March is nearly upon us and with it comes the Christian tradition of Lent. This forty-day period (taking place from Wednesday, March 5 to Thursday, April 17 in 2025) is normally used for prayer and fasting, but many have adopted it as a way to give up something they love, such as sugar, coffee, or other consumable items that are not the best for our health. Some may even try to give up being on social media all the time or stop watching YouTube videos to be more productive. There is an advantage to this, for lack of a better word, detox as it gives the mind a chance to reset and is something that can be practiced by anyone, even writers.
To those of you who are writers, why not try giving up something unique this year? Something that may, at the end of forty days, benefit your writing and how you write? We extend to you five things a writer could consider giving up this Lent season. Give up whatever you are most comfortable with and see how you feel come April 17.
Give Up Self-Doubt
Perhaps the biggest thing all writers experience is self-doubt. We doubt our capabilities of telling a good story. We doubt if anyone will even read our book once it’s out there. We doubt if what we are saying even matters. This Lent, stop doubting yourself and just write. Don’t even think about what others might think; think about the passion that caused you to start writing in the first place. Your idea is what you want to write about, not what someone else wants to write about. Think about how you could impact a single person’s life once your book is out there. Think about how you could bring joy to so many readers because of your story. But don’t worry about the “shoulda, coulda, woulda” yet when nothing has happened. Write with confidence and no doubt in your mind.
Take a Break From What You’ve Been Writing
We all need a break, especially if we are having writer’s block. If this is you, you are challenged this Lent to put the manuscript down that has you stumped (or even if you feel like you need to add/take out more) and do not even look at it for the next forty-days. I know. This sounds daunting and will be challenging since the mind of a writer never stops, but when you don’t look at your work for a while, then pick it up later and read it again, inspiration more often than not sparks, getting you out of that block or giving you clarity on what it is you need to do so you can keep writing your story.
Take Out Unnecessary Material
Do you have a story that may sound like it’s going on and on and on? Do you have a scene in your story that you wanted to put in, but reading it with the rest of the story just doesn’t flow all that well? Have you written a very large manuscript and want to shorten it down? This Lent, take the forty days to focus solely on trimming down your story. For this one, you can even recruit outside help through family and friends or even beta readers. They have not read your story as many times as you have and getting a fresh pair of eyes on it can help you find the parts that may just not work as well with your story and can be taken out.
Give Up Self-Editing
Of course you want to tell a good story, but you are also most likely thinking about your story being properly edited. Correct grammar and style in a story really help keep the reader’s attention and allows them an enjoyable error-free reading experience. There are times, however, when writers focus a bit too much on the editing when they haven’t even finished their story yet. I can guarantee that when your editor brain and your writer brain clash too early in the writing process, it will lead to writer’s block or to not writing altogether. This Lent, silence the editor part of you and just focus on writing that first draft. Don’t worry about correct grammar, don’t worry about potential inconsistencies with characters, don’t worry about run-on sentences or lengthy paragraphs. Just write. Everything can always be polished later.
Give Up Procrastinating
There are two kinds of writers in this world: those who can’t stop writing and those who want to write something, but have yet to put pen to paper. For those in the latter category, use this year’s Lent to finally get that story out of your head and onto paper. It doesn’t matter if you write out your ideas on pieces of scrap paper, in a notebook, on your phone or tablet, or in a Word document. It doesn’t matter if you just write an outline or jump right into writing chapter one. What matters is you begin. Once you do, it will stop feeling less scary to write, and the more you write, the more inspired you will feel to keep writing.
To any writer, all of these suggestions on what to give up can sound challenging to take on, but it doesn’t have to be. Rather, think of it as an opportunity to help further strengthen yourself as a writer by focusing on one element that you may be struggling with. Best of luck on whatever you decide to give up this Lent season!
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