Stop Letting Circumstances Get In the Way of Writing

How often have you said, “I can’t write today because…” Fill in the blank with any reason you prefer, like “I don’t have enough time,” “I need to work and earn some money,” “I am over-committed,” “I have to do X, Y, or Z,” “My mother, father, kids, partner, boss, or friend won’t like it,” “I’m too tired,” or “I don’t have the energy.” Each time you say something like this, you make yourself a victim of your circumstances. You give away your power to something outside yourself.

Circumstances are external conditions or situations that can influence your life—including your writing—if you let them. While some circumstances are unavoidable, how you react to them shapes your experience.

React to them as a victim, and you will experience victimhood. Respond to them as a powerful creator, and you will experience your ability to create different circumstances you like more—ones that allow you to write consistently.

Stop Blaming Circumstances

If you want to write every day and reach your publishing goals, stop blaming circumstances for why you haven’t done so. It’s not the circumstances’ fault; it’s yours.

Plain and simple, placing blame on your circumstances is an excuse for not standing in your power and creating something different and preferable. It’s a way to remain stuck rather than doing something to change your circumstances.

Are you ready to stop placing fault outside yourself and take responsibility for creating different circumstances that allow you to write when you want to? If so, it’s time to start dealing with them more productively.

Stop Letting Circumstances Rule Your Writing Life

Life is unpredictable. Sometimes, you will find yourself at the mercy of external circumstances. Life will “life,” and you will have to deal with that circumstance—like it or not. And that might mean putting off the writing session you planned.

Notice that I wrote “deal with” instead of “blame it.” When you are faced with a job loss, relationship issues, health challenges, car accidents, or death in the family, you have a choice. You can see these unforeseen circumstances as roadblocks or opportunities. You can observe that, for some reason, you created this experience, or you can believe that “bad things” always happen to you. It’s God’s will, bad luck, or the Universe playing a bad joke on you…or giving you a sign that you shouldn’t be writing at all.

You might feel as if these circumstances are out of your control. But if you surrender to them, you feel helpless. If you blame them, you feel powerless.

Instead, realize that you can change your circumstances. It’s always possible, especially if you stand in your power and freely choose to create a situation that supports your writing goals.

Take responsibility, and admit that if you created “this” circumstance, you can create a different one.

You are a powerful creator. You can decide what circumstance you prefer (and that allows you to write) and find a way to create that instead.

Create Different Circumstances

Indeed, you are a creator. It’s who you are at your core.

You create all the time. Often, you create things you do not want, like circumstances that prevent you from writing. You may do this without awareness or because of habitual subconscious beliefs that influence what you attract.

And sometimes sh*t happens, and these experiences don’t feel like your “creations.” But on some level, you have attracted them into your experience, even if only to learn and grow. (It’s even possible—probable—you created your circumstances so you don’t have to write, maybe because you are afraid to put words on paper.)

The first step in your evolution is to realize that if you attracted a situation that prevents you from writing into your experience, you can create something different.

Become Aware of Your Self-Talk

Start creating a different circumstance by becoming aware of your self-talk. Reflect on your inner dialogue.

What stories are you telling yourself about your circumstances? Are you saying, “It’s his/her fault that I can’t write,” “I can’t change this situation, so I might as well just stop working on this project,” “This is out of my control,” or “I’m someone who always ends up needing to put my writing last”? If so, you are perpetuating your circumstances. Not only that, but you are also creating more circumstances you don’t want or like because they seem to stop you from writing.

Create a different narrative. Change your self-talk.

Remind yourself you are a creator…and a writer. Then, develop a plan to create something different.

Start by changing your stories about your circumstances. And, if nothing less, take responsibility for your reaction to your circumstances. That alone puts you in the powerful place of being able to choose a response to your situation.

Explore Your Circumstances

List all the circumstances currently in your life that you say prevent you from writing. Then, list the negative thoughts you have related to them.

However, don’t just explore the thoughts you have now. Remember your thoughts before the circumstances show up in your life.

For example, if your current circumstance is that you can’t write daily because you need to work a “real job” and earn money, consider if you told all your friends that writers don’t earn enough to make a living. And recall that you said those words with a lot of negative emotion. If that was the case, you can see how your words, emotions, and focus created your current circumstances.

You can blame your partner for insisting you get a job and stop pretending to be a writer. You can point the finger at yourself and repeat your story that you’ll always be a starving writer, but that won’t help you change your circumstances.

Changing your stories will. Stop telling stories that contain excuses, reasons, and blame. Instead, take responsibility—at least for the fact that you created your circumstances. For instance, admit that you were asking the “Universe” to give you a reason to avoid writing because you are afraid of failing at this dream.

Then, tell stories about how you turned your circumstances around—or are in the process of doing so. Think back to a time when you wrote consistently and even got paid decently for your work; affirm that you can create similar opportunities. Tell yourself you are an amazing, well-paid writer in constant demand.

You are Not at the Mercy of Circumstance

Life will always present challenges, but you have the power and freedom to move past them. You can create different circumstances that allow you to write.

You are not at the mercy of your circumstances—unless you give your power away to them. As soon as you say, “I can’t change this because it has power over me,” you become a victim.

Choose a new, powerful response—rather than an old blaming reaction. Shape your writing life with your choices and actions, not with your circumstances.

If you are unsure how to assert your power as a creator and change your circumstances, I’d like to invite you to join the Inspired Creator Community. The doors are now open for the September 2024 through February 2025 session. Members receive the bonus of six months of access the Nonfiction Writers’ University.

And watch the free replays of my recent “Create What Really Matters to You” masterclass. They cover many tips on how to avoid being a victim of your circumstances.

Are you a victim of your circumstances…do you let them stop you from writing? Tell me in a comment below. And, please share this post with a writer who might benefit from reading it.