My husband commented last week that he no longer had a craving for that first cup of coffee in the morning.

I said my taste had been changing, too. I used to consider myself a chocoholic, but I no longer craved chocolate.

Hmm.

Getting ready for a future yard sale, I found myself putting a lot of board games we loved to play in the past into the box. They’ve just lost their appeal.

Hmm.

Could the same thing happen with writing? Could it lose its attraction?

Hmm.

I asked a couple of writer-friends. 

At first they were aghast at the mere thought, but finally reasoned that if other things in life could lose their appeal, they guessed the same thing could happen with writing.

So, how will you know if this happens to you? And what, if anything, can be done about it?

First, the easy answer: you’ll know if it happens to you because you won’t be carrying your coffee into your home office each morning and rereading what you wrote the previous day—before anyone else in your household is even awake. 

You won’t spend endless hours perusing your lists of possible titles, character names, exciting verbs, and so on. And, you definitely won’t be shifting things around on your calendar to allow for more writing time.

The second question is harder to answer. You can give the “writer within” a boost by reading a book by an exciting author you’d like to emulate, you can reread your own work and take pride in your own style, read your positive reviews, or give yourself a vacation from writing for awhile—hoping that you’ve just burned the candle at both ends for far too long and need to revive your spirit.

Maybe try faking yourself out. Take all of your writing “stuff” and box it up. Put it on a high shelf and spend some time brainstorming what your future looks like without writing in it.

Take a nap.

Go for a walk.

Visit a friend.

Then, unpack that box. This is nonsense.

Once a writer, always a writer. 

There’s nothing on earth quite like it!