The process of writing a novel is a long, difficult, and tiresome thing. It can be very easy to lose inspiration, especially when life outside your writing is hard or you’ve been slogging away on the same project for a while. There are a few little things that I find are great for injecting a little of that passion back, which also coincides with a handy method for editing too.

It can often feel like all this time I spend pounding away at the keyboard doesn’t produce anything. I don’t have anything tangible after and sometimes, when things are tough, that can make it easy to forget the final product. Sometimes a word count on a screen offers little comfort or accomplishment.

I very rarely actually print my work, partly because nothing ever feels finished enough to waste the paper on and partly because I’m convinced that all printers are out to get me. It can be easy to forget just how amazing it feels to hold that work in your hand, to flick through the pages you’ve worked so hard on all these years. Even just a print out for scrawling across can be enough to remind me both what I’m working towards and what it’s come from.

So if you’re feeling a little disillusioned with your writing, maybe try printing out a chapter or two and have a read. Touch the words, smell the paper. It might just give you that little boost you’re looking for.