As a writer, you may get frustrated when you just can’t focus, or tired when you can’t get your latest character to jump off the page. You may get upset when your articles don’t evoke that extra sparkle or you get so excited you can’t sit still. Have any of these ever happened to you? So what do you do?

Channel those emotions. Turn the tables on frustration, impatience, or excitement and give your writing a boost. Keep the writing going and moving forward. How?

1. Let’s say you can’t focus right now or even today. Give yourself some time away from writing. Go for a walk, read a book, play that computer game, or mix up a batch of cookies. You get the idea…do something entirely different than the writing you should be doing. Take a few minutes or even a couple of hours and see if that won’t help your focus. You’ll probably come back to your writing refreshed and ready to focus.

2. Brainstorm about your characters when they get stagnant. Take out a sheet of paper, jot down your characters and write everything and anything about them. It may be silly stuff, how they should dress, what they had for breakfast, or who their latest victim is. Something will click and you’ll be off and writing about them sooner than you think.

3. You’ve been asked to write a travel article describing the newest bed and breakfast in your area. All your words come out trite and overused. How can you get it to spark the interest of your magazine’s readers? Think like a traveler who has never visited a bed and breakfast before. What would they like, what do they expect, or what questions should they ask the owners? Answer those questions and the article already is off to a good start.

4. It’s a great thing to get excited about your writing. Keep that excitement going as you think about the projects you want to write. Make a list, jot down ideas, sit down and write…whatever it takes to keep you excited. Then remember what it was that made you excited in the first place.

As a human being, you have emotions. You can use them to your advantage as a writer whether you are frustrated, overwhelmed, or enthusiastic. If nothing else, it’s a great place to start to help improve our next writing project.