I was in a funk. I couldn’t write. Sound Familiar?
I have always been a writer, I’ve always been creative and open minded, however in the past several years, I’ve really struggled with this. I can’t deny going through a really tough period and putting myself in situations personally and professionally that didn’t encourage creativity and growth. I let these ideas come into my mind that it wasn’t safe to be creative. In some of those situations, it wasn’t. And it was only met with sneers and shame when I began to create. It didn’t seem worth it to me to create and to let express myself with total freedom. I still don’t know how I allowed it to happen and in some ways, I’m still shocked that it did, but I really did lose my voice after dealing with a lot of trauma. It nearly killed me.
I think I got scared of it, and scared of the consequences of speaking my truth, expressing myself in any way. I felt crippled. It wasn’t just that I couldn’t express myself onto paper, but I could hardly speak. Any power I had behind my voice had totally vanished. Until I always felt a lump in my throat, I became more soft spoken than I ever had been in my life. I felt scared about writing down how I felt, about telling people how I felt - but not even just how I felt, but expressing that say yes - I like this type of food - or no - I don’t like that.. truly the most insignificant things.
So I was in a major funk.. Because I’ve been working through it and over time, it’s all coming back and probably stronger than it ever was. I’ve been writing since I knew how to write, won poetry contests, been published, ran creative writing clubs, and I have a children’s book out now and another one that is coming out in 2025! This has always been my escape and how I made sense of the world. The past year, writing newsletters, blogs, books, and getting back to creative writing has helped me heal a lot of things from the past.
Sometimes, we just get into a funk and a bit of a writers block that can happen for a ton of different reasons, for me it was trauma, for others it’s stress, it’s feeling uninspired, tired, out of ideas, questioning our ability to be creative. And those struggles are totally real and valid. But you have to get back out there, we all want to hear you screaming your story from the rooftops.
There is a book we’re writing right now for a year of creative prompts to get you moving again from different starting points. But there are some quick ways to get out of it. First you have to let go of all the judgement you hold within yourself on yourself and the fear. Fear can be one thing that holds so many of us back through our creative journey.
Trust me, if you’re doing the thing, you’re still doing more than SO many more people out there. After we can just drop the fear, one thing that helps me is writing every word that comes to mind even if it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t matter, the flow is open again. I also think having a list of things you’d like to write about helps and I keep a notebook for topics, and one for the actual writing.
I suggest visiting a new place or trying something new, changing up your medium - eg - draw for a bit instead of writing, or sculpt something instead of painting, get a change of scenery, talk with an old friend. These kinds of things stir up new emotions and new ideas and trust me, that inspiration, or the little spark can come from anywhere. It’s about opening yourself up to it.
There’s a ton of ways that we can work through this together and I’d love to help you. Drop me a line and let me know what we can do to help get you over your funk!
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