How to Start Writing Again
After a Long Break
Introduction
Sometimes we stop writing.
Not because we stopped loving it.
Not because we ran out of stories.
And not because we suddenly stopped being writers.
Just because life simply got in the way.
• Work.
• Family.
• Responsibilities.
• Stress.
• Loss.
• Exhaustion.
Or perhaps we just lost confidence somewhere along the way.
I’ve stopped writing many times for a multitude of these reasons.
Choosing to push my writing further and further down the list while everything else in life continued moving up it.
The strange thing is, though, the longer you leave it, the harder it feels to start back up again.
I remember this feeling well:
• You open an old document.
• Read something you wrote years ago.
• Put your fingers on the keyboard.
And suddenly something that once felt so natural feels completely unfamiliar.
You might even wonder:
• Can I still even write anymore?
• What if I’ve lost whatever I had?
• Where do I even begin?
• What if everything I write is terrible?
The answer is much simpler than we often make it.
You begin by writing something.
Anything.
Literally.
Because you haven’t forgotten how to write.
You’re just out of practice.
And practice will help it come back.
In this short guide, we’ll look at how to start writing again after a long break while keeping pressure to an absolute minimum.
After all, it’s not about trying to immediately produce something brilliant.
It’s about being patient and gentle with yourself as you begin to reawaken the many skills you haven’t used in a while.
Slow and steady really is the best way forward.
Contents
1. Understand Why Starting Again Feels So Difficult
2. Stop Waiting Until You Feel Ready
3. Make Your First Goal Ridiculously Small
4. Write Something That Doesn’t Matter
5. Return to Something You Already Love
6. Don’t Compare Yourself With the Writer You Used to Be
7. Build a Gentle Writing Routine
8. Finish Small Things
9. What to Do When the Words Still Won’t Come
10. A Simple 10-Minute Writing Exercise
11. Helpful Hints: Momentum Before Perfection
12. Final Thoughts
1. Understand Why Starting Again Feels So Difficult
Writing after a long break can feel surprisingly hard.
To be honest, I think part of the problem is probably expectation.
You remember how writing used to feel.
Perhaps there was a time when the words came easily.
Almost with no effort at all.
When you could sit down for hours at a time and disappear into a world of your own imagination that miraculously came to life on the page before you.
You had ideas.
Characters.
Poems.
Thoughts.
Pages.
Then months go by.
Perhaps even years.
And somehow you almost expect yourself to be able to work at the same level where you left off.
But the truth is, practice keeps any skill alive, not just writing. And when we stop practising, we begin to lose the edge we once had.
That doesn’t mean your ability has disappeared forever. It just means you need a bit more practice to sharpen it again.
Think about someone returning to running after several years away from it.
They probably wouldn’t begin by attempting a marathon.
I wouldn’t even try a 5K run.
You would start small and work back up.
And writing is exactly the same.
We sit down after a huge break and think:
Right.
Today I’m finally going to write my novel.
Three hours later, we’ve rewritten the same paragraph twelve times and started questioning every decision we’ve ever made.
That’s too much pressure.
And it creates a negative looping mindset.
You don’t need to prove you’re still a writer.
You just need to start writing again.
In a very gentle and patient way.
2. Stop Waiting Until You Feel Ready
This is probably one of the biggest traps.
• I’ll start when I feel inspired.
• I’ll start when things calm down.
• I’ll start next weekend.
• I’ll start when I have a whole afternoon free.
• I’ll start when I know exactly what I want to write.
The problem is that the perfect moment rarely arrives.
And waiting for the perfect moment is more likely to lead to failure than success.
After all, life has a way of continuing around you regardless of what your best intentions may be.
There will always be cleaning.
Emails.
Work.
Appointments.
Children.
Bills.
Health.
Responsibilities.
Something.
If writing only happens when everything else becomes quiet, you could end up waiting forever.
So there’s only one thing for it.
We have to learn to create the moment ourselves.
But here’s the thing.
It doesn’t need to be a giant chunk of time, and it probably shouldn’t be either.
It needs to be flexible.
We need to be flexible.
Ten minutes before bed.
Twenty minutes on a Sunday morning.
A notebook app on your mobile while drinking coffee.
A few sentences written in your thought journal.
It doesn’t have to feel important.
You don’t even have to feel particularly inspired.
You just need to sit down anyway.
Because quite often, inspiration strikes after we begin rather than before we try.
3. Make Your First Goal Ridiculously Small
When you haven’t written for a long time, don’t begin with:
“Let’s finally finish that novel.”
Do something much simpler.
Begin with:
“Write 100 words.”
Or even:
“Write for ten minutes.”
It can literally be about anything.
That’s it.
That’s all you need to do.
And you can always continue if you want to.
The purpose of your first few writing sessions isn’t really to produce anything.
It’s to rebuild the habit of sitting down and putting thoughts into words, and words onto paper.
You might write:
• 100 words about your day.
• A childhood memory.
• A description of someone sitting in a café.
• A tiny poem.
• A conversation between two fictional characters.
• The opening paragraph of a story.
• Something you’re angry about.
• Something beautiful you noticed today.
Nobody needs to see it.
It doesn’t need to become anything.
You’re simply reminding your brain:
“This is something we do.”
And slowly, it starts feeling normal again.
4. Write Something That Doesn’t Matter
Now, this will probably sound very, very strange.
But trust me.
It helps.
Honestly, it does.
Because writing about nothing important gives you a gift unlike anything else.
Freedom.
It sounds strange.
But it can be incredibly freeing.
One reason returning writers struggle is because the first thing they try to write matters too much.
And when something matters, there is a lot of pressure.
And with pressure comes stress.
And stress creates writer’s block.
You will have time to write about important things when you are ready.
Be patient.
Be kind.
Be gentle with yourself.
And begin slowly practising your craft again.
So take that pressure away.
• Write something completely disposable.
• Write about a man arguing with a seagull over a packet of chips.
• Write about the world’s worst superhero.
• Describe the room you’re sitting in.
• Invent a ridiculous conversation between two strangers on a bus.
• Write something deliberately terrible.
You can delete it afterwards.
The point is not the finished piece.
The point is movement.
Perfection freezes us.
Play gets us moving again.
So start writing just to have fun.
5. Return to Something You Already Love
If you don’t know what to write, go back to the reason you loved writing in the first place.
What did you enjoy?
• Stories?
• Poetry?
• Journalling?
• Fantasy?
• Crime?
• Romance?
• Personal reflection?
• Funny observations about everyday life?
You don’t necessarily need a new idea.
Sometimes returning to an old one is easier.
• Open an unfinished story.
• Read one of your old poems.
• Find a character you once loved writing about.
• Look through your old notebooks.
You may discover ideas you had completely forgotten about.
But there’s another reason this helps.
Your old writing provides evidence.
Evidence that you have done this before.
You created something where nothing existed.
That’s what writers do.
And if you’ve done it once, there’s no reason you can’t do it again.
6. Don’t Compare Yourself With the Writer You Used to Be
This one can be difficult.
You might read something you wrote five years ago and think:
“I couldn’t write that now.”
Maybe you couldn’t.
But there’s another side to this.
The person who wrote those words didn’t know everything you know today either.
You’ve lived since then.
You’ve experienced more.
You’ve changed.
You’ve noticed things.
You’ve met people.
You’ve loved.
You’ve lost.
You’ve probably failed at things.
Succeeded at others.
Been hurt.
Been surprised.
Changed your mind.
All of those experiences become part of the person sitting at the keyboard today.
So don’t try too hard to become the writer you used to be.
Find out who the writer you are now might become.
Your voice may have changed.
That’s okay.
Perhaps it was supposed to.
7. Build a Gentle Writing Routine
I’m a great believer in consistency.
But consistency doesn’t have to mean writing 2,000 words every morning at 5 a.m.
For many people, that’s completely unrealistic.
A writing routine needs to fit your actual life.
Not somebody else’s.
You could try:
• 10 minutes every evening.
• 30 minutes twice a week.
• Sunday morning writing sessions.
• Writing during your lunch break.
• 200 words a day.
• One poem each week.
• One short piece every month.
Pick something you can genuinely maintain.
You want the barrier to starting to become smaller.
If you tell yourself you need three uninterrupted hours, you’ll often decide there isn’t enough time.
If you only need ten minutes, starting becomes much easier.
And ten minutes isn’t insignificant.
If you wrote just 200 words during those ten minutes, five days each week, you would write around 52,000 words in a year.
Small things add up.
They almost always do.
8. Finish Small Things
There is something incredibly satisfying about writing:
“The End.”
Especially after you’ve struggled to get started again.
That’s why I wouldn’t necessarily recommend immediately throwing yourself into a 100,000-word novel.
Finish something smaller first.
• A poem.
• A 500-word story.
• A blog post.
• A character sketch.
• A two-page scene.
Completing something reminds you that you are capable of taking an idea from beginning to end.
And every completed piece creates a little more confidence.
Confidence creates motivation.
Motivation encourages you to write more.
And gradually, you begin building momentum.
You don’t need one enormous victory.
You need lots of little ones.
That’s what is helping me build this blog and continue working on my debut novel.
I know it will take time.
But small steps always lead to bigger successes along the way.
9. What to Do When the Words Still Won’t Come
Sometimes you sit down.
You try.
And nothing happens.
That’s okay too.
I’ve been there myself more times than I can remember.
What’s important is to keep going.
Be patient.
Be kind.
Be understanding with yourself.
Don’t turn one difficult writing session into a judgement about your ability.
Instead, change the task.
• If you can’t write the chapter, write notes about the chapter.
• If you can’t write the poem, write down the feeling you want the poem to capture.
• If you can’t create dialogue, describe what the characters are arguing about.
• If you can’t start the story, write a scene from somewhere in the middle.
You don’t always need to write in order.
And you don’t always need polished sentences.
Sometimes this:
• Sarah finds the letter. She realises Tom lied. Huge argument. She leaves.
is enough.
Because tomorrow, you can turn those twelve words into a scene.
Writing doesn’t always mean producing beautiful prose.
Sometimes writing means leaving yourself a trail to follow.
A trail you can return to on another day.
With fresh eyes and a new perspective.
10. A Simple 10-Minute Writing Exercise
If you haven’t written creatively for a long time, try this.
Set a timer for ten minutes.
Then begin with the sentence:
“I remember…”
And keep going.
• Don’t plan.
• Don’t edit.
• Don’t delete anything.
• Don’t worry about spelling.
• Don’t worry about whether it’s interesting.
Just follow wherever your mind takes you.
It might become:
• I remember my first day at school…
• I remember the person who changed my life…
• I remember sitting beside the hospital bed…
• I remember the summer everything changed…
• I remember the house we used to live in…
Or perhaps your imagination takes over completely.
That’s fine.
When the timer finishes, stop.
Read what you wrote.
Don’t ask:
“Is this good?”
Ask:
“Is there anything here I want to explore?”
That is a much kinder — and often much more useful — question.
11. Helpful Hints: Momentum Before Perfection
Keep things simple.
If you’re returning to writing after a long break:
• Start small.
• Write regularly rather than perfectly.
• Don’t edit every sentence while you’re creating it.
• Try different types of writing.
• Keep a notebook or notes app nearby.
• Capture ideas when they appear.
• Finish small projects.
• Read regularly.
• Give yourself permission to write badly.
• Remember why you wanted to write in the first place.
And perhaps most importantly:
• Don’t judge today’s writing against yesterday’s finished work.
You are comparing today’s rough beginning with something you previously had time to shape, edit and improve.
First drafts are supposed to be imperfect.
That’s what editing is for.
And you can’t edit an empty page.
Final Thoughts
Starting to write again after a long break isn’t really about finding the perfect idea.
It isn’t about buying a beautiful notebook.
Or downloading a new writing app.
Or waiting for inspiration to strike at exactly the right moment.
It’s about reconnecting with a part of yourself you haven’t visited for a while.
That first page might feel awkward.
So might the second.
Perhaps even the tenth.
Keep going.
Because somewhere along the way, something will start changing.
A sentence might surprise you.
A character may suddenly say something you weren’t expecting.
A brilliant idea appears from nowhere and shoots to the forefront of your mind.
Twenty minutes disappear without you noticing.
And for a moment, you remember why you loved doing this so much in the first place.
That’s when writing starts feeling less like something you used to do.
And starts becoming more something you do again.
Something that brings you joy and greater happiness and meaning again.
You don’t need to return with something extraordinary.
You don’t need a masterpiece.
You don’t even need a plan.
You just need a blank page.
A little time.
And somewhere to begin.
So write one sentence.
Then another.
And see where they take you.
Don’t give up.
Believe in yourself.
And enjoy your journey of writing again.
← How to Find Time to Write When You Have a Full-Time Job