Surviving the Writing Winter

How well has the groundhog done this year? Will winter last forever? No matter what the groundhog says, the cold and the gray can feel as if it will never end. That’s true for the winter season, but it can be true for periods of creative winter as well. 

No matter how successful a writer becomes, we have days of winter when we hit hard times. Writer’s Block. Ideas that looked good, but don’t pan out. Submissions that receive rejection after rejection. During a writing winter, it can be hard to keep a good attitude. We can give in to jealousy of other writers, anger toward the publishing world, and dejection about our own future as a writer. But for every writing winter, spring will come. 

The Green-Eyed Monster 

Jealousy hits every writer at some point or other. It sneaks up on us when we’re having a tough time. We look at other writers having success, and we try to be happy for them (or maybe we don’t), but whether we put in the effort or not, jealousy happens. It tends to be a sign of weariness. We can get tired of the writing grind. And writing does have grindy bits. Surprisingly, they aren’t the same for everyone. Some people feel the grind when they’re deep in revision, while others name revision as their favorite part of the process. Some people feel the grind when they’re planning a story, trying to make sure the story has legs enough to reach fruition eventually. Some feel it during the mid-story bog where you feel like you’ve done so much writing, but you still have so much left. 

The weariness that comes from the grind makes us grumpy. And that grumpiness can easily translate into envy or jealousy of writers who seem to be having success without effort. The reality is that many of the “over-night successes” are actually happening after years of work and preparation for that instant success. The work of being a writer is done out of the spotlight with little attention from other. So, when we finally succeed, it can seem to outsiders like a very sudden happening. Publishers have a good reason for making an author sound like an over-night success. It’s something they can hype. It’s something they can make sound exciting and new. It’s a lot harder to hype the story of a writer who worked and failed and worked and failed and eventually hit the story that succeeded. Well, unless the writer has a really interesting story of horror and distress during that growth and failure cycle. But most of us don’t. We just worked and learned and grew and eventually began to see success. It’s hard to make that sound exciting. But overnight success, that sounds great. 

Though it’s useful to know most of the writers we feel envious of are going through or have gone through every bit of the struggle we are facing, that alone won’t solve the problem. Because the root of the problem isn’t really jealousy or envy—it’s exhaustion. 

Winter Isn’t Forever 

Creative winter is hard, and the exhaustion you feel in the process is real. But you’re not alone in experiencing it. It is, sadly, part of the process. Yes, not everyone experiences winter for the same length of time. We may be hitting an unusually long cold season, but spring will come.  

When I was in college in the South, the end of winter usually turned into endless rain. I know it wasn’t actually endless, but it felt endless. The sky was always gray. It was impossible not to step in deep puddles. Every car seemed to be trying to splash me. And I arrived at every class feeling damp no matter how long my raincoat was or how good my boots were or how well I handled the umbrella. It was always wet, wet, wet. It felt like it would rain forever. I knew it had to stop eventually, but it really did a number on my energy and attitude. 

Then, one day, like magic, I got up, left for class, and it wasn’t raining. It wasn’t cold. And the campus was full of flowers. Absolutely full of them. It felt like it happened overnight—winter, then magical spring. But the reality was that the world was full of flowers because of the rain. 

The things you do, and keep doing during the winter bring the sudden, startling spring. When you get that acceptance letter or that call from an agent, it may feel out of the blue, but it is actually the culmination of every bit of slog you’ve been doing. You succeed because of the grind. That doesn’t make the grind easier, but it makes it purposeful. The grind, especially if directed toward research, skill building, and producing work, will result in that “overnight success.” The sudden spring is a parlor trick built on piles of work, creativity, and preparation. 

So, when winter wears you down, and you wonder why you have to work so hard when other writers had it so easy, try telling yourself the truth. They had to go through the winter too. Their winter may have looked different and may have ended at a different point, but they grew weary in the toil too. And their success is only a preview of what yours could be.  

Don’t give up. Spring is coming. And when it does, it’ll be beautiful.

Related Articles for Writer’s Block

• Block Our Writer’s Block: Write Your Book to the End
• Top 3 Sources of Writer’s Block
• How to Avoid Writer’s Block