The Problem: You can’t create.
Do you see yourself in one of the two characters below?
You’re a writer with a writing practice and a track record. You know how to do this. And you love to write. But recently, every time you face the page, you feel drained, anxious, and frightened. You feel frustrated and discouraged by the process—and by your own inability to write, even if you know you can do it, and even if you’ve done it before.
You know you have a creative side. You used to pour a lot of yourself into that, and it gave you joy. But the last several years you’ve let go of it—probably because of needing to find work! And be responsible! And make money! Now you find yourself suddenly tentative and apprehensive when it comes to…making stuff. You want to snap out of it, but you can’t help but feel nervous and embarrassed every time you try.
If yes, you might be blaming the wrong things.
The problem isn’t that you’re a bad writer, or that you “just somehow” suck at this work. It also isn’t that you’re lazy or unmotivated!
It’s probably one of the following:
You actually don’t have enough time.
You don’t have enough energy.
Your thoughts and emotions are getting in the way of your work (ex. stubborn perfectionism—even when you know it doesn’t need to be perfect)
You’re overwhelmed by external factors (ex. the publishing industry!!)
You’re not clear on what you’re working towards.
You don’t actually believe you deserve to write, or to have a writing life.
Okay—so what’s the solution?
Well—there’s no quick fix for this stuff. But there are some specific actions you can take to get somewhere better. And a lot of them are about increasing your emotional agency regarding the work of writing.
To help with all this, ideally, you would:
Understand the role your body plays in your stress and emotions.
Develop tools and methods for managing your energy—which creates time.
Recognize the story you’re telling yourself about writing—and revise it to make it not only more bearable, but energizing.
Reduce overwhelm by breaking everything down into actionable steps.
Define a goal for your work that will make everything else more doable.
I know, I know, that’s not very specific. I also hate when people don’t give actionable advice. I’m working on a resource that goes deeper into all of those topics. In the meantime, I’m offering a limited number of paid 45-minute consultations ($45) to help you hopefully start thinking about your writing barriers differently.
This chat is a good fit for you if you match one of the personas above, and are open to learning more about the solutions I’ve outlined. This is not an “intro session” leading up to more sessions. The chat is the whole thing. I’m not sure I’m going to offer more than one per person. But if you do sign up, I’m going to do my best so that you get a ton of value out of it!
IMPORTANT NOTE: this is not a writing consultation or an editing session. I’m not trying to make your writing or prose better, or give you tips on publishing. These conversations will be about your writing practice and the challenges you face with approaching the work every day.
Not ready to book a chat but want to stay up-to-date as these resources develop? Sign up here to be notified of future products or announcements.
FAQ
What’s up with the consultation chats?
I believe this information is valuable to others, and this was the lowest-barrier way for me to validate that hunch. I want to have conversations with people who recognize the challenges I’ve listed, and see if I can help them.
Why are you charging for these chats?
I have a full time job and a book to write; charging for these conversations is the best way for me to make time for this work, which I also think is valuable and worth doing. I have free conversations with people in my network frequently but I realized that doesn’t scale, so while I’m sharing this information on a 1-1 basis, I need to recover some of my costs.
I want to learn more but I can’t afford $45.
I understand not everyone can pay that amount, especially without knowing what you’ll get out of it! I’m working on more affordable resources for those who need it. But to do that I need to prove out some value first. If you want to stay informed as this stuff develops, you can sign up for updates here.
Why aren’t you writing instead?
This is an excellent question, and I will freely admit that working on this is taking some of my (already very limited) time away from writing. But I’m investing that time this because I want to test whether this information is helpful to people, and whether it’s something that will be valuable for me to create.
I want help with my writing (like the actual writing itself). Do you offer services around that?
I used to, but I found that I didn’t enjoy editing all that much, at least not in that format. I don’t offer editorial services anymore, but I would recommend you check out the Darling Axe or Reedsy!
What do I know about this stuff?
Hi, I’m Isa. I’ve been writing for 25+ years, and publishing professionally for a decade. (I also wrote an award-winning story collection.) But I struggled that whole time with my writing practice—and, to be honest, I still do! It’s very difficult to make writing work under any circumstances, but especially when there are other stressful things going on (ex. a job, family, a pandemic, bills to pay, etc). (I mean, realistically, aren’t there always stressful things going on?)
In 2022, I started investing in really understanding how to make this work more sustainable for me. The problem I initially aimed to figure out was how to manage my day job stress better so I could write more. This led to me working with a coach and figuring out a lot about how our body, emotions, and thoughts are intertwined. It sounds…extremely woo, but it’s all been immensely helpful, to me at least. I realized that this stuff doesn’t only help business people/product managers; writers can benefit from learning about emotional regulation and stress reduction too.
I haven’t figured out everything—no one has! My writing practice, and my relationship towards my own writing, is still very much a work in progress. But I am in the trenches trying to write regularly myself, and find a way forward, despite all the stress. And if I can help you, I’d love to!