Signs You Need More Space for Your Creative Writing

Are you struggling to maintain a regular writing practice lately?

It could be because of something you haven’t considered: a lack of space.

Space is important for anything in life. You can’t find a new job, for example, if you’re still expending all your energy and focus on the one you have. You must break away at least a little bit to open up space for researching new positions, sending out resumes, and taking interviews.

We have to make space for what we want, and that includes writing. If we don’t do this purposefully, there’s no way we can expect to be able to create.

To be successful with your writing, you must maintain four different types of space:

Physical space
Mental space
Emotional space
Creative space

If your life feels restricted in any of these areas, your writing is less likely to flow as easily as it should. Fortunately, a few easy changes can help restore your more creative self.

How to Tell if You Need More Space In Your Writing Life

If you’re not sure whether space may be an issue for you, answer the following questions:

Do you feel like you’re stagnating, like you aren’t growing or improving as you should?
Do you feel an underlying sense of unease about your daily life, like it doesn’t “fit” who you want to be?
Does your writing feel difficult when it used to be much easier?
Do you have a deep desire to do something fresh and new?
Does your life feel dense or heavy, like it’s too much for you to manage?

If you answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, you probably have too much clutter in your life. Let’s look at how you might create more space.

4 Types of Space You Need to Write Successfully

1. Writers Need a Comfortable Writing Space

A writer’s place to work is a very individual thing. Some writers like antique desks in the corner of the living room. Others like a separate room they can set up as an office. Many prefer the kitchen table, a comfortable recliner with a laptop, or a basement room with soundproof walls.

Whatever type of space works best for you, the important thing is to allow yourself to create and maintain it. Some writers think they have to “prove themselves” before they are worthy of their own writing space, but this is counterproductive. To have even a chance at becoming a best-selling author, you have to do your best writing, and for that, you need a nurturing writing space.

Signs You Need More Physical Space

Your current space feels cramped, cluttered, or messy
You don’t have a writing space you can call your own
Your current space doesn’t inspire you—you don’t enjoy spending time there

Take Action

To create your own writing nook, you must first find a place with the right energy. Maybe that’s a spare bedroom, the corner of the living room, a backyard cabin, a front porch, or a small area near the window in the dining room. It doesn’t matter where, but you must have somewhere you can call your own.

Next, it’s necessary to remove the stuff that’s already there to create space. As you get rid of furniture and/or clutter, you may feel your writer self began to come forward. Allow that persona to determine what chair, desk, or standing desk you’ll use (or combination of all three), as well as how you’ll decorate your space. Make whatever modifications you need so the space feels inviting.

If you already have a writing space, take a second look at it. Does it still feel freeing and nurturing? If not, maybe it’s time to make a change. Move some things around, get a new piece of furniture, slap on a coat of paint, or put up some new pictures.

Some writers had their spaces uprooted when COVID-19 hit. If you and/or your partner now has to work from home, or if you have kids who are home-schooling, it may no longer be possible to claim your former writing space as your own.

You can always share, but if others are using your space, it’s likely that it no longer feels like yours. Try finding a new, temporary space where you can feel creative again. That may be a nearby park, the inside of your car, or even a corner café.

The important thing is not to force yourself to try to be creative in a space that’s not working for you. Take stock of how you feel while writing, and then make whatever changes are necessary.

2. Writers Need Mental Space to Create

The second type of space you need to write well is mental space. This one can be more difficult as your mind is with you all the time—you can’t simply set it aside or stuff it in a drawer. (If only, right?)

Unfortunately, it’s common for our minds to be filled with worries and stresses these days, leaving little space for creative thought.

You may sit down to write and find yourself thinking about your child’s schooling (or lack thereof), your financial situation, your job and how you’re going to manage it, the latest headlines on the news, or your parents and whether they will be able to stay well.

All of this creates mental clutter, which is more stubborn than physical clutter as you can’t simply throw it away. There are ways to clear it out, though, and clear it out you must if you expect to be able to write.

Signs You Need More Mental Space

You feel stressed out and have for a while
You have a hard time concentrating on your story
When you think about your life, it feels tight, tense, and strained

Take Action

To clear the mental clutter:

Declutter your living space: In addition to your writing space, your living space needs to be free of clutter to free up your mind. Go through the house and get rid of the “stuff” you no longer need.
Clear off your desktop: If you have extra items littering your desktop, clear it away. When it’s time to write, you want your mind free of distractions. Seeing extra items on the screen can get you thinking about those items rather than your story, so file them away, put up an inspiring image, and next time you get ready to write, there will be nothing to distract you.
Limit your projects: This one can be tough for writers, as we often have to write, publish, and market, all at the same time. But if you’re thinking about your blog post while you’re trying to write your novel, or berating yourself for failing to market your last book while you’re trying to write your next one, your brain is going to be too cluttered to create. Limit your projects to no more than three at a time, and set definite times to work on each.
Meditate: Try taking five minutes at the beginning of your writing period to meditate. Set a timer, light a candle, and stare at the flame, allowing your eyes to gradually unfocus. Relax and let your thoughts go. Don’t react to them. Just focus on the candle. When the five minutes are up, your brain should feel more open to new ideas.
Unplug: It’s common to be suffering from information overload these days. Your mind may be buzzing with all the latest information on the virus plus all the other headlines making news. It’s one thing to be informed, and another to feel mentally cluttered. Limit your exposure to the news and social media and give your mind a break.
Allow yourself to be bored: Boredom is heavily underrated. Another word for boredom is space. When you’re bored, your brain has space to think and create. At least once a week, make an appointment with yourself to be bored for at least 30 minutes. Take a walk without your cell phone or headphones. Take a drive without turning on the tunes. Sit and wait for your child to finish his or her activity with nothing but a notebook in your hands.

3. Writers Need Emotional Space to Write Well

You may have a pristine home, a clean and inspiring writing space, and a clear, focused mind, but still have trouble writing because of a cluttered heart.

Emotions piled atop emotions fill up your emotional space. This is particularly common if you haven’t had the time or courage to face your emotions and process them in a healthy way.

Maybe you lost someone to the coronavirus, or your day job is at the hospital where you’ve witnessed too much suffering. Maybe you’ve faced health problems yourself, or feel frustrated and discouraged about your writing, which is dragging you down. Maybe you, like many of us, have just had a hard year, and it’s wearing on you.

Signs You Need More Emotional Space

You can’t remember the last time you laughed out loud
You feel a lot of sadness and discouragement
You’re carrying around grief that you haven’t had a chance to process
You’re often worried about something or someone

Take Action

One of the best ways to deal with unprocessed emotions is to keep a journal. Write each morning or night about those things that may be bothering you and how you feel about them. Gradually, this practice can help you clear out the clutter in your heart so you can begin to feel open again.

If this doesn’t work, you may want to consider therapy, or create a support group where you and others can share the challenges you’re facing. Talk with a good friend, spend some time with a beloved pet, or volunteer to help someone else. Realize that your heart is heavy, and find some way to relieve yourself of the weight. Once you do so, your writing is likely to break open as well.

4. Writers Must Nurture a Creative Space Within

You know what it feels like when your writing is going well. There is a flow to your work and a sense that you’re inhabiting the world of your characters, almost as if you’re out of yourself and inside the pages of your book.

This is a unique state of mind that occurs when your creative self takes over. But for that to happen, a writer must have space for creativity. Otherwise, the writing is likely to feel forced—made up instead of inspired. Dead rather than alive.

When you have adequate creative space, your brain feeds you new ideas without you having to force it. A solution to your plot problem shows up while you’re driving to work. An idea for a blog post appears while you’re taking a shower. The theme for your next book solidifies while you’re walking in the park.

Without creative space, however, your brain is like a dull friend that leaves you wishing you had someone else to talk to. When writing, it will fall back on clichés and overused plots, proceeding from page to page like a zombie.

Signs You Need More Creative Space

You suffer from writer’s block
Your writing seems pat and unoriginal
You can’t find that “spark” for writing you used to feel

Take Action

To make more creative space in your life, you have to make creativity a priority.

One of your goals right now, for instance, might be to lose five pounds. You don’t expect this to happen automatically. You know that to achieve your goal, you must change your diet, exercise more often, and attend yoga classes twice a week (for example).

Yet we writers often expect creativity to just happen. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. You have to take steps to make space for it.

Educate yourself. Take a class or workshop on a topic that will inspire your creativity. Learn more about characterization, plotting, or even photography or painting, and watch your creativity blossom.
Create weekly “me time”: Schedule in at least 30 minutes a week for “me time”—when you are free to daydream by the creek, peruse the bookstore, enjoy a massage, or meet with a group of like-minded friends.
Schedule a regular creative writing session: Make this different from your usual writing session. Consider writing with different tools during this time, such as a pen and paper rather than a laptop. Write anything you want during that 10-15 minutes, with the goal being to get into the flow of the words.
Take two monthly creative field trips: Creativity thrives on novelty. At least twice a month, go somewhere you’ve never gone before that you think might fuel your creativity. This could be a museum, garden, library, poetry reading, zoo, or even a restaurant.
Shuffle your routine: A daily writing routine is critical to your writing progress, but sometimes you need to change it up to feed your creative brain. Take one day to do everything differently. Brush your teeth with the other hand, order (or make) something entirely different for lunch, dress in clothes you haven’t worn in years, and make at least one decision that is opposite what you’d usually decide. Have fun with it and see where it takes you.
Watch interviews with inspiring people: This is one of my favorite ways to inspire creativity. Listen to interviews with creative individuals you admire. They may be writers, but they could also be musicians, actors, painters, coaches, business people, or even chefs. What matters is that you admire the person and you can find an interview with him or her online. Listen to the interview and see if it inspires creative thought.

Overall, the idea is to think “space” throughout your life. Where do you feel cramped or restricted? How can you fix that? Turn your brain to the task, and you’ll soon be writing freely again.

How do you create space in your life for successful writing?

_{Main photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels.}