When Writing Becomes a Job: How I Found the Spark Again
✨ From Unfettered Joy to Creative Grit: Finding My Way Back to the Spark ✨Do you remember those first heady weeks—or even years—of writing before you were published?
The determination to carve out time, the thrill of chasing the story that burned to be told?
Publishing is supposed to increase that joy. Right?
To lift you higher as you pursue your dream?
The truth is… not so much.
When you're writing that first book (or even the first in a new series), your creativity is free.
There are no reader expectations. No editorial feedback. No sales goals looming over your shoulder.
It’s just you and the story—pure, magical, unfiltered. Until publication, those characters and that world are yours and yours alone.
But everything shifts once your book is out in the world.
Whether you’re indie or traditionally published, that joyful manuscript becomes… a product. A piece of a growing career. A line on a royalty report.
You’re no longer aspiring. You’re published.
Now, there are voices. Lots of them.
Readers (the kind ones and the ones who really shouldn’t have left a review).
Editors. Publishers. Marketers. Fellow authors.
And of course, your own inner critic who’s suddenly gotten way louder.
Even indie authors—who are technically their own publishers—carry heavy loads:
📚 Editorial deadlines (self-set, but no less real)
📅 Release schedules
📢 Marketing goals
💸 Budget concerns
💬 Reader expectations
After years of publishing, I found my perfect editor (shoutout to Andie at Beyond the Proof! 🙌), but that means planning ahead and turning in books on a timeline. That’s not nothing. That’s pressure.
And slowly—quietly, almost unnoticeably—the fizz of inspiration that used to feel like champagne in my veins… started to flatten.
Writing turned into a job. A serious one.
One I couldn’t just set aside when I “wasn’t feeling it.”
Now, don’t get me wrong—I don’t believe in forcing the words or writing every day no matter what. (You know me better than that.)
But I do believe in honoring the shift: that writing after publication is a very different beast than writing before it.
Some days are harder.
Some stories feel heavier.
The joy? It’s still there—it’s just not unfettered anymore.
The inspiration? It still comes—but now it rides shotgun with expectations.
We can’t go back to that old joy. The past is past.
But we can go forward into something just as beautiful.
For me, reclaiming the spark meant reclaiming my creative control:
Over the content.
Over the tone.
Over the length.
Over everything.
I won’t sacrifice that for reader expectations, editorial advice, or even the ambitious goals I set for myself.
I’m still learning to silence some of the voices in my head.
But I’m also learning to listen more closely to the ones that matter—the ones that sound like me.
If your spark feels like it’s gone completely, maybe it’s time to pause and ask:
Why do I write?
What do I want to say?
What am I afraid of letting go of—and what might I gain if I do?
I did that soul searching.
It wasn’t easy.
But it led me somewhere new. Somewhere freer. And, yes, somewhere joyful.
Wherever you are on your journey—early days or decades in—I hope you find your way back to what lights you up inside.
✨ Happy writing, friend. ✨
P.S. If you want to read my recipe for active ways to find joy in your writing, check out
When Writing Feels Heavy: A Gentle Path Back to Joy.
For info on all of my books, visit my website.
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