We’ve all been there before. Something comes up in our life, we stop writing, and when we’re finally ready to open up our manuscript again, we are stuck.

Returning back to the page is daunting. It’s overwhelming. It feels like we lost our flow. I can’t always remember what I did last week; how am I supposed to remember what I’ve written for 20,000 words?

And every day that passes, we feel further away from it, pushing us deeper into this spiraling thought process that maybe we’re never going to get back into the story. That it’s going to be too hard.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I got sick earlier this year and I did not touch my manuscript for a solid three weeks. I felt that pressure of uncertainty when I returned: What have I written? Where am I going? How do I start again?

The secret is…You can’t be afraid to just get in it.

I know this is easier said than done. A couple years ago, my inner-critic voices would have had a field day with shame and perfectionism, telling me untrue things about how I “should” be getting back into writing. It was the same voice that told me I had to know everything before I could start writing new words—and it’s wrong.

Moving out of this rigid and scared mindset into a mindset that was focused on play and exploring made a huge difference for me. It settled the physiological reaction of overwhelm and anxiety whenever I sat down in front of my computer.

Even though the best way to begin is to do the hard thing and start, it can be a challenge to know what that even looks like. (We just, what? Jump back in?) So here are a few suggestions to help make it easier for you to come back to the page and start playing around.

Reread your story (and no edits allowed!)

When we take long breaks, it can feel really disorienting and unclear how to find our way back into our story. In fact, as I mentioned above, it’s pretty normal to even forget what happens!

Give yourself some time to get acclimated back into what you’ve written so far. Reread it with a completely open-mind—zero judgement and zero shame. When you come back to your story—especially a first draft—you’re going to see all the holes, all the problems.

But now is not the time to revise.

Remember, you’re rereading to remind yourself where you left off in the story. If you struggle to look past all the “issues,” keep a notebook next to you where you can make notes for future you. I wrote so many notes during my re-read, but the thing I stayed focused on was one thing only: Where am I in the story?

If you’re someone who hates rereading, you can also just dive into wherever you’re curious. Curiosity is a great motivator and it can help respark your interest in continuing the story.

Ease back into it with brainstorming

If you’re still feeling disconnected, try some other writing related activities that can help inspire you without immediately requiring opening your manuscript.

Freewriting is a great way to get back into the act of writing without the pressure of working on your draft. Just open a blank page (or write by hand) and let yourself write about anything that comes to mind as far as ideas, plot direction, what you want from your characters, your fears coming back into the story, etc.

Simply dedicating time to thinking about your story can help refresh your mind and make it easier to immerse yourself in your world before you start adding more words.

But freewriting also doesn’t have to relate to your story at all. You can use this time to simply stretch your writing muscles again. Lean into your curiosity! The purpose of the activity is to help ease you back into writing. Your goal is to get your brain and body used to the act of writing again—and that does not have to happen with brand new words placed directly in your manuscript.

Discuss your story with writer friends

One of the best ways to jog your memory and get excited about your story again is through talking about it.

This is the perfect time to reconnect with a writing group or chat with a friend about where you left off. When you try to explain what you’ve written so far and where you’re heading, you’ll be surprised by what you can remember.

Your explanation doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to get your wheels turning instead of trying to sit at your desk with all the pressure of trying to recall everything.

Personally, I find this to be really helpful. As I start to talk about my story with friends, I undoubtedly start to remember more things, and then after 10 minutes of word vomiting, I’m back into it and excited about it.

Another way you can utilize your support system is to ask your friends (writers or not) for a positivity read. I sent some pages full of ideas to a friend of mine who isn’t a writer, but who reads all my work, and she happened to get me her thoughts around the time I was feeling ready to get back into drafting and she texted me all these positive things that got me really excited.

Even if you’re 50,000 words into a project, sending your most recent scene to someone who’s familiar with your story and asking for a positivity boost is extremely motivating.

Now, I know some people feel really weird about asking for praise and get in their heads about “not wanting to be that person” but let me tell you, it’s a wonderful activity to swap positivity reads with other writers or sharing your work with a supportive friend.

We don’t have enough faith in other people that they’ll find something to praise, or we fear they’ll lie to us—but 99% of the time, that’s not what people are going to do. They’re going to tell you what they loved and it’s also going to be something you love about it, and that will make you feel seen. Even if the story isn’t exactly where you want it to be yet, someone else is witnessing what you’re trying to do, and that can add such buoyancy to our mindset.

Reconnect with your why

Sometimes writers put these obligations on ourselves where we feel we “have” to finish writing a story we already started. When we ask ourselves why we’re writing this story, it can help us parse through if this project is still bringing us the joy we need to continue, or if perhaps this idea of a “sunken cost fallacy” is keeping us from working on what we actually want to be writing.

Questions to ask yourself:

👉🏻 Why are you coming back to this story?

👉🏻 Why does it matter to you?

👉🏻 Why did you want to write it in the first place?

👉🏻 What originally got you excited about this idea?

👉🏻 What do you hope this story will do for you and/or your reader?

Revisiting these core, foundational questions will not only help remind you where you’re at in the story, but also help ground you in the motivation behind your writing. They help give you a direction and purpose to follow, so when you come back to your draft you know exactly why you want to be there, and why it’s worth getting back into the story.

Don’t be afraid to dive in!

You do not need to be “all caught up” in order to start writing again! You may find your inner critic or perfectionist voice popping up to tell you “you have to know everything again” before you start writing, and it’s just not true.

There’s no timeline for the “right” amount of time it should take you to get back into writing. That said, if you feel yourself getting to a point of procrastination, where you’re in a cycle of rereading over and over or feel something is still holding you back from the page despite spending that time reconnecting to your story—Get your hands dirty, get your feet wet, and get back into it.

I’ve done this as well before, where I’ve given myself a three-day window to let myself feel my way back into the story, but after that window, I’ve decided that I’m just going to write. Maybe extending that time to a week works better for you, but whatever your timeframe is, stick with it.

It might still feel a little uncomfortable and scary, but lean into that. You probably aren’t going to immediately have the same writing stamina as you did before, but opening up that document and typing out 200-words at a time is still progress and will make it easier to build back up your writing routine.

xo,