My Guide to Writing When You're Tired

My Guide To Writing When You’re Tired

Yesterday, I gave you my new method for avoiding fatigue and burnout when writing.

Today, I’m going to acknowledge the fact that there are time when, even with the best preparation, there are going to be times when you’re writing when you’re tired.

As an example, every month I have one client who orders about twenty articles from me. He also orders the social media posts to accompany those articles.

Needless to say, that’s a busy few days.

Of course, I could just schedule with him so I worked every single day of the month and did a single article a day. That really isn’t my style though. I prefer to get it done within a couple of days so I can go about my own projects again.

But trying to get 20000 words written in a couple of days is beyond hectic.

Even if you did the Pomodoro-inspired technique I talked about yesterday, you’re going to get pretty fatigued pretty quickly.

Problems With Writing When You’re Tired

When you’re writing when you’re tired, you’ll find several things start to occur:

Mistakes start to slip in.
You have to go back and rewrite sentences.
Your rate of typing slows.
Your ability to be concise fails you, and you talk around the point.
You start to hate writing and never want to type another word ever again.
You fall asleep at the keyboard.

Obviously, those are all negative. Undoubtedly, there are some creative geniuses who tap into some liminal zone and become ultra-creative when they’re tired, but if you’re not one of them, then you want to avoid the above. If you are one of them, incidentally, you’ll probably want to leave that method for when you’re writing your psychedelic novel, and not when you’re writing a sales letter for haemorrhoid medication.

Writing When You’re Tired: It’s All In The Preparation

Most of the things that you can do to help with writing when you’re tired occur before you get tired.

Essentially, you need to make it as easy for yourself to continue writing when you’re tired as possible.

If you have to do research – then you’re going to fail.

If you have to constantly fill up your mug of coffee, then you’re going to fail.

If you have to remember if Character A likes Character C or hates them, you’re going to fail.

If you can’t remember any of the benefits of Company X’s product and you haven’t written them down, you’re going to fail.

So here are a few simple steps:

Plan ahead. Know exactly what you’re going to write before you get tired. If this means scene breakdowns or endless bullet points, then so be it.
Get everything you need and put it in one place. You should not be searching for stuff when you’re also writing when you’re tired. It’ll derail you and you’ll never get it back.
Get your cookies, coffee or water beforehand. When you get tired, your brain will try and sneak in little ways for you to procrastinate. Getting drinks is one of those ways. I make tea when I should be working. Get a flask of hot water, a jug of cold water and your food for the session ready and next to you so that isn’t an excuse.
Phone off, internet off, laptop charged. Get rid of any easy distractions.

Actually Writing When You’re Tired

Once you’ve got that covered, you’ll want to get as much done as possible. If you have twenty articles to write before a midnight deadline, then it’s better to have fifteen done by Five P.M. and only have five to do in seven hours than it is to have done five by 5p.m. and have fifteen to do in seven hours. (Here’s how to think of deadlines, by the way.)

You’ll find that you gain more enthusiasm and get a second wind once you’ve gone past a certain point – it might be half-way or two-thirds of the way – you’ll find that out when you get there.

When you’re writing when you’re tired, towards the end of the day, here are a few tips to remember:

KEEP GOING. If you’ve ever done long-distance running (bear in mind I’m no expert at that) you’ll know that the worst thing you can do is take a break. You’ll lose your rhythm, timing and you’ll realise how fatigued you actually are. Writing is the same. Past a certain point, you just have to keep going.
KEEP OFF THE INTERNET. Keep away from all distractions. They’re like Kryptonite at this point.
Forget Editing. Unless you have a hard deadline, you don’t need to edit on the same day you write. If you’re writing when you’re tired, you shouldn’t also edit when you’re tired. Even if you aren’t, it’s best to split editing and writing into two jobs anyway.
Keep Your Eye On The Goal. Even if you’re like me and you constantly monitor the Word Count of your document, it doesn’t matter. If it gets you there, it gets you there. Each word is another one on the way to finishing and sleeping.

Closing Thoughts

Writing When You’re Tired is difficult, but it’s also pretty awesome. You get a sense of satisfaction, and it’s not like you’re in the military or anything. The worst that can happen is you need to spend more time editing.

All of these things also apply when you’re not tired. It never hurts to plan ahead and get what you need to do done earlier, so it’s not like you lose out either.

P.S. Let me know if you have any other techniques for writing when you’re tired in the comments below.

My Guide to Writing When You’re Tired