Don’t take this personally, but I really didn’t want to write this blog post.

I’ve been putting it off for ages. First, I ignored the task on last week’s to-do list and let it spill over into this week’s. Now it’s a few days before it’s due to be pubilshed and I’m still procrastinating. Before turning my laptop on, I decided to listen to a podcast, apply a full face of makeup and record a series of chatty Instagram Stories complete with captions.

The truth is, writing is hard right now. Not just this blog post – everything. Whether it’s for me or a client, every sentence and every paragraph is an enormous effort. Words are not flowing from my fingertips and copy that usually takes no time at all requires hours, even days, at my desk.

Although it’s frustrating and sometimes alarming {given I do this for a living}, it’s hardly surprising. We’re one year into a global pandemic and I am exhausted. My ability to concentrate is practically non-existent.

And yet, here you are, reading this blog post! In the last two weeks, I’ve submitted multiple pieces of client work including a big project I started back in February. Altogether, this equates to roughly 12000 words. Somehow, against the odds, the work is getting done. I am writing.

How to Write When You Feel Like You Can’t

When it was just a hobby, I needed everything to be ~perfect~ before sitting down to write. I needed to be ‘in the right mood’. Now writing is my livelihood, I have to be much more disciplined. If I only wrote when I felt like it, I wouldn’t have much of a business. Here are some of the strategies I’ve developed for tackling creative blocks and overcoming writing resistance…

  • Just Try

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but it really does work. Most of the time, if I can force myself to sit at my desk and open my laptop, I’ll end up writing more than if I hadn’t tried at all. Even if my children are in and out every five minutes and I only manage an hour or two before I have to fix the next snack or break up another fight.

  • Create the Right Atmosphere, but Don’t Get Too Hung Up on It

In an ideal world, I’d only ever sit down to write in a tidy office with my favourite Spotify play list for company. The sun would be shining, the house would be empty and I’d be able to give work my full attention for as long as I felt like it. This wasn’t my reality pre-pandemic, let alone while we were in the midst of home schooling. Rather than creating an elaborate writing ritual, try picking one or two things to help you find your flow – small details that tell your brain it’s time to write like lighting a candle or using your favourite notebook.

  • Get Rid of the Blank Page

Blank pages are intimidating. They remind you of everything you haven’t written yet and how much work you have left to do. Brain dump ideas, make rough notes, create a loose structure or type out what you’re trying to achieve with whatever it is you’re writing. Having something, anything, on the page always seems to help.

  • Skip to the End or Write Something Else

When I’m struggling to start, I’ll often jump to the middle or the end of what I’m supposed to be writing. Sometimes I’ll open another document and write something else entirely. Both tactics seem to kickstart my brain so the words start flowing.

  • Know that Some Days Just Aren’t for Writing and that’s OK

I’ve had more days like this in the last twelve months than ever before. It is what it is. Beating myself up doesn’t make the words come any faster. If you really can’t write, do some admin instead or step away from work completely. I promise you won’t feel like this forever. The words will come, they always do.

  • Phew. For a blog post I thought I couldn’t write, this turned out to be a long one. Thanks for reading.

Love Audrey xxx

P.S. A version of this post originally appeared in my monthly newsletter. If you’ve enjoyed reading this and would like more of my words in your inbox, you can sign-up here.

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Love Audrey
How to Write When You Feel Like You Can’t
May in photos 🤳

1. Finally, some Franky weather. One of the best things about this month has been dusting off my summer dresses and being able to wear sandals ☀️

2+3. Coronation weekend. So many thoughts 💭 But the food was good! I made a vegan version of my mum’s famous coronation chicken and it was delicious.

4. Jesse staying upbeat during yet another trip to hospital. That steroid buzz though. IYKYK.

5. Some of the food served at the first meeting of Bristol Cook Book Club since 2020. It felt so good to get this going again. I can’t wait for our next feast!

6. Me among the cow parsley, snapped by Jesse.

7. I’ve been thinking about creativity a lot this month while working through the ‘The Artist’s Way’. 

8. Breakfast outside.

9. {Still} scrapbooking December. Fingers crossed I can finally wrap up this project in June 🤞🏻

10. Izzy’s final show at The Tobacco Factory. After tonight, she’ll be done with college {and compulsory education} forever 🤯

We packed a lot into this month. Enough to fill two carousels! This might explain why I’m so tired! I’m looking forward to June though. Everything’s better when the sun shines ✨
@_charlieswift has been raving about ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron for years. I finally caved, ordered the book and agreed to work through the course with her and some other artists. 

The book focuses on ‘guiding you through the process of recovering your creative self’ to ‘help you unleash your inner artist’. It’s early days {I’ve only read as far as week two and I haven’t even started my morning pages yet - IYKYK}, but I’m enjoying the process so far. 

Today I took myself on my first Artist Date - ‘a block of time… especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist’. I decided to treat myself to a solo cinema trip to see ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.’ The film was brilliant and taking time out midweek to do something just for me felt… kind of naughty? And fun! It definitely filled my creative well {again, IYKYK}.

Have you read ‘The Artist’s Way?’ Where would you go on a date with your inner artist?!
Franky weather ☀️🌅🔆🌻✨

That’s it, that’s the caption.
April in photos 🤳

1. Our trip to London over Easter was a definite highlight this month. Here’s the obligatory ‘flowers outside Liberty’ shot.

2. Finally! Some sunshine! More of the same please, Mr. Weatherman ☀️

3. Dressed for a day of sightseeing in my new favourite pink jacket. It’s Boden and I bought it in the sale 💖

4 + 5. Scenes from a trip to the big Waterstones in Piccadilly. This poem by @charlycox1 floored me. Crying in a bookshop. Not awkward at all.

6. I was proud of these steps, so I’m posting them here for posterity 🚶🏼‍♀️🥄

7. The Easter holidays also featured lots of lazy days 🎮😴

8. We bought a nutribullet and I’m officially in my smoothie era.

9 + 10. Dinner and drinks at @thecoconuttreeuk with our IzzyBee. Taking your daughter out for cocktails is a season of parenting I’m very much enjoying.

Not pictured: a family funeral and the chest infection I’m still getting over 🤒 How was April for you?
Easter weekend in my hometown 💃🏼

No trip to London is long enough for me to see all the people and do all the things I want to do while I’m there, but we always manage to pack a lot in. It’s 17 years since I moved away, but somehow it still feels like coming home. Here’s some of what we got up to…

1. Being tourists.

2. Shopping at Westfield.

3 + 4. Hanging out and eating at Southbank.

5. Refuelling in Chinatown.

6. Enjoying the big Waterstones in Piccadilly.

7. Admiring the spring flowers outside Liberty.

8. Visiting the Imperial War Museum for the first time since I was a child.

9 + 10. Seeing Elton John at the O2 with my mama 👓🎹🎤🪩✨

I hope you’ve managed to enjoy the long weekend, whatever you’ve been up to! That sunshine though!☀️🤩
March in Photos 🤳

1. How it’s going…

2. How it started.

3. My in-laws were involved in a terrible car crash earlier this month. They’re very, very lucky to be alive. It was a horrible time, so I’m grateful there was a happy ending.

4. My husband sent me this photo of a photo from our wedding day while he was visiting his parents. Turns out his mum carries it in her purse ❤️

5. While I was waiting for news from Derby, I took myself out on a walk and ended up in @thesmallcitybookshop. It was like my feet knew books would bring me comfort.

6 + 7. Just spring things.

8. Vegan lemon and almond loaf and a green smoothie from @theorchardcoffeeco 🍰🌱

9. I bought it 🌸

10. Other music? I don’t know her. 

How’s March been treating you? Personally, I’m ready for April and spring PROPER!
There is a past version of me who cannot believe I get to do this every day 💭📝💻

She’s around 12yrs old, working on her first novel in a little ring-bound notebook, dreaming up stories, devouring books and trying to imagine a life filled with words. Everything that makes my business possible now barely existed then, so even she’d struggle to conjure up  an image of what my life looks like now.

I’m grateful that I get to do this, for the clients who trust me to find the right words, and I’m grateful to that past version of me too. Without her, I wouldn’t be here now. Sure, she’d probably want me to hurry up and get back to that novel, but I think she’d be proud of the business I’ve built and the way I’ve managed to create a life filled with words.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Lockdown memories, three years on 🦠⏳

Very little of my life made it on to the grid in 2020, so this is the first time I’ve shared these images. They’re all from the first lockdown and most were taken between March and May. I think the arrival of spring will always remind me of this strange time.

When Boris made his announcement on the 23rd, our children had already been out of school for a week. Jesse, who was initially deemed clinically vulnerable, spent the next 6m shielding. He left primary school one day not realising he’d never go back. He did not see another child his age until the summer. Like many kids and adults in the same situation, the experience had a deep impact on his mental health. 

Izzy was in Year 10. As the pandemic raged on, she did most of her GCSEs online, celebrated her 16th birthday via Netflix Party, finished secondary school with minimal fanfare and missed out on prom completely. When she finally had a normal night out with friends in the winter of 2021, I cried quietly in the kitchen when she got home. Seeing her so happy and animated after a simple ‘cheeky Nando’s’ only highlighted everything she’d missed out on in the previous 18 months.

It’s easy to forget how little we knew about the virus in the beginning and how frightening that was for everyone involved. We had it easy in comparison to some, but I still marvel at the way we coped with it all. The way we isolated, home schooled and kept our businesses ticking over. My goodness it was hard! As my children often joke, I hope we’re done living through major historical events for a while.