Losing steam

I set a goal earlier in the year to focus on writing more. And while I have already written 35 articles in 2023 (one fewer than all of 2022), I have found motivation waning in recent months.

Part of that is the regular ebb and flow of life, which is normal. I have other obligations outside of work/professional development that take my time and attention: parenting, home ownership, church responsibilities, and volunteer work. I don’t want to be one-dimensional, so I’m happy to step away and work on other things.

But when I do set aside time to write, I have found recently that I don’t have much to say. Some writers that I admire share their opinions on a current topic or trend in tech, and I value their contributions. But as time goes on, I find that my opinions are growing weaker not stronger. And I don’t think that “A is neat, but B is also fine too” makes for a compelling read. So perhaps “columnist” is not in my future.

To help unblock myself, I created a new garden of writing prompts for programmers. These are cultivated for freewriting, an exercise where you write about a particular topic for a set amount of time. The goal isn’t the output but rather the practice of getting started writing. It helps prime your brain for creative thinking, which I think is exactly what I need.

So the next time that I feel stuck or unmotivated to write, I’m going to try to sit down with one of those prompts for five minutes and see what happens.

Let me know what you think of the prompts, and be sure to email me any suggestions.