I can’t write. Do you feel like this? I want to write, but I can’t. It’s so hard to admit this when you have the heart of an author. I can help you to reframe this statement, to sneak your way around it, give it some meaning so that you can make it work for you. I know this sounds unlikely, but awareness is the first step to change and getting to the crux of why you’re not writing is the first step to writing.

Here are five things to say instead of ‘I can’t write’. I invite you to choose one and explore it in your writer’s journal. Did you say you don’t have a writer’s journal? I can’t believe you. I hereby give you permission to buy a gorgeous new journal, specifically to be used as your writer’s journal. Write your name in the front of it and get ready to use it daily. I’ll give you some ideas for that, too. First, here are some other ways to say ‘I can’t write’.

1. I can’t think of anything to write today. Okay, you can’t find words to put on paper or screen right now, on this day, so write that. I can’t write today. I can’t speak for tomorrow or next month, only for today. You never know what you might be able to do tomorrow.

2. I’m too busy to write today. Your life is so full, that you simply do not have a spare hour a day to write. You’re flat out living the life you’ve created for yourself and there is no time to sit and write. It’s okay, we can address this and I have some suggestions for you, in another post coming soon.

3. I can’t write well enough to be published. You have ideas, dreams and maybe even goals, but you do not feel accomplished enough to write a word today. Not one useless word. That is a long way from not being a writer, it’s a mindset. I can give you a dozen reasons to start to write before you even begin to feel like you’re able. I’ll share my own story of feeling unworthy as a writer. Keep an eye out for a new post on that.

4. I can’t start to write because I have no idea how to finish my book. It’s not as though you have no idea how to begin, you just can’t see yourself finishing your book, so you don’t start. This is a problem, but not an insurmountable one, I promise. Watch this space.

5. I can’t decide which of my ideas I should write first. You have a whole lot of ideas, maybe you love some of them, you just can’t choose one. What a great problem to have, some writers would kill to be in this situation. That doesn’t mean I don’t understand the frustration you’re feeling, and I do have some ideas to share on this subject, coming soon.

Can you relate to one or more of these five ways of saying I can’t write? The one that tortures me the most is number four, not knowing the ending can really do my head in, and yet writing the ending first takes some of my writer energy out of me as I build a first draft. I’ll write about each of these five writer problems and create links in this post so you can see what I think will help you overcome each of these issues. In the meantime, grab that writer’s journal I recommended and explore the torture of not writing. I promise it’s a worthwhile action to take.