your ending. 

How to shape your main character’s arc:

Beginning of the Arc: At the beginning of the story, before the main character’s life is turned upside down by that unexpected event, ask these questions to determine your character’s personality, flaws, and false beliefs. 

• What do they want for themselves? Why do they want it? 
• What do they believe they can’t have? 
• What beliefs do they have about themselves?
• What beliefs do they have about the people, places, and situations around them? What is the origin of those beliefs? 
• What are they afraid of physically and emotionally? How do they protect themselves?

If you are uncertain of your character’s beginning emotional state but know where you want them to end up, you can work backward. 

End of the Arc: Now ask what your character wants and believes because of the story events and lessons learned. How has this character changed from their baseline?

At the end of Shrek’s story, he wants to be with Fiona, embraces friendship, and believes love is worth the risk of rejection. 

A note on side characters and antagonists: 

Ask these questions of your main side characters, love interests, and antagonists. Consider how the relationships between your main character and other characters will evolve as the story progresses from idea to drafting your novel.  

Theme: 

The theme expresses what the story is about, the big takeaway for the reader. Many writers find the concept of theme obscure, but if we remember that the story is about change, we can simplify it. By defining the main characters’ arc of change, we can extrapolate the story’s central message, as with Shrek: love is worth the risk of rejection.

Step 3: Discover your character’s world.

The genre (the category of the book) you’re writing plays a great deal in how much worldbuilding you will need to do. Consider the world’s magical, technical, political, and socioeconomic factors, particularly if you write historical fiction, speculative, sci-fi, or fantasy. 

Read extensively in your genre. Focus on identifying how the world and setting add to the feel of the book. 

Questions to consider initially and build on: 

• Where does your character live? How do they feel about it? 
• When does the story take place? 
• How does the setting add to the tone of the book?
• How can elements of the setting cause problems for the main character or enhance the main conflict? 

Step 4: Define the main conflict and plot.

Conflict: Define the main conflict

Conflict creates change by forcing characters to act. After their life turns upside down, what big problem will the main character spend the rest of the book trying to fix? This represents the story’s core conflict, driven by the opposing or main antagonistic force. 

There are two types of conflict in a story: external and internal. Compelling stories need both.

External is the character struggling against an outside force, which can be another character, society, nature, technology, fate, or something otherworldly. 

Internal conflict is the character struggling against themselves. These are the character’s insecurities and moral dilemmas. 

The key is to create meaningful conflict in your story: craft external conflicts that put pressure on the character’s internal struggle; to do that, you must have done your character work. 

Plot: Map out the events in the story that manifest as a result of the main conflict.

As your character embarks on their adventure, you want them to face increasingly complex problems, which force them to make hard decisions to reach their goal. These problematic events are your plot, and each major plot event should progressively challenge the character internally and externally. 

For example, your character may need money to pay the ransom for their son, so they steal from their boss. But then the wolf shows up at the door to collect gambling debts, and they must choose their life or their child’s. 

You don’t need to know every single story event to start drafting. Still, if you pin down a few key moments where things get really tough for your character, it will give you a solid writing framework and force your character to make hard choices that advance the plot naturally. 

Key events to know before building on an idea to drafting: 

The first insult to the status quo of the character’s life (inciting incident): Creates the initial problem of the story that is linked to the plot. 

The first turning point: an event that results in the main character deciding to fully engage in the story’s plot to solve the conflict. 

The midpoint: the character suffers a false victory or defeat, and the stakes increase dramatically. 

Climax: How the character solves the main story conflict.

Resolution: The parting shot of the character’s life now that the conflict is solved, and they have embraced a new way of living (good or bad). 

Step 5: Choose your narrative structure

Decide who will narrate the story and how the information will unfold to the reader. Consider your story’s timeline and which POV and tense you will use, how many narrators you need, and how much they know about the story’s events. 

Don’t be afraid to test out different POVs and tenses. Find what fits your story, characters, and tone. 

Don’t be in a rush to write the story. Idea to drafting takes time.

Avoid false starts and frustrations by spending a little more time up front on the right things: premise, characters arc, world, conflict, plot, theme, and narrative structure. Following these steps will help you draft your novel with more context and confidence so you type those amazing final words: THE END. 

For more information on developing a story idea for a novel, download Stacy’s free e-book: First Draft Confidence: Workbook and Resource Guide.

Stacy Frazer is a formerly repressed creative soul turned speculative fiction writer, YA fantasy author, Author Accelerator certified book coach, and the founder of Write It Scared. Her mission is to help fiction writers let go of the self-doubt spiral and find clarity and confidence in their stories so they can finish their books. Stacy firmly believes that the only creative license required to write a novel is one’s lived experience and that you can learn all the tools to craft a book that makes you proud!
When not writing, reading, or working with writers, you can find Stacy hanging with her daughter or on the trail with her big goofy labrador, Gus Gus. To connect with Stacy, please visit her website: www.writeitscared.co. You can also email her at www.stacy@writeitscared.co or follow her on Instagram @WriteitScared.

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