Writing Slump

I don’t really feel like writing today. And that is okay.

You see, the thing with having a hobby is that, people start to think that we would enjoy doing it every day and every second of our lives, which is just wrong.

Of course there are days when I dread the very thought of having to write something on my blog. Of course there are days when I don’t want to write for prompts for my followers on Instagram. It just happens, and that’s just the way it is.

So what do I do when I don’t have any particular thing I want to write about? I have made my resolutions at the beginning of the year, and one of them is to blog consistently for another year. Believe me when I say I’m starting to regret my naivety back then—who knew I would be this busy nowadays?

The fact is, I could factor a lot of things that prevent me from being as enthusiastic about writing. But one of the major things is the fact that I work overtime almost everyday now. And the funny thing is, it isn’t even encouraged in the company I’m working on to work overtime; I just do it in order to catch up with a lot of things during my probation period.

Now you see, with every single day of the week being that hectic, all I want to do during weekends is rest. But I can’t exactly do that, can I? Just like almost every other human being on earth, I have friends I want to stay in touch with, and a family I have to cater after neglecting them for the rest of the week.

Writing—to be honest—has consistently been one of the furthest things of my focus for the last few weeks.

So why am I here with a new blog post? For someone who says she’s not too thrilled about having to write anything, I do seem to enjoy it enough to produce another blog post. And you know what, even I have the same question right now.

Almost everyone I know has at least commented that I am a very productive writer: I work a full time job as a project manager, still manage to carve enough time to produce books once every few years, write blog posts consistently every week, and even let people submit writing prompts so I can write for them.

But what they often overlook is, just like everyone else, I have to sacrifice a lot of things in order to become a “productive writer”.

My lunch breaks, for example. My peaceful weekends. My late night Friday. My sleep. My favorite anime show. My TBR. My friends. My family.

I’ve given up a lot of things in order to write, and to be perfectly honest, I’m starting to feel like it’s a chore. Sometimes I feel like I’m writing just for the sake of fulfilling a certain quota, and it kinda shows on the quality of my writings. No artist could produce a good art when they don’t feel happy doing it. Me included.

Ironically, the only thing that’s proven to be effective to quell my stress is writing. So even through it all, I always end up opening my word processor and type away, in hope that between the first and the last word I type, I would lose all sense of frustration, and regain my composure.

So here’s what I’m going to do: I’m not going to stop writing, but I’m going to take some time to reset my life. No more cutting my sleeping hours. No more working overtime. No more sacrificing my health. And even though it makes me cringe to write this, I’m also going to stop writing things I don’t really want to write about.

This includes long-winded and dishonest blog posts. Also pretentious Instagram captions.

So what am I going to write about?

The answer is easy, and one I should always have known this whole time.

I’m going to write a story I want to write; a story I actually believe in.

I post new contents here every Saturday. This includes writing tips, reviews on writing/reading spots, short stories, poems, personal essays, and more. Keep yourself updated by following me on Twitter and Instagram!