creative writing on why not to be late

Essay on Being Late to School: Hurry Up with New Ideas 2024

You push the snooze button once again and finally open your eyes. It is already 8:50, and your classes start at 9. “I’m going to be late again!”— you think, already in full panic mode. In a minute, you rush out the door half-dressed, swallowing your sandwich on the go. 

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Does this happen to you every morning? Then, writing an essay on being late to class will be a beneficial task for you.

In the article, you’ll see how to approach writing a “being late” essay. Our custom-writing team has collected the most useful tips that will help you nail the task. Additionally, you will find here:

• topics to write about;
• examples of writing different types of essays on being late to class. 

☑️ How to Write Essays about Tardiness

• 📜 Essays on Being Late: Different Types
• 💡 Top Essay Ideas
• 🔎 References

In case you have to write an essay on being late in general, regardless of the situation, the following tips are for you. Learn how to compose a successful 500-words essay on the topic:   

Step #1: Start with describing a situation when being on time is extremely important.

Let the situation be a job interview, for instance. Tell about the consequences of being late in that case. Can a person who is late for a job interview actually get a job?

Step #2: Now, you can discuss reasons for tardiness.

So, why do some people tend to be late regularly? What excuses do they usually have? Are there any scientific explanations of this phenomenon? Give answers in your essay.

Step #3: Finally, you can discuss how to manage this problem.

Introduce some basic principles of time management. Don’t forget to add your recommendations. If you’ve already had a similar issue, describe how you handled it.

If you have to write an essay about your tardiness, here’s how to apologize for being late:

📜  Different Types of Essays on Being Late: How to Write

Did you know that there are several types of essays on being late? And each type requires different structure. Sounds overwhelming, right? 

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Worry not: we have an explanation for every type of essay. With our advice, you can nail your paper on coming late to school!

Apology Letter for Being Late

You write an apology letter when you need to report why you were late. It’s a short, formal essay addressed to your teacher or professor. It can seem daunting at first, but it’s relatively easy to write.

• Start with your teacher’s or principal’s name. You can add “dear” if you want. Example: Dear Mrs [your teacher’s name]
• Apologize for your lateness. Be sincere and straightforward. Example: I am very sorry I missed the first part of your class today.
• Explain why you were late. Don’t make up excuses! Describe the situation as it happened. Example: I was late because I got caught up in a traffic jam.
• Say that you understand that you were wrong. Promise that you won’t be late again. Example: I understand that I should have gotten up earlier. I’ll do my best not to let this happen again.
• Ask what you can do to catch up with the material you’ve missed. Example: I will do the classwork I’ve missed. Please allow me to write the exam I’ve missed.
• Sign the letter with your name and a complimentary close. Example: Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, [your name]

Cause and Effect Essays for Being Late

Papers on lateness are great for exploring causes and effects. In your essay, you can focus on the reasons behind tardiness and the consequences of being late.

• Select a problem that you can work with. Example: Being late for school causes a lot of stress for a student .
• State the leading cause of the problem. Example: Lateness is often caused by a lack of sleep due to stress or too much work.
• Think about the possible effects of this problem. Example: Tardiness can lead to more stress-related problems.
• Write a conclusion. You can simply sum up what you described in the essay. Example: As you can see, being late often causes additional stress.

Narrative Essay for Being Late

Writing a narrative essay is almost like telling a story. In this case, you’ll compose a short story about your absence or tardiness. Here are some tips:

• Write a clear introduction. For example, describe the day when you were late for school. Example: One day I was late for a science lesson and missed a very exciting experiment.
• Write from the first-person perspective. This is instrumental if you’re describing something that happened to you personally. Example: I want to write about an experience that taught me a lot.
• Tell the whole story! Start by describing the reasons why you were late and finish with the outcomes and the lessons learned. Example: In the end, I understood that I should manage my time better.

Reflective Essay for Being Late

A reflective paper is a lot like a narrative essay, but it’s more formal. Here you can reflect on your understanding of punctuality and talk about what influenced it.

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• Start by formulating the main idea or a thesis. Example: Understanding how my actions affected other people helped me to become more punctual.
• Describe what you’ve learned through experience and how it influenced you. Example: This experience showed me that if you’re tardy, you can miss the most important events in your life.
• Don’t be afraid to show some creativity and use descriptive language in your reflective essay. Example: The realization hit me like lightning.

Argumentative Essay for Being Late

When writing about being late, you will need to convince the reader of your viewpoint by using arguments.

For example, you can choose to write about how lateness can affect academic performance:

• Formulate your topic as a question. The answer will become your thesis statement. Example: Topic: How can tardiness affect academic performance? Thesis: Students that come late to school disrupt the discipline and miss out on important information, leading to poor academic performance.
• Introduce two arguments—one for and one against your statement. Example: Tardiness negatively affects students’ academic performance, although some people think it’s an exaggeration.
• Present arguments that will persuade the reader that your point is correct and that the opposite is wrong. Example: Students who come to school late miss the first part of the discussion, which makes it hard for them to understand the lesson.

💡  Essays on Being Late: Top Ideas

In some cases, you’re allowed to select what to discuss in your paper. There are several angles to consider the topic from, and you may have trouble picking one.

Can’t decide what to write about in your essay on being late to class? Here are some ideas you can choose from with examples.

Reasons for Being Late to Class

You probably think that laziness and poor time management are the main reasons why students don’t arrive in time. For your essay on being late to school, you might also want to consider the following ideas:

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• Some live too far away, and it’s difficult for them to arrive on time.
• Some have illnesses or disabilities that cause them to be late.
• Sometimes students experience too much stress and have trouble sleeping.
• Learners who are bullied at school may refuse to go back there.
• Issues with public transport may result in delays.
• Some are afraid of their teachers, or they don’t want to write tests.
• Some students want to challenge authority by breaking the rules.
• Some might have problematic parents who try to keep them at home.
• Working because of the family’s tough financial situation forces students to skip classes.
• Practicing religious rites may result in lateness to school.
• Kids can come late on purpose to show off.
• Conflicts with teachers make learners avoid attending classes.
• Caring for younger siblings may cause lateness.
• Another reason to consider for your essay is the desire to get an adrenaline rush.
• A car breaking down or a bike’s flat tire can cause learners to be unpunctual.
• Some students are not motivated to study.
• Living in a troubled neighborhood can prevent punctuality.
• Kids may fall asleep in public transport and pass their stop.
• If a child is inattentive in the morning, they may forget to get out of the house in time.
• Caring for pets before school can be a reason for students to be late.
• Some are exhausted and sleep through their alarms.
• If something around the house needs repair, students may fail to arrive at school on time.
• Going to bed late at night makes it difficult to get up in the morning.
• Forgetting their belongings at home may cause students to go back to collect them.
• An essay on being late to school might want to look at mental health problems as a cause for lateness.
• Some might be negatively influenced by their peers.
• Many students spend too much time getting ready in the morning.
• Noisy neighbors can cause sleep problems or even make one miss one’s alarm.
• Family problems often affect children’s capability to be organized and punctual.
• Many school kids like buying coffee before class and spend a lot of time in queues.
• Students might skip a class because they haven’t done their homework.
• For some people, it’s tough to keep track of time.
• Absence can be a result of caring for elders.
• Some may spend too much time preparing breakfast .
• Some students’ parents distract them instead of helping to get ready for school.

You can discuss one of these reasons in your essay about tardiness and propose what can be done:

Students who live too far away should inform their teachers beforehand that they can be late.

Lateness and Academic Performance

Alternatively, you can focus on the impacts of tardiness on studying. Explain the effects of poor attendance in an essay: write about one of the following points.

• During the first hours in the morning, students are the most attentive.
• The first few minutes of class often cover essential information.
• If you are often late, your tardiness can become chronic, which can affect your academic performance .
• Tardiness causes behavioral problems and can lead to suspension.
• Lateness makes you distracted and less attentive.
• A significant disadvantage of being late is possible conflicts with teachers .
• Students who are late have problems with keeping accurate records.
• The ability to follow the instructions is reduced in tardy learners.
• Students that often arrive late can miss out on important tests or exams.
• Lateness increases academic stress .
• Being tardy increases the school workload at home.
• One pupil’s lateness can disrupt the whole class.
• Tardiness negatively affects one’s reputation .
• Lateness usually makes learners feel disconnected from school.
• Tardiness can result in dropouts.
• Teachers often decide to keep late students out of class.

• Learners who are always late might have a harder time getting teachers’ help and support.
• At worst, chronic tardiness can delay the graduation of affected students.
• The stress that comes with being late to class can impact learners’ concentration .
• Teachers may want to check late students’ homework more thoroughly.
• Tardy pupils may be assigned extra tasks or tests.
• Tardy students may have to report to the principal .
• An instructor is less likely to grant you automatic A or other favors if you’re chronically late.
• Tardiness can start a snowball effect with many unintended adverse consequences.
• In a lesson with group projects , late teenagers disappoint their classmates.
• Chronic lateness in middle school may lead to problems in high school.
• Late students may not be admitted to exams .
• Tardy students might find it challenging to keep up with the education process.
• Tardiness decreases motivation to study .
• Some teachers punish late students by deliberately lowering their grades.
• Pupils who are not punctual are unlikely to get school awards and prizes.
• Continually tardy learners are likely to be detained after school.
• Parents might want to punish their chronically late children by making them to do additional work.
• Classmates will consider their tardy peers last when they need to select partners for group projects.

You can also discuss how tardy students affect the activity of the whole class:

Students who are late for school cause teachers to interrupt their lessons. They take other students’ attention away from the teacher and can sometimes disrupt discipline in class.

Reasons for Being Punctual

Naturally, every student needs to learn how to manage time properly . So, why not write an essay about the importance of being punctual? Here are some topic examples:

• Punctuality makes you more disciplined .
• Punctuality means not only getting to school on time but also never missing your deadlines.
• Punctual students perform better in academics .
• Punctuality makes your thoughts more precise and your mind more stable.
• Punctual students won’t get in trouble or detention due to lateness.
• Punctuality characterizes a confident person who is realistic about how long their actions take.
• If you’re always on time, you rarely miss crucial information and can learn more skills .
• Another reason why not being late is beneficial is that you can perform more tasks during the day.
• By being punctual, one shows respect for other people and oneself.
• People have more confidence in those who are always on time.
• It isn’t easy to follow one’s schedule without being punctual.
• You don’t need to apologize if you’re not late.
• Punctuality saves time and reduces stress .
• A punctual person does not have to cancel plans because of their lateness.
• For a punctual person, it’s easier to multitask .
• You are less likely to have problems with teachers or classmates.
• Punctuality is a valuable skill in all spheres of life.
• Punctuality leaves you more time to enjoy your hobbies and relax.
• Punctual students are considered reliable.
• An argumentative paper could demonstrate that there are simply no disadvantages to always being on time.
• Punctual kids don’t force teachers to interrupt lessons and have fewer conflicts with them.
• Punctual students are more organized.
• Timeliness helps students to build confidence .
• Punctuality goes hand in hand with professionalism and attention to detail.
• It’s less awkward to wait for someone than have someone else wait for you.
• Precise scheduling teaches learners how to manage time and prioritize things .
• You don’t come off as disrespectful or arrogant.
• A punctual person has their life under control.
• Punctual students worry less about making mistakes .
• Others don’t make fun of people who avoid being late.
• Punctual people are usually treated with respect.
• Punctuality helps learners build their integrity .
• Always being on time makes you more likable.
• You’re comfortable with having some downtime if you’re punctual.
• Students’ punctuality increases their self-control .

You can also try and find other reasons why being punctual is better than being tardy.

If you’re punctual, you have better relations with teachers, and you’re considered reliable.

How to Stop Being Late to School

Still haven’t found a good topic for your essay on being late to class? Try writing about how to avoid lateness!

• Calculate the best time for you to wake up, get ready, and leave the house.
• Keep track of how much time you spend on your morning routine.
• Learn to respect your teachers and fellow students.
• Think of how to reduce stress.
• Try going to bed and waking up earlier.
• Don’t be afraid to discuss your tardiness problem with teachers.
• Leave the house as early as possible.
• Set several alarms without a snooze option.
• Think of the best way to get to school beforehand.
• Invite your friends to meet somewhere and go to school together.
• Make your alarm melody louder and more energetic.
• Start to follow the same sleep schedule every day.
• Prepare everything in the evening so that you don’t have to do it before school.
• Set alarms to know when it is time to go out, eat, or do homework .
• Spend more time outside to reduce stress.
• Set your watch and clocks five or ten minutes ahead.
• Exercise more . Morning jogging is especially helpful for developing punctuality.
• Do your homework as early as possible.
• Organize your working space and make it comfortable.
• Plan your activities so that you can go to bed earlier.
• Spend less time on social networks or playing computer games .
• Remember that being late is disrespectful.
• Ask your parents to help you prepare for school quicker.
• Learn the schedule of the public transport you use.
• Avoid getting distracted on your way to school.
• Respect your own time and find ways to stay motivated.
• Remember that arriving too late often means missing out on important information.
• Don’t fall asleep on public transport on your way to school.
• Reward yourself when you arrive on time.
• If you live far from your school, find a friend who has a car and could drive you.
• Have a nutritious breakfast that can be quickly prepared.
• Check your backpack before going out to make sure you didn’t forget anything.
• Ask your parents or siblings to wake you up if you sleep through the alarm.
• Try being punctual without rushing.
• Ask your parents to avoid distracting you in the morning.
• Don’t use your smartphone while having breakfast or getting ready to leave.

You can come up with your own tips as well!

Try to keep your things organized so that you can get ready more quickly.

Excuses for Being Late

You know how excuses for being late to school can sometimes be funny and make teachers question if you’re telling the truth. Yet, there are many valid reasons for a delay, which are helpful to know. Discussing why students failed to come on time may be interesting for an essay on being late to school. For example:

• Illness verified by a parent.
• Medical appointments.
• Problems in the family .
• Extreme weather conditions.
• Participation in community events.

There are many legitimate reasons for a student’s absence. Here’s how you can write about them in your essay:

Example: Students with ADHD are usually not punished when they’re late, but they’re encouraged to be more punctual next time.

Now you know everything you need to write a perfect paper! There is one more piece of advice we want to give you. Don’t forget about the deadline for submitting your essay on being late.

And thanks for reading the article! Send it to your peers who might find it useful.

🤔  Essays on Being Late FAQ

Students are often latecomers. Coming to class on time may seem unimportant. There is usually no serious punishment, which is one of the reasons why some students are always late.

The disadvantages are numerous. A latecomer attracts the unwanted attention of the audience and provokes negative reactions. Those who are late do not make a good impression. Coming late is bad in most aspects except for a few advantages like sleeping more.

An occasional late arrival doesn’t necessarily say anything about your personality. Everyone might have some bad days when things just don’t work out well. But always coming late (or often enough) says that you are irresponsible and have poor time-management skills.

Sometimes, students are asked to write an essay after they are late to class. The topic of that essay is simple: being late. It is a means of discipline to help students understand how bad it is to arrive late.

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🔎  References

• Solve a Teaching Problem: Students Come to Class Late: Carnegie Mellon University
• 5 Ways to Stop Being Late to All of Your Classes: Study.com
• The Impact of Tardiness on School Success: Hailey Elementary
• The Role of Personality and Agencies of Socialization in Tardiness, Absenteeism and Academic Performance: Researchgate
• Cause and Effect Essays: EAP Foundation
• Narrative Essays: Purdue University
• Reflective Writing: Plymouth University
• 4 Habits of Punctual People: Fast Company
• This Is Why You’re Always on Time: Huffpost
• Student Truancy and Lateness: OECD iLibrary
• 9 Extremely Good Reasons You Should Never Be Late Again: Inc.com
• Best and Worst Excuses for Being Late to Work: The Balance Careers
• The Advantages of Being on Time vs. Being Late to School: Seattle PI
• Never Be Late Again: 15 Tips to Guarantee You’ll Always Be on Time: Entrepreneur
• How to Deal with a Teen Who Is Late for School Every Morning: Very Well Family
• Reducing Late Arrivals: Duquesne University
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Thanks for your guide to starting, developing and finishing essays on being late. Hope it will help me writing an outstanding essay!

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66 Night Journal Prompts: Fun and Creative Writing Ideas for Late Nights

By: Author Valerie Forgeard

Posted on Published: September 30, 2022  - Last updated: December 26, 2023

Categories Creativity , Inspiration , Self Improvement , Writing

Do you have trouble falling asleep at night? Or maybe you find yourself wide awake at 3 a.m., unable to get your mind to stop racing. If so, you might benefit from keeping a night journal.

Night journaling is a great way to relax and clear your head before bed. It can also be a fun, creative outlet when you can’t sleep!

This article will provide some fun, and creative writing prompts for late-night journaling. We hope these prompts help you get more restful sleep and unleash your inner creativity !

66 Night Journal Prompts

First, choose a writing prompt you feel most comfortable with to get started on your bedtime journaling:

Daily Routine

• What time did you go to bed last night?
• What time did you wake up today?
• What surprised you today?
• What did you do today?

Thoughts and Feelings

• What’s going through your mind right now?
• What are you worried about?
• What thoughts interfere with your sleep?
• What thoughts are on your mind right now?

Reflecting on the Day

• What did you like best about this day?
• What was the best part of your day?
• What was the worst part of your day?
• What did you learn today?

Tomorrow’s Goals

• What do you want to accomplish tomorrow?
• What do you hope will happen tomorrow?
• How can you make tomorrow better than today?

Relationships

• What were people like today?
• How did important people make you feel?
• Who did you spend time with this week?

Personal Growth

• What challenges do you face this week?
• What’s the hardest decision recently?
• What inspires you the most? Why?

Dreams and Sleep

• Describe your last dream in detail
• What thoughts disrupt your sleep?
• How can improve your sleep habits?
• What helps you feel better on bad day?
• What makes you afraid?
• What’s your favorite childhood memory ?

Self-Reflection

• Why do you react to certain people that way?
• What’s influenced you & how?
• What throws you off track?
• Write three things grateful for this week
• What inspires imagination & heart?
• What’s something makes life wonderful?

Inspiration

• Who do you admire & why?
• Who’re the special people in your life?
• Who motivates & excites you daily?

Happiness and Joy

• What brings happiness & joy?
• What makes other people laugh?
• What makes you feel angry/frustrated?

Family and Friends

• What’s your family like?
• Who’s important in your life & why?
• How do loved ones make you feel?

Career and Life Purpose

• What’s your current goal/dream?
• Have any dreams come true lately?
• What’s the best career if money no object?

Emotions and Challenges

• Do you regret anything & why?
• What are you afraid of?
• What makes you feel connected to nature?

Growth and Change

• What do you want to do before dying?
• What needs improvement to grow?
• What advice helps make dreams real?

Perspective and Wellness

• Where would you travel if could tomorrow?
• What does gratitude mean to you?
• How care for mental health better?
• What makes you feel most alone?
• What’s meaning of night to you?

Life Experiences

• Describe childhood in short story
• What impacts people besides yourself?
• What’s an important lesson lately?
• What makes you proud or accomplished?

Imagination

• If I ask God a question, what’s it be?
• What do you wish to tell you earlier?
• What’s your dream home like?
• What change in world if could change one thing?
• What is the best dream you ever had? What was it?
• How nature feels most connected to you?

Writing a Diary Before Going to Bed Can Help to Prepare for the Morning Better

Writing a diary at night has many benefits. One of them is the opportunity to reflect on your day. The end of the day is an excellent time to reflect on the day’s events.

A bedtime journal can be a great way to start your day with focus, clarity, and intention.

Here are some ways a sleep journal can help you better prepare for tomorrow:

• It helps you clear your mind so you can fall asleep more easily.
• It helps you organize your thoughts to wake up refreshed and ready to tackle the day ahead.
• It helps you identify problems that must be solved before they become more extensive during the day or week.
• It helps you identify patterns or trends that may be affecting your mood or productivity at work or at home.

A Bedtime Journal Is a Great Way to Wind Down and Relax Before Bed.

Not only will evening journal prompts help you feel more in control of your negative emotions and stress, but they may also help you sleep better.

Throughout the day, your mind gathers a lot of information and thoughts. A bedtime journal allows you to reflect on the day’s events positively.

You can write your journal prompts in bed with pen and paper or on the computer. The most important thing is to keep it consistent so you don’t lose momentum.

The first step is to find a quiet place where no one will disturb you while you write in your journal. Make sure there are no distractions like ringing phones or people nearby so you can focus on what you want to write about.

Take some time each night to write about one journaling prompt, whether it’s just 5 minutes or an hour before bed. It doesn’t matter how long you take, as long as you repeat it every night!

Nightly Journal Writing Is a Technique That Helps You Get to Know Yourself Better

In it, you write down your thoughts and feelings as they come to you at night before you go to bed.

The benefits of night journaling practice include:

• It helps you relax. Night journaling habits can be relaxing and meditative. It also helps you clear your mind before bed, making it easier to fall asleep faster and longer.
• It helps you deal with stress, anxiety, and depression. Night journals are beneficial for people who have difficulty expressing themselves verbally or in writing when they feel anxious or depressed. When you write something down, you can get rid of pent-up emotions without dealing with the consequences of speaking out loud (or in front of others).
• You can improve your memory and cognitive function by recording your progress. Keeping a night journal is a way to track how things are going for you – what’s working well for you and what’s not – so that, over time, you can see if you need to change anything to make life better overall.

How Much Time Should I Spend on a Night Journal?

The main purpose of the night journal is to record the day’s events so you can look back on them later and see how much your life has changed over time. It’s also a good way to reflect on what you’ve learned so far in your life and what kind of person you want to be. Night journals are personal, but they’re also public – because anyone can read them!

At first glance, keeping night journals may seem like a waste of time or an unnecessary task that keeps you from doing other things that need to get done.

For example, if you get home late from work or school and only have 15 minutes before bed, you may wonder if writing just one sentence about your day (or maybe none) is worth it.

Journaling Improves Self-Awareness

Writing down everything that happened during the day (and how you felt about it) helps you develop better self-awareness about yourself and others.

You Can Also Use It as a Dream Journal

Some people use a diary to write down their thoughts and feelings. Others use it as a dream journal, writing their dreams every morning.

If you’re wondering why someone would write down their dreams, there are many reasons. One of the most common is that dream interpretation is popular in many cultures, including Western culture.

Another reason is that some people find their dreams interesting and enjoy reading about other people’s dreams.

It’s also a reason for keeping a dream journal that it helps with insomnia – if you wake up in the middle of the night, it can be difficult to get back to sleep if your mind is busy with thoughts or worries.

If you already have your dreams written down, your mind will be busy reading them instead of worrying about what you’ve to do tomorrow or what happened yesterday.

A dream journal doesn’t have to be just for writing down your dreams; you can also use it as a night journal where you write down all the things that happened the day before you go to sleep – who did or said what, when, etc. Wake up in the morning and remember something significant that happened yesterday (or earlier in the evening). You can quickly check your evening journal to see if it’s mentioned.

Related Articles

If you appreciated this article, you might also find our “365 Journal Prompts for All Year” engaging and beneficial. It’s designed to keep your journaling journey interesting and insightful every day.

365 Journal Prompts to Help You Reflect, Grow, and Connect: A Year of Self-Discovery

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All About Psychology

If you’re always late you are a creative person

We all arrived late for a meeting, at least in one occasion. But there are people who can be classified as  “chronic latecomers” , because are always late. If you’re one of them here’s a good new: the lack of punctuality may be related to creativity and optimism. In fact, a study conducted at the San Diego State University revealed that people who are always late tend to be more creative.

The type B personality is located at the base of latecoming

In fact, few studies have been done about latecoming. However, a recent study examined 181 workers in New York trying to understand the causes of their delay. These psychologists have found that people who arrive late share a common factor: a type B personality.

That is, they are people who do not usually run from side to side as if their biological clock goes faster than the rest of mortals, but prefer to take their time, and we rarely see them tense or anxious. These people really enjoy their free time and peace of mind, they don’t have the need to fill their days with more activities and be extremely productive.

And exactly this tranquility is what allows them to take the necessary time to analyze problems and find better solutions, so they also tend to be more creative than others. In fact, they are people who are not overwhelmed by little things, they do not care about details but are able to focus on the big picture, which greatly expands their universe of possibilities and allows them find ingenious solutions to problems.

In practice, the fact of being late to appointments is conditioned by the characteristics of the personality, which, in turn, are the same causing that some people are more creative than others.

A distorted perception of time

Beyond personality characteristics, it also seems that people who arrive late are not able to accurately gauge the time passing. In practice, they always feel having more time available or that will end up activities faster, so they tend to be late.

In fact, it turned out that for who has a type A personality one minute passes in 58 seconds, while people with a Type B personality estimate that a minute passes in 77 seconds. This indicates a 17 seconds difference, which added to several hours, can cause a significant delay in their daily lives. In practice, it is as if their biological clock was slower.

Tips for latecomers

Although the delay is related to creativity, the truth is that in many cultures the delay is perceived as a lack of respect for those who wait. In fact, being late often triggers a negative cycle. First, the person who is late conveys a negative image because the delay is considered synonymous of disorganization and lack of professionalism. As a result, the person loses credibility.

Moreover, delays affect negatively the encounter with the other person, generating a feeling of anger that is not good for the relationship, both personal and professional. Therefore, it is better to learn to be punctual. Here are some tips to succeed:

 1. Get organized.  Some people arrive late for lack of organization. When it’s time to go out they don’t find the keys or the mobile phone, so they lose a few precious minutes. Therefore, the first step to be on time is to be organized, both at home and at work. It will also be useful to keep a diary to help you plan your days.

 2. Find out where you lose time.  Often our bad habits are what make us being late. To retrieve the time you need to identify those habits that become black’s holes through which time vanishes. At this point you only have to make sure that those bad habits disappear, replacing them with better habits.

 3. Schedule a margin of error.  Some people are late because they always go against the clock. But you should always keep in mind that you might encounter a traffic jam or the meeting could last longer than expected. Therefore, you should always plan a margin of 15-20 minutes. If you arrive early you can use these minutes to relax and prepare for the meeting.

 4. Get used to wear a watch.  If you have problems to arrange the time required for each activity, the best way for not being late is to look at the clock from time to time. Another possibility is to activate the alarm on your phone.

 5. Valorize time.  In fact, time is the only valuable asset we have. Therefore, it is best not to waste it and do not let others wasting it for our fault. Valuing time in perspective will allow you become aware of the importance of punctuality.

Conte, J. M. et. Al. (2001) Individual Differences in Attentional Strategies in Multitasking Situations. Human Performance; 14(4): 339-358. Conte, J. M. et. Al. (2001) Incremental Validity of Time Urgency and Other Type A Subcomponents in Predicting Behavioral and Health Criteria. Journal of Applied Social Psychology; 31(8): 1727-1748.

Jennifer Delgado

I am a psychologist and I spent several years writing articles for scientific journals specialized in Health and Psychology. I want to help you create great experiences. Learn more about me .

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Creative Nonfiction: A Movement, Not a Moment

This may come as a surprise, but I don’t know who actually coined the term creative nonfiction. As far as I know, nobody knows. I have been using it for a long time, though, as have others, and although the term came into vogue relatively recently (about the time I started this journal, 13 years ago), the kind of writing it describes has a long history. George Orwell’s famous essay, “Shooting an Elephant,” is textbook creative nonfiction, combining personal experience with high-quality literary-writing techniques. Ernest Hemingway’s paean to bullfighting, “Death in the Afternoon,” falls under the creative nonfiction umbrella as does Tom Wolfe’s “The Right Stuff” and Frank McCourt’s “Angela’s Ashes.”

For a time, this kind of writing gained popularity as “New Journalism” due in large part to Wolfe, who published a book of that title in 1973 which declared that this style of writing “would wipe out the novel as literature’s main event.” Gay Talese described New Journalism in the introduction to his landmark collection, “Fame and Obscurity”: “Though often reading like fiction, it is not fiction. It is, or should be, as reliable as the most reliable reportage, although it seeks a larger truth [my italics] than is possible through a mere compilation of verifiable facts, the use of direct quotation and the adherence to the rigid organizational style of the older form.”

This is perhaps creative nonfiction’s greatest asset: It offers flexibility and freedom while adhering to the basic tenets of nonfiction writing and/or reporting. In creative nonfiction, writers can be poetic and journalistic simultaneously. Creative nonfiction writers are encouraged to utilize literary techniques in their prose—from scene to dialogue to description to point of view—and be cinematic at the same time. Creative nonfiction writers write about themselves and others, capturing real people and real life in ways that can and have changed the world. What is most important and enjoyable about creative nonfiction is that it not only allows but also encourages the writer to become a part of the story or essay being written. The personal involvement creates a special magic that alleviates the suffering and anxiety of the writing experience; it provides many outlets for satisfaction and self discovery, flexibility and freedom.

Since the early 1990s, there has been an explosion of creative nonfiction in the publishing and academic worlds. Many of our best magazines—The New Yorker, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, Esquire—publish more creative nonfiction than fiction and poetry combined. Every year, more universities offer Master of Fine Arts degrees in creative nonfiction. Newspapers are publishing an increasing amount of creative nonfiction, not only as features but in the news and Op-Ed pages, as well.

This wasn’t always the case. When I started teaching in the English department at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1970s, the concept of an “artful” or “new” nonfiction was considered, to say the least, unlikely. My colleagues snickered when I proposed teaching a “creative” nonfiction course, while the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences proclaimed that nonfiction writing in general—forget the use of the word creative—was, at best, a craft, not too different from plumbing. As the chairman of our department put it one day in a faculty meeting while we were debating the legitimacy of the course: “After all, gentlemen”—the fact that many of his colleagues were women often slipped his mind—“we’re interested in literature here, not writing.” That remark and the subsequent debate had been precipitated by a contingent of students from the school newspaper who marched on the chairman’s office and politely requested more nonfiction writing courses “of the creative kind.”

One colleague, aghast at the prospect of this “new thing” (creative nonfiction), carried a dozen of his favorite books to the meeting— poetry, fiction and nonfiction—gave a belabored mini-review of each and then, pointing a finger at the editor of the paper and pounding a fist, stated: “After you read all these books and understand what they mean, I will consider voting for a course called creative nonfiction. Otherwise, I don’t want to be bothered.” Luckily, most of my colleagues didn’t want to be bothered fighting the school newspaper, so the course was approved—and I became one of the first people, if not the first, to teach creative nonfiction at the university level, anywhere. That was in 1973.

Twenty years later, I started the journal Creative Nonfiction to provide a literary outlet for those journalists who aspired to experiment with combining fact and narrative. I wrote an editorial statement, put out a call for manuscripts and waited for the essays to pour in. Which they did: Many dozens of nonfiction pieces arrived at our mailbox over the first few weeks, more and more as the word spread, and we filled our first few issues.

And this was as I had expected. I had been confident that there were great creative nonfiction writers everywhere waiting for the opportunity to liberate themselves—all they needed was a venue. But I soon began to realize, as I spread the essays out on the floor in my office, as I tended to do when selecting and choreographing an issue, that most of the best essays were written not by journalists but by poets and novelists.

In fact, writers crossing genres seems to be another significant hallmark of the creative nonfiction genre and a reason for its popularity. Many of the writers whose works have appeared in the pages of Creative Nonfiction over the years first made their marks in other genres.

All this flexibility—writers crossing genres, applying tools from poetry and fiction to true stories—has made some people, writers of creative nonfiction included, uncomfortable. I travel often and give talks to groups of students and other aspiring writers. Invariably, people in the audience ask questions about what writers can or can’t do, stylistically and in content, while writing creative nonfiction. The questioners are unrelenting: “How can you be certain that the dialogue you are remembering and recreating from an incident that occurred months ago is accurate?” “How can you look through the eyes of your characters if you are not inside their heads?”

I always answer as best I can. I try to explain that such questions have a lot to do with a writer’s ethical and moral boundaries and, most important, how hard writers are willing to work to achieve accuracy and credibility in their narratives. Making up a story or elaborating extemporaneously on a situation that did, in fact, occur can be interesting but unnecessary. Truth is often more compelling to contemplate than fiction. But the questions and the confusion about what a writer can or cannot do often persist—for too long.

The Creative Nonfiction Police

Once, at a college in Texas, I finally threw up my hands in frustration and said, “Listen, I can’t answer all of these questions with rules and regulations. I am not,” I announced, pausing rather theatrically, “the creative nonfiction police!”

There was a woman in the audience—someone I had noticed earlier during my reading. She was in the front row: hard to miss— older than most of the undergraduates, blond, attractive, in her late 30s maybe. She had the alert yet composed look of a nurse, a person only semi-relaxed, always ready to act or react. She had taken her shoes off and propped her feet on the stage; I remember how her toes wiggled as she laughed at the essay I had been reading.

But when I announced, dramatically, “I am not the creative nonfiction police,” although many people chuckled, this woman suddenly jumped to her feet, whipped out a badge and pointed in my direction. “Well I am,” she announced. “Someone has to be. And you are under arrest.”

Then she scooped up her shoes and stormed barefooted from the room. The Q-and-A ended soon after, and I rushed into the hallway to find the woman with the badge. I had many questions, beginning with “Who the hell are you? Why do you have a badge? And how did you know what I was going to say when I didn’t have any idea?” I had never used the term creative nonfiction police before that moment. But she was gone. My host said the woman was a stranger. We asked around, students and colleagues. No one knew her. She was a mystery to everyone, especially me.

The bigger mystery, however, then and now, is the debate that triggered my symbolic arrest: the set of parameters that govern or define creative nonfiction and the questions writers must consider while laboring in or struggling with what we call the literature of reality.

I meant what I said to that audience: I am not the creative nonfiction police. But I have been called “the Godfather behind creative nonfiction,” and I have been doing this for a long time—more than a dozen published books, 30 years of teaching and then editing this groundbreaking journal. And so, while I won’t lay down the law, I will define some of the essential elements of creative nonfiction. The

Basic public education once covered the three R’s: Reading, ’Riting and ’Rithmatic. I find it’s helpful to think of the basic tenets of creative nonfiction (especially immersion journalism) in terms of the five R’s.

The first R is the “real life” aspect of the writing experience. As a writing teacher, I design assignments that have a real life, or immersion, aspect: I force my students out into their communities for an hour, a day or even a week so that they see and understand that the foundation of good writing is personal experience. I’ve sent my students to police stations, bagel shops, golf courses; together, my classes have gone on excursions and participated in public-service projects—all in an attempt to experience or to recreate from experience real life.

Which is not to say that all creative nonfiction has to involve the writer’s immersion into the experiences of others; some writers (and students) may utilize their own personal experience. In one introductory course I taught, a young man working his way through school as a salesperson wrote about selling shoes, while another student who served as a volunteer in a hospice captured a dramatic moment of death, grief and family relief.

Not only were these essays—and many others my students have written over the years—based on real life, but they also contained personal messages from writer to reader, which gave them extra meaning. “An essay is when I write what I think about something,” students will often say to me. Which is true, to a certain extent—and also the source of the meaning of the second R: “reflection.” In creative nonfiction, unlike in traditional journalism, a writer’s feelings and responses about a subject are permitted and encouraged. But essays can’t just be personal opinion; writers have to reach out to readers in a number of different and compelling ways.

This reaching out is essential if a writer hopes to find an audience. Creative Nonfiction receives approximately 200 unsolicited essays a month, sent in by writers seeking publication. The vast majority of these submissions are rejected, and one common reason is an overwhelming egocentrism: In other words, writers write too much about themselves and what they think without seeking a universal focus so that readers are properly and firmly engaged. Essays that are so personal that they omit the reader are essays that will never see the light of print. The overall objective of a writer should be to make the reader tune in— not out.

Another main reason Creative Nonfiction and many other journals and magazines reject essays is a lack of attention to another essential element of the creative nonfiction genre, which is to gather and present information, to teach readers about a person, place, idea or situation, combining the creativity of the artistic experience with the essential third R in the formula: “research.”

Even the most personal essay is usually full of substantive detail about a subject that affects or concerns a writer. Read the books and essays of the most renowned nonfiction writers in this century, and you will find writers engaged in a quest for information and discovery. From Orwell to Hemingway to John McPhee and Joan Didion, books and essays written by these writers are invariably about a subject other than themselves, although the narrator will be intimately included in the story. What’s more, the subject—whatever it is—has been carefully researched and described or explained in such a way as to make a lasting impression on readers.

Personal experience, research and spontaneous intellectual discourse—an airing and exploration of ideas—are equally vital elements in creative nonfiction. Annie Dillard, another prominent creative nonfiction writer, takes great pains to achieve this balance in her work. In her first book, “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” which won the Pulitzer Prize, and in her other books and essays, Dillard repeatedly overwhelms her readers with factual information: minutely detailed descriptions of insects, botany and biology, history and anthropology, blended with her own feelings about life.

One of my favorite Dillard essays, “Schedules,” focuses on the importance of writers working on a regular schedule rather than writing only intermittently. In this essay, she discusses, among many other subjects, Hasidism, chess, baseball, warblers, pine trees, June bugs, writers’ studios and potted plants—as well as her own schedule and writing habits and those of Wallace Stevens and Jack London.

What I am saying is that the genre of creative nonfiction is open to anyone with a curious mind and a sense of self. The research phase actually launches and anchors the creative effort. Whether it is a book or essay I am planning, I always begin my quest in the library (or, increasingly, online) for three reasons. First, I need to familiarize myself with the subject. If I don’t know much about it, I want to make myself knowledgeable enough to ask intelligent questions when I begin interviewing people. If I can’t display at least a minimal understanding of the subject about which I want to write, I will lose the confidence and support of the people who must provide me access to the experience.

Second, I want to assess my competition. What other essays, books and articles have been written about this subject? Who are the experts, the pioneers, the most controversial figures? I want to find a new angle—not write a story similar to one that has already been written. And finally, how can I reflect on and evaluate a person, subject or place unless I know all of the contrasting points of view? Reflection may permit a certain amount of speculation, but only when based on a solid foundation of knowledge.

This brings me to the fourth R: “reading.” Writers must read not only the research material unearthed in the library but also the work of the masters of their profession. I have heard some very fine writers claim that they don’t read too much any more or that they don’t read for long periods, especially during the time they are laboring on a lengthy writing project. But almost all writers have read the best writers in their field and are able to converse in great detail about their stylistic approaches and the intellectual content of their work, much as any good visual artist is able to discuss the work of Picasso, Van Gogh, Michelangelo and Warhol.

Finally, there’s the fifth R: the “’riting,” the most artistic and romantic aspect of the whole experience. The first four R’s relate to the nonfiction part of creative nonfiction; this last R is the phase where writers get to create. This often happens in two phases: Usually there is an inspirational explosion at the beginning, a time when writers allow instinct and feeling to guide their fingers as they create paragraphs, pages and even entire chapters or complete essays. This is what art of any form is all about: the passion of the moment and the magic of the muse. I am not saying this always happens; it doesn’t. Writing is a difficult labor in which a daily grind or struggle (ideally with a regular schedule, as Annie Dillard concludes) is inevitable. But this first part of the experience— for most writers, most of the time—is rather loose and spontaneous and, therefore, more creative and fun. The second part of the writing experience—the craft part, which comes into play after your basic essay is written—is equally important and a hundred times more difficult.

The Building Blocks of Creative Nonfiction: Scene, Dialogue, Intimate Detail and Other Essentials

The craft part means the construction of the essay (or chapter or even book):how the research, reflection and real life experience are arranged to make a story meaningful and important to readers.

The primary way this is accomplished in creative nonfiction is through the use of scene. In fact, one of the most obvious distinguishing factors between traditional journalism and creative nonfiction—or simply between ordinary prose and good, evocative writing—is the use of vignettes, episodes and other slices of reality. The uninspired writer will tell the reader about a subject, place or personality, but the creative nonfiction writer will show that subject, place or personality in action.

There’s an easy way to see how essential scene is to building a story; I like to call it “The Yellow Test.” Take a yellow highlighter or magic marker and leaf through your favorite magazine—Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New Yorker or Creative Nonfiction—or return to a favorite chapter in a book by an author like Annie Dillard or John McPhee. Highlight the scenes, the passages—large or small—where things happen. Then return to the beginning and review your handiwork. Chances are, anywhere from 50 to 80 percent of each essay or chapter will be yellow. (This test works equally well with other forms of creative writing: Plays are obviously constructed of scenes, as are novels and short stories and films. Even most poems are very scenic.)

But what makes a scene? First and foremost, a scene contains action. Something happens. I jump on my motorcycle and go helter-skelter around the country; suddenly, in the middle of July in Yellowstone National Park, I am confronted with 20 inches of snow. Action needn’t be wild, sexy and death-defying, however. There’s also action in the classroom: A student asks a question, which requires an answer, which necessitates a dialogue, which is a marvelously effective tool to trigger or record action.

Dialogue, another important element of creative nonfiction, means people saying things to one another, expressing themselves. It is a valuable element of scene. Collecting dialogue is one of the reasons writers immerse themselves at a police station, bagel shop or zoo. It lets them discover what people have to say spontaneously—not just in response to a reporter’s questions.

Another technique that helps writers create scene may be described as “intimate and specific detail.” This is a lesson that writers of all genres need to know: The secret to making prose (or, for that matter, poetry) memorable—and, therefore, vital and important—is to catalogue with specificity the details that are most intimate. By intimate, I mean ideas and images that readers won’t easily imagine—ideas and images you observed that symbolize a memorable truth about the characters or the situations about which you are writing. Intimate means recording and noting details that the reader might not know or even imagine without your particular inside insight. Sometimes intimate detail can be so specific and special that it becomes unforgettable in the reader’s mind.

A very famous “intimate” detail appears in a classic creative nonfiction profile, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” written by Gay Talese in 1966 and published in Esquire. In this profile, Talese leads readers on a whirlwind cross-country tour, revealing Sinatra and his entourage interacting with one another and with the rest of the world, and demonstrating how Sinatra’s world and the world inhabited by everyone else often collide. The scenes are action-oriented; they contain dialogue and evocative description, including a moment when Talese spotted a gray-haired lady with a tiny satchel in the shadows of the Sinatra entourage and put her in the story. She was, it turned out, the guardian of Sinatra’s collection of toupees. This tiny detail—Sinatra’s wig lady—made such an impression when I first read the essay that even now, years later, any time I see Sinatra on television or in rerun movies, or spot his photo in a magazine, I find myself searching the background for the gray-haired lady with the satchel.

The gray-haired lady was a detail that readers wouldn’t have known about if Talese hadn’t shown it to them, and her constant presence there in the shadows—hovering to service or replace Sinatra’s toupee— offered important insight into Sinatra’s character. And although we can’t achieve such symbolism each time we capture an incident, writers who want their words to be remembered beyond the dates on which their stories are published or broadcast will seek to discover the special observations that symbolize the intimacy they have attained with their subjects.

Of course, all of these vividly told scenes have to be organized according to some larger plan to make a complete story. We call this plan, or structure, the frame of the story. The frame represents a way of ordering or controlling a writer’s narrative so that the elements of his book, article or essay are presented in an interesting and orderly fashion with an interlaced integrity from beginning to end.

The most basic frame is a simple beginning-to-end chronology. For example, “Hoop Dreams,” a dramatic documentary (which is classic creative nonfiction in a different medium) begins with two African American teenage basketball stars living in a ghetto and sharing a dream of stardom in the NBA, and dramatically tracks both of their careers over the next six years.

Other frames are very complicated; in the movie, “Pulp Fiction,” Quentin Tarantino skillfully tangles and manipulates time. For a variety of reasons, writers often choose not to frame their stories in a strictly chronological sequence. My book “One Children’s Place” begins in the operating room at a children’s hospital. It introduces a surgeon, whose name is Marc Rowe; his severely handicapped patient, Danielle; and her mother, Debbie, who has dedicated her every waking moment to Danielle. Two years of her life have been spent inside the walls of this building with parents and children from all around the world whose lives are too endangered to leave the confines of the hospital. As Danielle’s surgery goes forward, the reader tours the hospital in a very intimate way, observing in the emergency room; participating in helicopter rescue missions as part of the emergency trauma team; and attending ethics meetings, well-baby clinics, child abuse examinations— every conceivable activity that happens at a typical high-acuity children’s hospital—so that readers will learn from the inside out how such an institution and the people it serves and supports function on an hour-by-hour basis. We even learn about Marc Rowe’s guilty conscience for having slighted his own wife and children over the years so that he can care for other families.

The book ends when Danielle is released from the hospital. It took me two years to research and write this book, returning day and night to the hospital in order to understand the hospital and the people who made it special, but the story in which it is framed begins and ends in a few months.

A Code for Creative Nonfiction Writers

Finally, harder to define than the elements of craft are all the ethical and moral issues writers of creative nonfiction have to consider—the kinds of questions audiences ask me about whenever I speak about the creative nonfiction genre, the kinds of questions that lead me to proclaim that I am not, and do not want to be, the creative nonfiction police.

But I will recommend a code for creative nonfiction writers—a kind of checklist. The word checklist is carefully chosen; there are no rules, laws or specific prescriptions dictating what you can or can’t do as a creative nonfiction writer. The gospel according to Lee Gutkind doesn’t and shouldn’t exist. It’s more a question of doing the right thing, following the Golden Rule: Treat others with courtesy and respect. First, strive for the truth. Be certain that everything you write is as accurate and honest as you can make it. I don’t mean that everyone who has shared the experience you are writing about should agree that your account is true. As I said, everyone has his or her own very precious and private and shifting truth. But be certain your narrative is as true to your memory as possible.

Second, recognize the important distinction between recollected conversation and fabricated dialogue. Don’t make anything up, and don’t tell your readers what you think your characters are thinking during the time about which you are writing. If you want to know how or what people are or were thinking, then ask them. Don’t assume or guess.

Third, don’t round corners—or compress situations or characters— unnecessarily. Not that it’s absolutely wrong to round corners or compress characters or incidents, but if you do experiment with these techniques, make certain you have a good reason. Making literary decisions based on good narrative principles is often legitimate—you are, after all, writers. But stop to consider the people about whom you are writing. Unleash your venom on the guilty parties; punish them as they deserve. But also ask yourself: Who are the innocent victims? How have you protected them? Adults can file suit against you, but are you violating the privacy or endangering the emotional stability of children? Are you being fair to the aged or infirm?

Fourth, one way to protect the characters in your book, article or essay is to allow them to defend themselves—or at least to read what you have written about them. Few writers do this, because they are afraid of litigation or ashamed or embarrassed about the intimacies they have revealed. But sharing your narrative with the people about whom you are writing doesn’t mean that you have to change what you say about them; rather, it only means that you are being responsible to your characters and their stories. I understand why you would not want to share your narrative; it could be dangerous. It could ruin your friendship, your marriage, your future. But by the same token, this is the kind of responsible action you might appreciate if the shoe were on the other foot. I have, on occasion, shared parts of books with the characters I have written about with positive results. First, my characters corrected my mistakes. But, more important, when you come face to face with a character, you are able to communicate on a different and deeper level. When you show them what you think and feel, when they read what you have written, they may get angry—an action in itself that is interesting to observe and even to write about.

Or they may feel obliged to provide their side of the situation— a side that you have been hesitant to listen to or interpret. With the text in the middle, as a filter, it is possible to discuss personal history as a story somewhat disconnected from the reality you are universally experiencing. It provides a way to communicate as an exercise in writing—it filters and distances the debate. Moreover, it defines and cements your own character. The people about whom you have written may not like what you have said—and may, in fact, despise you for saying it—but they can only respect and admire the forthright way in which you have approached them. No laws govern the scope of good taste and personal integrity.

The creative nonfiction writer must rely on his or her own conscience and sensitivity to others, and display a higher morality and a healthy respect for fairness and justice. We all harbor resentments, hatreds and prejudices, but being writers doesn’t give us special dispensation to behave in ways that are unbecoming to ourselves and hurtful to others. This rationale sounds so simple—yet, it is so difficult. The moral and ethical responsibility of the creative nonfiction writer is to practice the golden rule and to be as fair and truthful as possible—to write both for art’s sake and for humanity’s sake. In other words, we police ourselves.

By saying this, I do not feel that I am being overly simplistic. As writers we intend to make a difference, to affect someone’s life over and above our own. To say something that matters—this is why we write, after all. That’s the bottom line: to impact society, to put a personal stamp on history, to plant the seed of change. Art and literature are our legacies to other generations. We will be forgotten, most of us writers, but our books and essays, our stories and poems will always, somewhere, have a life.

Wherever you personally draw lines in your writing, remember the basic rules of good citizenship: Do not recreate incidents and characters who never existed; do not write to do harm to innocent victims; do not forget your own story but, while considering your struggle and the heights of your achievements, think repeatedly about how your story will affect your reader. Over and above the creation of a seamless narrative, you are seeking to touch and affect someone else’s life—which is the goal creative nonfiction writers share with novelists and poets. We all want to connect with another human being— or as many people as possible—in such a way that they will remember us and share our legacy with others.

Someday, I hope to connect with the woman with the badge and the bare feet, face-to-face. I have never forgotten her. She has, in some strange way, become my conscience, standing over me as I write, forcing me to ask the questions about my work that I have recommended to you. I hope we all feel her shadow over our shoulders each time we sit down, face the keyboard and begin to write.

An Essay on Being Late: Do not Be Late with It!

You know that being late is bad, but you cannot do anything about this habit of yours. You are late to school, dates, buses, and it seems that you are going to be late with your written assignment.

By the way, this assignment was given specially to you. You are the only one in class who has to write an essay on being late. What an exclusive task! Yet, it seems like your teacher is tired of your irresponsibility (and this is exactly what he/she thinks about you).

Then, let us not waste your precious time and give some recommendations for writing essays on being late.

We suggest you include the following paragraphs into your essay on being late.

Paragraph 1

Do not waste your time and paper and start talking about the main problem straight away. So, why are you always late? Think about the main reasons for that and introduce them in your essay on being late. Lack of time management skills, laziness and lack of responsibility can be included into your list.

This part of your essay on being late should also reflect your understanding of this bad habit. Provide at least three reasons why being late is bad.

Paragraph 2

Although you are always late, you definitely realize that punctuality is a much better habit. This is what the next paragraph of your essay on being late will be devoted to. Just explain the importance of being punctual.

Paragraph 3

Finally, you will have to develop and tell about some strategies on how to learn coming and doing everything on time.

We are sure that this experience will be really helpful and you will gain a new habit.

Our next articles are devoted to a life changing event essay and an essay on accountability.

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20+ Believable Excuses for When You’re Running Late

Last Updated: June 26, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Brandy DeOrnellas, PCC, ESQ. and by wikiHow staff writer, Hannah Madden . Brandy DeOrnellas is a Professional Certified Coach specializing in life and career aspirations and transitions. She also serves company founders and small business owners. She is a former attorney with more than three years of experience as a coach. Brandy holds a JD from Harvard Law School. She also holds a BA in Social Welfare and a BA in Political Science from The University of California, Berkeley. In addition to her formal education, she has multiple coaching certifications, including a Professional Coaching Certification from The University of California, Davis, and a Relationship Coach Certification from Prepare/Enrich. She is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 123,363 times.

Running late for work? We’ve all been late before, but sometimes, the real reason you’re late isn’t actually that good of an excuse. That’s where we’ve got you covered: we’ve got 20+ best excuses for being late to work that your boss will totally buy. Read through our list to pick out your favorite excuse today.

Things You Should Know

• Use an excuse like traffic or car troubles to explain why you’re late.
• Tell your boss you lost your car keys or had to spend time looking for your wallet or purse.
• Say that your pipes burst or you had another home-related emergency.
• Tell your boss that your pet was sick or got out, but that they’re fine now.

Email Template and Text Examples for Being Late to Work

“I’m stuck in traffic.”

• Make this excuse even more believable by naming highways or streets.
• “Sorry I’m late, the 26 was really backed up today.”
• “I got stuck behind that accident on the corner of Maine and 2nd street.”

“The bus broke down.”

• “The subway broke down in a tunnel, so I didn’t have any service to call you. Sorry about that.”
• “The train was running late this morning.”

“I had car trouble.”

• “I got a flat tire on my way here. Thank god I had a spare in the trunk.”
• “I had to get a jump start from my neighbor. I must have left my lights on last night.”

“I lost my car keys.”

• “My toddler loves to hide my keys. I had to spend 20 minutes looking for them this morning!”
• “I couldn’t find my keys anywhere. I had to call my husband to bring me a spare key so I could leave.”

“I lost my wallet.”

• “I thought I lost my wallet this morning. Thankfully it was just in my car, but of course I searched my whole house first.”
• “I forgot my purse and had to run back for it.”

“I got pulled over.”

• “Sorry I’m late, I got stopped by the police for the first time ever today.”
• “I guess my tags were expired. Thankfully the cop let me off with a warning.”

“I was in a car accident.”

• “Hey boss, I just got into a fender bender. Everyone’s fine, but I have to stick around to get some insurance info.”
• “Sorry I’m late, someone rear-ended me.”

“The weather was really bad.”

• “I had to wait out that crazy storm this morning. I couldn’t see a thing!”
• “Sorry I’m late, I had to dig my car out of the snow.”

“I overslept.”

• “My phone was dead so my alarm didn’t go off.”
• “My power went out in the middle of the night so my alarm clock didn't work.”

“I had a dentist appointment.”

• “I had a doctor’s appointment.”
• “I had to take my child to the dentist this morning.”

“I had to drop my child off at school.”

• “My son had a late start this morning.”
• “I had to help my daughter carry in her science project.”
• Let your employer know when you think you will be late. It can be as simple as, "So sorry I will be late this morning. You can expect me in at 10 am."
• When you arrive at work, you can tell them why you are late.
• You can share what you feel comfortable sharing. For example, your alarm did not work, the car did not start, or kids refused to get in the car for school.

“My babysitter was late.”

• “My nanny had a family emergency, so I had to make other arrangements.”
• “My babysitter didn’t show up today.”

“My child is sick.”

• “My daughter was sick and had to stay home today, so I had to call someone to watch her.”
• “I was up all night comforting my toddler; he has the flu.”

“My pet is sick.”

• “I had to run my dog to the vet. Thankfully, he’s okay.”
• “I was up all night with my sick cat.”

“My pet ran away.”

• “I spent an hour chasing after Baxter this morning. He sure can run fast!”
• “I accidentally let Ralph loose this morning. Thankfully I managed to lure him back inside with treats.”

“I was sick.”

• “I woke up with a migraine, but thankfully the medicine I took helped it subside.”
• “I wasn’t sure I’d make it in today, but I feel a lot better now.”

“My water pipes burst.”

• “There was a small fire in my kitchen this morning. Fortunately, everyone’s okay.”
• “My ceiling started leaking, and I had to call maintenance.”

“I was robbed.”

• “I got mugged on the train on my way here, and I had to file a police report.”
• “My phone got stolen so I couldn't call to tell you I’d be late.”

“My home was burglarized.”

• “The police took forever to get here. I had to leave 2 hours late.”
• “I almost didn’t come in today. It was a terrible experience!”

“I had a family emergency.”

• “I had a personal issue.”
• “I had to be with my family this morning.”

“I had a death in the family.”

• “My great uncle passed away last night.”
• “My step-mother’s dad just passed away.”

Expert Q&A

• Get in touch with your boss as soon as you know you’re going to be late. The quicker you tell them, the more they’ll appreciate your excuse. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 0
• Try not to use excuses too often. After a couple of late mornings, your boss will probably stop being so forgiving. Do your best to stop running late and get to work on time. Thanks Helpful 6 Not Helpful 0
• Don’t get too specific with your excuses. The more you explain your tardiness, the more it looks like you’re making things up on the spot. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 1

You Might Also Like

Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about work tips, check out our in-depth interview with Brandy DeOrnellas, PCC, ESQ. .

• ↑ https://nj1015.com/the-best-excuses-for-being-late-to-work/
• ↑ https://tosaylib.com/best-excuses-for-being-late-work-reasonable-bosses/
• ↑ https://positivewordsresearch.com/30-believable-excuses-late-college-school/
• ↑ https://money.com/best-work-habits-late-office/

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Are You Struggling to Be Creative? This Might Be Why

Naturally, as a storyteller and story theorist, this language appeals to me. It made me think about how my thirties are the opportunity not just for a deepening of my story, but for a new beginning of sorts. I quite like the idea of thinking of myself not  as a thirty-three-year-old who is supposed to (and doesn’t) have it all together, but rather as if this were my second time to be an innocent, expectant, wonder-filled three-year-old—who just happens to have thirty years of experience and knowledge. (To expand the analogy, this means my mom is experiencing her third time being a six-year-old—but with sixty years of experience and knowledge behind her.)

I particularly like this right now as I find myself, rather painfully, stripping myself back to basics. As I examine the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical load I’ve been adding to for the last thirty years—some of it good, some not-so-good—I find myself longing to return to my three-year-old self’s easy trust in the sheer magic of life . As a professional creative, I not only want this, I need it.

One of my all-time favorite quotes is Neil Gaiman’s disarming response to someone who asked, “I want to be an author when I grow up. Am I insane?” He replied:

Yes. Growing up is highly overrated. Just be an author.

The older I get, the more I agree. Mostly, this is because the more and more grown-up I get, the less and less I see life’s magic and the smaller and smaller my window of creativity becomes. I know I’m not alone in this, even (especially?) among writers.

As I’ve hinted before, the last few years have turned out to be a crucible of sorts for me. Although there were contributing reasons and events, I now see them more as just an inevitable, if dramatic, conclusion to the growing-up pains of my twenties. After an unexpectedly stressful move a year ago, these growing pains bottomed out with me feeling more disconnected from my creativity than ever before .

During the last few years, I kept plodding faithfully, finishing one book and starting another. But during this time, I was also largely in denial of my growing panic. I had been creative my entire life. I had been a storyteller my entire life. I had felt life’s magic always. And now, increasingly, for years, that magic was becoming only a bare flicker in my soul.

Was my creativity leaving me? Was my writing meant only to be a short chapter in my life? And if I wasn’t meant to soar on the wings of my creativity anymore, then God help me, because what could ever replace that?

As of this month, I now believe this crucible of what has been a dark night of my soul has finally begun to reach its Climax. Perhaps the best and most encouraging insight I have uncovered from a larger host of insights glittering up at me is a realization about why my creativity seemed to desert me—and, even better, what I can do to reclaim this most precious part of myself.

If You’re Struggling to Be Creative, Ask Yourself  “Where Is Your Energy Going?”

Creation is a deeply energetic act. As we’ve covered in discussions of whole-life art , being an artist or an author isn’t so different from being an athlete. Both require not just talent and dedication, but the cultivation of holistic health so that we will be able to bring optimum focus and energy to the act of creation.

As finite beings, we each possess a finite amount of energy. Every day dawns with the same possibility for productivity, but each day also dawns with a limited (if renewable) supply of energy. Our ability to turn that energy into creativity requires we wisely husband it, allot it, and utilize it. Energy spent on one area of our lives—be it hanging out with a loved one or worrying about finances—is energy that cannot be spent on creating.

Because creativity is an output of energy, it necessarily requires an input. The well can be filled by feeding all parts of ourselves a healthy diet— books and art for our minds and imaginations , proper diet and exercise for our bodies, satisfying relationships and fulfilling work for our emotions. Whenever we find ourselves struggling to be creative, we rightfully turn first to checking that our energy inputs are flowing properly.

But sometimes this isn’t enough. Sometimes you can be doing everything right to fill yourself up with good energy on every level—and still you find yourself struggling to be creative. This is incredibly frustrating. What else could there possibly be left to do?

That was the question I was asking myself. For a long time, the only answer I could see was “wait.” Wait and surely something will change. But if things were changing, they didn’t seem to be changing for the better. If anything, I felt my window of creativity getting smaller.

The Complete Enneagram (affiliate link)

But then, just recently, I had a breakthrough. For years, I’ve been interested in depth psychology, including the idea of the “shadow” (the theory that aspects of the self are unhealthily repressed into the unconscious). In reading Beatrice Chestnut’s excellent book The Complete Enneagram , her description of the shadow as simply the place where we put the things (emotions, desires, pains, fears) we do not want to look at clicked for me. She wrote:

The Shadow represents everything we refuse to acknowledge about ourselves that nonetheless impacts the way we behave.

As I started examining afresh what it might be that I did not want to acknowledge, I was astounded to realize not just the sheer load of stuff I started digging up, but also how much energy I have been putting into resisting  looking at these things.

That’s when it clicked. The reason my level of creativity had plummeted in the last few years was not that I was becoming “less creative,” but rather that more and more of my daily allotment of energy was being used to wall off more and more of the things I found too painful or overwhelming to face.

Creativity is an energy that wells up from our very life force. It is an energy of flow. It is an energy of opening ourselves to our own vulnerability and emotions—even our own pain sometimes. By its very nature, it is antithetical to the energy of resistance and repression.

What Are You Resisting?

Creativity is limited along a spectrum. The limitation might be as small as a block over an important confrontation between characters. Or it might be all-encompassing enough to induce the panic that maybe your writing days are ending.

Regardless, I now believe your first reaction should be to slow down, take a deep breath, and ask yourself, “Okay, what am I resisting?”

The answer might be a simple, “ I’m afraid I’m not good enough to write this scene” or “I’m afraid of the painful memories this scene is going to stir up for me” or “I’m afraid of opening my emotions to the extent required to honestly portray this scene .”

But the answer might also be much bigger. For each of us, time inevitably encroaches upon the wide-open, unwounded innocence of the three-year-old. Some of us, as Gaiman suggests, are lucky enough to maintain creative outlets into our grown-up years. But even for us, the more we grow up, the more energy we end up devoting to all the stuff we’re silently and often obliviously refusing to acknowledge.

Sometimes the things we’re resisting are  not hidden within us. Sometimes we’re dealing with real-life stresses— the same kind of outer-world obstacles we’re always throwing at our characters . Real-life jobs, relationships, and health challenges can steal our energy just as surely as can our own inner conflicts.

Creating Character Arcs (Amazon affiliate link)

But for my money, it’s the inner conflict that is most insidious (not least because it usually rides the tail of any and all outer conflicts). Just as we demand of our characters, if we’re going to overcome the lies holding us back, we must be willing to face those lies . In my experience so far, it’s the facing itself that is the hardest part. Just zoning in enough to notice our white-knuckled grip on an unacknowledged pain or unfulfilled desire is often enough to release us from some of our unspoken fears.

With this release comes a slight opening in the wall we’ve created inside ourselves. A little of our lost energy returns to us. A little light shines through. A little fresh air starts its flow. And with that flow comes the first whiff of a familiar breath—creativity.

4 Faces of Creativity (or, You May Still Be More Creative Than You Think You Are)

As I begin walking myself back into what I hope will be a complete restoration of my creative energy, I find myself realizing that perhaps I haven’t spent these last few years in as much of a creative desert as I thought. No, my creativity wasn’t flowing to the same degree or flowing into the same vessels. But I never stopped moving. I kept husbanding whatever creative energy I had and using it as responsibly as I could under the circumstances.

In recognizing this, I also see that the return of my creativity may not mean an immediate deep dive into writing for hours on end every day. First, it may require that I use my creativity more… creatively.

If you too find yourself on the return journey after struggling to be creative, it’s important to realize you are even now probably employing your creativity in many vital ways. Creativity in life isn’t just about creating art. It’s shows up in other parts of life—all of which are equally important to actually getting yourself back into writing shape.

For example, you will need your creative energy for:

I recognize I am currently in a chapter of healing. Even though part of myself is impatient to really and truly get back to the writing and the creative life as I used to know it, I can sense my energy isn’t there yet. Right now, my returning trickle of creativity is best used to encourage the spiritual, emotional, mental, and even physical healing I need in order to return to the page in top form. After years of walking a path of mental resistance, I need time to sit with myself and remember how to be friends with the deepest parts of my imagination.

2. Growth/Education

Throughout these difficult years, I have never stopped reading or actively learning. Even when I could barely get myself to sit at the computer, I could at least still read a novel or a book on Jungian archetypes or a writing guide. Sometimes the reading came hard too . But I maintained enough discipline to keep at it, and as long as new information kept coming in, I always found the trickle of creative energy necessary to be interested in it, to think about it, to absorb it, and—eventually—make use of it.

3. Faithfulness in Projects

Early last year, someone asked me how to keep writing when it was tough . It was a pertinent question for me at the time. I only remember part of my answer, but it has stuck with me as a sort of personal challenge throughout the hard times. What I told him was that there were many days when I didn’t want to show up and write. There were many days when I wanted to just give up and take a break until life was clearer and my creativity returned in force. But when I looked into the future, the one thing I was sure of was that I would be much happier to have a completed novel under my belt rather than nothing.

And I am. During the period of my creative doubt, I wrote a massive novel and half of a massive outline for its sequel. I didn’t feel creative during that period. Clearly though, my sheer faithfulness in chipping away at my projects a little every day proved I was much more creative than I knew.

4. Excitement and Passion

The best kind of creativity is the kind that whirls you into that ecstasy of excitement . When you’re so passionate about what you’re writing that you can’t think about anything else, it’s the best high in the world. Life is filled with meaning and purpose, love and joy, satisfaction and anticipation. Even the comparatively hard days when you’re sure what you’ve written is terrible, there’s still that urgent sense of life itself buzzing through your body.

It’s awesome, in every sense. It’s the reason we create. I daresay it’s even the reason we live.

I look forward with a true and homesick longing for that creativity which I have not felt in so long now. In gaining a better understanding of why it seemed to have drifted so far away from me, I have total faith it will return to me and I to it. But in the meantime, I also see that my creativity is still there, manifesting in all the ways necessary to recreate a foundation solid and healthy enough to sustain future surges of excitement and energy.

Writers always joke that the writing life is hard . Sometimes it’s hard in ways that we, in the innocence of our First Act, didn’t always expect it would be. But life goes on. Energy is renewable. Our stories have more than just one act, and with patience and discipline, we all get second chances. If you find yourself in a period of creative doubt or difficulty, know at least that you aren’t alone. If you happen to be walking in this tunnel with me, it may be that I am now a few steps ahead of you on the path, and from here I can tell you the view shows me there is a light at the end. Keep writing, friends.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Have you ever found yourself struggling to be creative? What helped you? Tell me in the comments!

Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in Apple Podcast or Amazon Music ).

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K.M. Weiland is the award-winning and internationally-published author of the acclaimed writing guides Outlining Your Novel , Structuring Your Novel , and Creating Character Arcs . A native of western Nebraska, she writes historical and fantasy novels and mentors authors on her award-winning website Helping Writers Become Authors.

Thank you for this! I’m currently going through a period where feeling creative is difficult. It’s reassuring to know someone else can talk about it. 💕

It can be a confusing thing. I went through a litany of things I named as “the problem,” before finally realizing what was going on.

Along these lines, I find creativity has different seasons throughout one’s life. I have always been a creative and highly imaginative person, as well as a lover of stories. But I never wrote, other than the letters I regularly sent to my mother in law detailing the escapades of her thoroughly wild grandchildren.

She was a librarian and great lover of reading. She said I should write more. And I sometimes rue the fact that I didn’t take her advice then.

It was later, when those wild children were grown, that I discovered the pleasure of writing, and of learning to write.

Thank you for your always informative blog posts.

Woman in early years of her Third Act (and still not quite grown up)

Lynda, thanks for sharing that. I feel that the “seasons of life” are part of what I’m learning about right now. This Second Act has brought, for me, a new season. That in itself is an adjustment (especially for someone who doesn’t like change!), but I’m starting to see how the new season has the opportunity to be just as exciting, maybe more so, as the last.

How are your blog posts always so timely and relevant to precisely what I am struggling with? Are you me from the future?? But all joking aside, this explains SO much. I’m about halfway through a complete re-write of my WIP and things have been going SO well and so much better and clearer than the first draft. And then for the last two weeks or so, the flow has just…turned to sludge. And it hasn’t felt like writer’s block, the ideas are there and I still love them and my outline is still exciting and I still feel the drive to share my words but those feelings have somehow seemed separate from me. Remote. Now I know that it’s because of my shadow. I was afraid of it when I was little…it wouldn’t leave me alone. Now that I’m in another “little” phase, it only makes sense for the antagonist of my childhood to reappear in another form.

“Me from the future.” That actually sounds like a great story idea. 😀

Thanks. I needed this today.

Glad it was helpful. 🙂

Trying to turn an inner-plot outline into something with an outer plot – and just making up scenes for the inner stuff to come out, is like wading through a swamp in a snowstorm.

Hah. Well said!

Thank you for this, K.M. The mountain ranges feel endless these days. Thanks for the reminder to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I long to experience that high of creativity again. Hopefully with more physical, mental and emotional healing I’ll be able to dip my toes in that pool, maybe enjoy a nice long swim!

Let’s make a date for that swim. 😉

Good post, Katie. Regarding this:

Regardless, I now believe your first reaction should be to slow down, take a deep breath, and ask yourself, “Okay, what am I resisting?”

I recommend meditation. It’s a good way to slow down, take several deep breaths, and see what wells up.

I agree. I started doing yoga this summer, for physical reasons, but I’ve found it immensely helpful for grounding my thoughts, emotions, and energy as well. Plus, I love it!

Your comments are relevant, but I am 72 years old, with a progressive illness…The creativity is frequently hard to find…

Very sorry to hear about your illness. But you’re here. You’re reading about writing. That’s not nothing. 🙂

I liked the idea of a life in three acts. As someone in Act III, the idea that I’m a six year old is a fun (and creative) thought. Since, having done it in my teens and early twenties and given it up, creative writing is something I have returned to, I do feel I have a creativity problem. But it is somewhat different to suffering life’s slings and arrows as seems to be happening to you (and you have my deepest sympathy on this–it’s deeply troubling to be in the “darkest valley”).

My problem is the simple challenge of coming up with “new” stuff–or variations on existing “stuff”–that cuts it in terms of the kind of standards I set myself.

Given you managed to write a book and a half, and it sounds as if this is not a slim novella, is the creativity there but not being recognised as such as the issues in your life you lay out dominate at the exclusion of what you like doing? That is, most of your life has been chores rather than pleasures in the last year or so? That will most certainly not help creativity.

Thanks for sharing what is, as one of the readers, I can only describe as a very personal post. That must have taken a lot of courage. It tells me, you are healing if you can go public, as it were.

Thanks, Peter. Much of what I’ve been realizing since writing this post last week is that I’m in a period of readjusting my viewpoint to see how life is different in this Second Act. Learning to stop projecting my expectations that how things were is how they should be again is helping me come back into sync with reality. Something I’m focusing on at the moment is the realization that trying to believe things (however well-intentioned) about life that are not in sync with reality is madness. There is a lot of peace just in admitting and accepting that things are as they are, instead of striving against them. What I’m discovering for myself is that most of these misconceptions and the striving to maintain them happen on a subconscious level. It requires some diligent digging to figure out why the old programs are no longer serving me.

Thank you for this post! This is exactly what I needed today. I’m going to remember to ask the question, “What am I resisting?” It’s funny, in my own work, I often make analogies to engineering and energy management (based on my professional background), but I realize now that I wasn’t always paying attention to how much energy was involved in my resistance at times…such a huge takeaway!

Yes, something else my mom and I discussed recently is how “wise” our own words have been in the past. If only we were also wise enough to always apply our own advice. 😉

I will keep you in my daily prayers, Katie, for full healing from what is draining your energy. We have all been through life events that have scarred us in some way.

When in my early twenties, I faced a life threatening situation. A wonderful counselor gave me tools to cope and coupled with a growing faith, they have helped me through many other serious circumstances.

Thank you for posting a such a brave testimony. Even though am not in a similar situation at the moment, it is a good reminder to keep watch and handle things as they come rather than stuff them away.

Thanks, Cecilia. I appreciate that. 🙂 In the week since writing this post, I feel like a lot of things are falling into place and a lot of healing is taking place for me. I don’t feel that the hard work is yet over, but it’s an exciting place to be in.

Thank you so much for this! I’m in the midst of a project myself, and had attributed my “can’t stand to be in front of the computer” phases to just be that I was tired from staring at it so long. (Which is true). But then I went to have fun playing with characters from a previous story in progress… And they were gone. 😢 It was like there was this total disconnect. And it really was scary! This feeling of “am I losing the ability to let my creativity flow freely? To improvise stories? To imagine? Have I lost the ability to let some of my favorite characters come to life?” I did finish the free-write, but it wasn’t the same…

I still feel badly about it, but in the past year, I have lived one of the emotional wounds that main character experiences. So perhaps that is my problem. Living his story means facing a painful reality. And bringing him to an ending I may never know. (Even as I write that, I can’t fully admit it to myself.) I know that when I return to the story it will be all the better for my ability to relate, but I will need to face the pain I keep hidden inside, often from myself. Let it flow out and onto the page. Thank you for this reminder that rest and care are so important to the creative process! What do you do when you come upon an emotional block like this? Just acknowledge it and pray it goes away? This was a story my heart burned to tell, and I still feel it needs to be told. But it is so difficult to think of taking it up again, with the plot holes and emotional blocks to sift through.

Sounds very familiar, and believe me, my heart is with you, because I know exactly how painful and confusing it is. In my experience so far, I believe the path out of this darkness is two-fold: finding the space to discover and hold your own emotions (something that has been very hard for me, since I don’t “do” emotions; until I was thirty, I never cried, but now I cry at the drop of a hat; I don’t always like it, but I see it as a tremendous avenue and sign of healing and growth), and, second, engaging in rigorous self-inquiry, pursuing your fears and doubts and trying to understand their roots.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply! The time you spend to help each reader individually- the time you spent to respond and relate just to me- means so much! When I first read your reply, I couldn’t comprehend what “a space to discover and hold your own emotions” even meant. But then I waited. I do feel very intensly for others, or for my characters, although the outward expression is guarded, but I realized I often don’t allow myself the same freedom. If those who love me see I am struggling, they hurt with and for me. And so I focus on all the beautiful things in life, and all the blessings and joys I have, and on the pains and joys of others, but often without facing my own wounds so that they can heal.

I think I am beginning to understand, and to desire and seek that quiet place away from the rush of work, and the glow of the computer. To remember that even as I race a creative deadline in the middle of a season of travel, that time to really grow is important. And I have realized that I fear growth itself, perhaps most of all. That I will lose my childlikeness, or youthful mindset, if I grow. The self that I am right now. Already there are things that have changed – but I remind myself that they are better. I may have lost that innocent love of my childhood that feared no wrong and encompased all. But when you learn to be a true friend in spite of knowing that friends are not always true? When you fight the walls of self-preservation, train yourself to love with the same breadth and depth, and yet do not close your eyes to the dangers? That is better.

And so I am beginning to allow (or push myself towards) prayerfully exploring the wounds, and seeking healing and growth. Even writing this revived a joy and love I had not felt in awhile, because it struck me that those who were my friends, and whom I still love, have helped me to grow by their hurt in ways their friendship never could have done. And I will pray for you as well, that you will come out of this season as gold, with much joy and creativity! <3 "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." – Psalm 30:5b

“And I have realized that I fear growth itself, perhaps most of all. That I will lose my childlikeness, or youthful mindset, if I grow.”

That’s a very interesting observation. I’m going to have to mull on that some myself.

I benefit from ALL your posts in one way or another – but this one was especially relevant and helpful. In particular, if your energy is going to too many other things, it can’t be going to “creativity.” Simple, brilliant and so timely Thanks!

Thanks for reading! I found a lot of relief in that revelation, simply in that it explains so neatly why it’s more difficult to be creative as a working adult than it was as a carefree child. In knowing the cause, we also gain the ability to work on practical solutions for freeing up more creative resources.

I’ve been struggling with the final battle of my WIP. Weeks, actually. The story has changed and my protagonist isn’t getting what she wanted. I don’t know why I couldn’t write it. so close. And now I do. I am good enough. Like your mom, I’m in my third act. Yay for me that I am lucky enough to get one! Thanks for your honesty.

That’s awesome! You go. 😀

Timely post. I’ve begun to dig myself out of a three-year drought of creativity. Most days its so frustrating, how quickly the day gets frittered away and not a single word on the page! I miss that “high” which comes when you are in the flow. All the souped-up political strife hasn’t helped matters any. How do you write about social justice when, all of a sudden, it’s become a weapon? But lately my creativity has begun to trickle back — in tiny chunks. Returning to church has helped (the LAST place I thought I’d ever step foot back into). I don’t call it “prayer” (too much brainwashing that “religion is the opiate of the masses” blah blah blah), but I like to do positive affirmations as I walk my dog, turning my creativity over to God to use my pen as a sword to wield good in the world. YMMV…

I’m learning to accept and appreciate that returning “trickle” of creativity. Instead of being frustrated that my slice of the cake isn’t as big as I was accustomed to, I’m learning to have genuine gratitude for the sweet dabs of frosting that are showing up again in my life.

Being creative and trusting the process seem to become more difficult the older I get. I started writing thirty years ago when I was already in Act 2. I was creative but not skilled. I’m now in Act 3 and believe I’m equally creative, more skilled (thanks to blogs like yours) but increasing judgmental of what I produce. I think knowledge can produce doubt. Is this the right POV? Who’s story is this really? Would it be more interesting, more powerful if told from the victim’s perspective and not the hero`s? Because I know that I should ask these questions, I’m stuck in a creative quagmire.

One takeaway from your article is that writing should be fun. Writers are story tellers. I think remembering that will help me a lot.

Knowledge does produce doubt. I think it is because knowledge also requires responsibility. As children making up stories in the backyard, we had no understanding of what made a “good” story and therefore no responsibility to create one. But when we take on the challenge of writing stories that will mean something to others, we also accept the responsibility of learning and applying new knowledge. Without question, it becomes an increasingly complicated juggling act. But the one thing I find most helpful to remember is that I will *never* write a perfect story. I just try to make the things I like and make them as pretty as possible–and hope each story will be a little better than the last.

I thought I was the only one! It’s so good to hear that there’s a way back home. Thanks!

Sorry to hear you’re on the path too, but it *is* nice to know we’re not alone. 🙂

You have a deep knowledge of writing and how to teach it. Yours is the only writing blog I read faithfully — and I’ve read a lot. As someone your mother’s age I know that change is essential to living. You have a great foundation to go in so many directions. I absolutely believe you’ll find your way.

The last few years have run afoul of a lot of my expectations about how life should be and how I should be in it. But as the fog begins to clear a bit, I find myself genuinely excited for this journey I’ve been allowed to take. I don’t know how it ends yet. That’s a little frightening (especially for a control freak), but also, dare I say?, magical. 🙂

Like others have mentioned, this is something I needed to read today. Thank you.

So glad it was helpful!

Well Ms. K.M., I’ve been following you for some time and always glean some fabulous insight from your posts. But this one? Wow. Hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m in my late 2nd Act, and suffered 4 aneurysms in my cerebellum from 2015 – 2018, 3 of them requiring surgery. I’m lucky to be alive, I know it; but during that brain trauma I seriously lost my will, ability, and love of writing. I lost the love, I think, because I couldn’t write…I could barely string a full sentence together. But I never lost my desire to create. I did as you said, I read, I watched Bridget Jones movies, I cried, I wrote in my journal, I talked to my cat Tex (who sadly left me for the Great Cat World Beyond just last week); and finally, when I sensed I was ready, I went to a therapist. Some would say I should have gone there first, but sometimes you just aren’t ready with the words you need to speak in order to complete the journey to whole health. At any rate, I found my writer’s voice again early in 2019. I’m back at my computer with joy, I’ve entered contests, I’m a MAGGIE (Georgia Romance Writers) and TARA (Tampa Area Romance Writers) finalist, and no matter the outcome I’ve arrived. Back to where I was in my youth, with the heart and imagination of a 9 year old story-teller, filled with hope and courage and innocence and verve, though I’ve just turned 59. Thanks for this post, K.M. As Ed Sheeran would say…Perfect.

You’re an inspiration! Thank you so much for sharing your story. It’s powerful to hear from someone who has endured so much, including doubt and despair, and climbed back out the other side. Keep writing. 🙂

This is timely. I feel like this every September 1st after taking July and August off from writing, but I’m happy to report that by the 3rd week, the words are flowing, and I’m excited about what I’m now writing. Thank you.

That’s great! Very happy for you. 🙂

I am happy to see you have a positive character arc!

Wonderful post! I think stepping back is great, and if one can be bored at times, that leaves space for the muse to work. Say NO more often. Also, if at all possible, ban toxic people and groups from your personal and professional life and especially from your social media.

Absolutely agree. Learning to set better boundaries has been a huge part of my growth in the last few years.

As I have been approaching the end of my first novel the wall has gotten higher. There are many other opportunities that take me away, but this post helped me review my options and that shadow you mentioned. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for sharing.

That’s great. Keep writing. 😀

Thank you for sharing this personal post. Since we work alone, it’s easy to forget that we are not alone in this. My days go from total joy in what I’m working on to full-on doubt that I have any business doing this. I’m always excited at the beginning of a project, but then I hit a wall; where are my words? this is a dumb idea, I should get a real job, etc. (having a sibling with a PhD. makes that last one particularly hard). One thing that’s helped me is what you mentioned above: take a deep breath, become aware of what I’m feeling or thinking, and write about it in my project notebook. It usually uncovers something I’ve been resisting or am just fearing for no justifiable reason. And it keeps me writing! Also, I really admire your discipline to the craft. It’s something I struggle with and am working on. Thank you for being here for us.

I do think writers have an advantage in the hard days. The very fact that we spend so much of our time organizing our thoughts and feelings on paper is both a cathartic experience and an opportunity for personal insight. I definitely found that to be true of the novel I worked on in this period of my life.

I’ve been attentive to your personal journey in recent years because I am in a similar place. Though I’m closer to the end of my second act, I experienced what I have called a protracted period of burnout. It lasted a couple of years and I’m still not sure I’ve recovered. It’s hard to say where I’m just being kinder to myself and where my limitations have legitimately contracted around my equally limited capabilities. Thanks for sharing this piece of your puzzle. It’s been very helpful for me and many other writers.

“It’s hard to say where I’m just being kinder to myself and where my limitations have legitimately contracted around my equally limited capabilities.”

I resonate with this. I believe something that I will be focusing on more in time to come is coming to peace with the limitations while recognizing they are perhaps balanced by the blessings of greater understanding and awareness.

Thank-you for this post, I thought the paragraphs on one pot of energy really do ring true. It seems that is applicable whether in a person’s writing life or elsewhere.

Your phrasing makes me see my energy as a cauldron boiling on the back burner. I like that. 😀

I haven’t replied before, but this post demands one, I think. In the past few months, since discovering your work (on recommendation of Writers’ HQ, I think), I’ve worked my way through tens of these posts, responding to them in my own journal and learning *so very much* that I know will improve my writing. To hear you speak of the energy needed for creativity, and how it can be taken up by other things – that’s exactly what happened to me, and it’s what I fight every day. From passionately wanting to be a writer – and writing, too! – when younger, I lost a long time to other things – a career that took everything, really, and then really took it all when I had what I call my “lifecrash” in 2014. And that pushed me to reconsider everything, including where my energies should best go – I’ve written every day now since December 2014. It’s like building up a muscle that had atrophied – I feel like I’ve had to learn it all again – but, here’s the point of my response, it’s blog posts like yours, sharing your ideas and ways of working, that have helped push me along. So – I hope you get the chance to redouble your energies exactly as you write about above, and I hope (perhaps a little selfishly!) there are plenty more blog posts to come. What you’ve created here is an invaluable resource – thank you.

“Lifecrash.” I like that. Well, not like it, but you know… 😉

That’s awesome that you were able to keep writing consistently as you picked up the pieces. It not only gives you something to be proud of, it was also, I’m sure, part of what helped you heal.

Absolutely – it really has, and that’s with people saying “writing, that’s a bit solitary, isn’t it? I wouldn’t do that, if I were you…” No surprise, though, that so much is autobiographical which I’m trying to translate into something more than that.

“so much is autobiographical which I’m trying to translate into something more than that.”

I’ve never purposefully written anything autobiographical. But it’s astounding to me to look back over my body of work and recognize how it was all a processing of my life in ways I didn’t even understand at the time.

I’ve noticed a tie-in between creativity and childishness in my life, and I think this describes the mannerisms of creatives I know, for better or worse. I think there’s something biological to it, actually. (We know people’s brains are far more elastic in youth, and that higher IQ individuals tend to retain that elasticity better.) Not being overly burdened would certainly seem conducive to this mental state. And there certainly seems to be something child-like about a lot of people’s creative output (in a good way.)

Maybe returning to your favorite childhood book/tv show/movie can help you return to that emotional and spiritual state? There’s nothing quite as cathartic as a return to the beginning, I suppose. Or you could perhaps focus on media written primarily for a younger audience.

I recently had a major creative burst after consuming a particular anime, actually. I’m a musician, and I was waking up with new songs in my head every day, which was a pretty fantastic thing to have happen. As you could imagine, I’ve been trying to figure out why – something about being completely immersed and emotionally affected by something, which to me, reeks of child-like openness or dependence. It reminds me of how I feel when I’m imagining a new scene for the story I’m outlining, actually. It’s all pretty hard to articulate, though.

Just thinking out loud. It’s easy to see patterns where there aren’t any, haha. But maybe someone will find this useful. 😛

I think this is spot on. One thing I have been doing, actually, is looking back through old journals. They’re not from childhood, obviously, but I started writing them in my early teens, so they’re still a tool for remembering a lot of things I’ve forgotten about myself.

I’ve also pondered this “refilling the creative well” issue in my own life. One thing I learned was that I have to take the underlying concept of the Sabbath more seriously: operate from a position of being well-rested.

However, in my father’s family, “lazy” is a four-letter word, and I used to get down on myself for taking time out. Couple that with what I suspect is mild ADD, where I tend to decide to reorganize my room when I’m supposed to be doing something else, and I really thought I was lazy. But! I think of great ideas when I’m in the shower, or doing the dishes — in other words, when I’m not “working.” Eventually, the connection dawned on me: there’s value in “play” or “rest” or “goofing off.”

It’s not laziness so much as giving my mind time to roam, or make connections, or puzzle out a problem. It’s putting my mind in an “open mode.” John Cleese gave a lecture on this , where he explained how he came to be one of the more creative Monty Python writers, though he regarded himself as less talented than one of his cowriters. Giving yourself time to think is key.

Also, I’m an introverted lone-wolf type. Yet, I firmly believe there’s value in cultivating friends and people you can bounce ideas off of. I remember why college was so magical: it was the first time in my life where I was surrounded by other creatives. We could talk shop and explore story ideas. I loved critiquing books and movies with a film student friend, because she and I were “on the same page” when it came to good storytelling. Those critiques helped us beef up our craft, because they helped us to see what elements separated the sheep from the goats as it were, and we gave each other ideas.

At the same time, it helps to broaden horizons. I love history, and sometimes a historian mentions being stymied by “X.” That is, until they talked to an outsider whose discipline inherently includes “X,” and that outsider cracked the case. I love the one where historians thought the women’s hairstyles they saw on Roman statues might not have been real, because they couldn’t figure out how to style hair that way. Then a hairstylist found out about this “puzzle,” and she demonstrated exactly how to “do as Romans do” with hairdos. Mystery solved. So, having trouble writing a space opera? Read a romance.

This all resonates pretty strongly with me. The issue for me is maintaining discipline while allowing time to goof off – maintaining the Sabbath might be one solution.

I agree. The Seventh Day Sabbath is the one day of the week where I cease writing.

There are times when writing needs to be spiritual.

I’ve just finished reading Alchemy by Rory Sutherland and at the end, he literally says about 80% of the book was written on days after a day where he had essentially done nothing.

I think it’s good to look back on times that we remember as “magical” and try to understand what convergence of events made it so. We can’t go back, but we can work to understand how we can bring some of those elements forward into the present.

I’m in my third act like your mom. I’ve had to deal the with the sudden loss of my husband about five years ago and soon after a job layoff due to my company closing and then becoming an empty nester. It’s take five years to get back into my writing and I’m still not all there. It’s good to hear that I’m not alone.

Very sorry to hear about your husband. Big life changes have a way of really resetting our perspectives.

Great post! The idea of this journey being a 3 Act structure resonates with us writers. Although I tend to think of it more in 4 parts than 3 (guess I favor Syd Field and Larry Brooks more than I thought), each comprising of 15-year segments. 20-35 = early part of our career, finding our sea-legs in adulthood, the setup to the story we are writing with every choice we make. 35-50 = firmly on the adventure, building upon the expertise we developed in the previous stage but still in the dark, still deciphering the clues to what our lifestory is about (also a time for, hopefully, building wealth), 50-65 = a major turning point in our story, a time when all the questions to life change and some of the antagonistic forces are revealed to be closer than we imagined. 65-80 = A time when the true heroic nature of ourselves is sanctified in the crucible of life’s final conflict, it’s climax, and denouement. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. But this time we return from whence we came … different and, hopefully, a more complete version of who God wants us to be.

The question, I suppose, is that whether we write it in 4 parts or in 3, are we writing towards an end with a clear idea and structure in mind, or are we just winging it all along the way? And if the latter, could this be a significant contributor to the loss of our creativity?

Yeah, I lean into four-part story structure myself. I guess I just resonated with the idea of a life in thirds because turning 30 was a sea change for me in a lot of ways.

This is one of the most amazing and helpful things I have ever read. I struggle with this daily as all writers do, I think.

I believe I mentioned in an email that I have a psychology background, so this really resonated with me. It is brilliant and eloquent—just astonishing. I also have a few insights.

1. I was just about to send you a note today to tell you how THANKFUL I am for so much of the work you have done. For example, your outline and description of the FLAT ARC really saved me and my WIP. It would be dead in the water without your flat arc guidelines. No other books I have seen really get at it the way you do, and everyone else would pretty much force you into a positive arc. Your techniques helped me find the soul of my heroine and I will be forever grateful for that.

2. It seems like you put out a HUGE AMOUNT of energy helping people, and as I have read your archived posts forward to the present I see a real character of arc of wisdom growing and growing. Your own character development is in print, so to speak. Kind of amazing.

3. On the muse: I also write songs and collaborate on many songs as well so I know what a fickle muse creativity can be. The paradox is the same in all art, I think. One thing we all know is that you can never chase a song. If you do, she runs away. I just have to sit with my eyes closed holding a guitar in my lap, remembering when I was twelve and I would sit at the top of the stairs to play my guitar with my eyes closed then so I could hear and feel the beautiful echo. The very wood of the instrument itself was magical in those days and if I ever forget that I am done—I mean the way the guitar became a living creature, some kind of animated object from a fairy tale. In other writing, I often have to go outside or into a small room and write with a pencil on a piece of paper so I can hear that scratching noise and the sound of the lead going down on the paper. That was magic when I was a kid, and if I ever lose that, I know I am done for as well.

4. If you are like anyone else I know in this transition, it may be helpful just to take a deep breath and smile and relax and take stock of all the wonderful things you have done and all the enormous gifts you have given to others.

The karma you have built up is so strong that it is only a matter of time until the dam breaks explosively and that magical waterfall comes down like a torrent.

I absolutely guarantee you that the books you write in this decade will be your most personal, touching, gut-wrenching and awe-inspiring masterpieces.

All of the laws of the Universe are behind you.

Thanks for all you do.

Aww, thanks very much for the kind words. They are deeply appreciated. 🙂

I love what you say about your experience with writing songs and the magical relationship with the guitar as an avatar of your creativity.

This was such a relevant post! My first novel is traveling the world in search of an agent, and I have its sequel largely planned out. But my mother is requiring a lot of attention as her dementia increases, and I have to spend a lot time I used to spend writing (time I had very little of as it was, but I was making it work) managing the search for a new place for her to live, transportation — the whole process of taking over doing the things she used to do for herself.

I’m scared to start writing again, I think, because my mind is going in so many different directions right now, none of which have anything to do with my story, and I’m afraid I’ll get a little ways and be interrupted. I’m at the start of my third act as well, and I’m afraid I’ll run out of time.

Your quote on Twitter this weekend resonated with me, the idea that whatever we can shovel into the sandbox for a first draft is material for carving out the second draft. Perhaps I need to give myself the freedom to put in little red plastic spadefuls, not big ditch-digger shovels full, knowing that it will all pile up for future refinement.

I absolutely believe there are times when we have to step back from the page for a while. But I also think it’s often worthwhile to try to keep writing, even if it’s just for twenty minutes a day. Keeping one hand on that creative lifeline can make a lot of difference in the hard times.

Thank you for the Post. Even as we go through these periods of slow or low creativity our energy is being used in other areas like you mentioned. Even when we think we aren’t learning we’re still learning something. And we can take that knowledge that we’ve learned by living to make us better writers. Having lived with the frustration and the uncertainty have not knowing where that energy went, gives us insight to what we normally may not have access to. Even when we’re writing about nothing the stream of consciousness, acting as a Dumping Ground to clear out our brains that’s still something. A springboard into the unknown. I’m glad to see I’m not alone in my journey of doubt and low creativity, health problems have slowed me down but the feelings I experienced during the low point if I choose to look back on them give me knowledge and experience I would not have otherwise. Thank you Kate!

This quote from Thoreau has run through my mind a lot: “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

This resonates for me but weirdly in a sort of opposite direction. For many years I’ve been in highly demanding, highly creative jobs and wanted to write, but never seemed to have the time or the energy.

Now, I’m in a job where I’m bored out of my skull and that creativity cauldron is boiling over. I’m writing like I never have before.

The job has to change, it’s doing my head in. But, now that I’ve opened the gates to this part of my creativity, I’ll need to make sure I can balance work I can enjoy and be stimulated by and maintaining the energy to write the stories bouncing around in my brain.

Thank you for the clarity!

That’s awesome. To everything a season. This is a good reminder for those of us currently riding the ebb of the wave.

I always read your blogs for take-aways I can apply to my life as a writer, and I’m never disappointed. Thank you for your honesty in this blog. I look back to my thirties as my most creative period. Being a single mom took 95% of my energy, but I hid that last 5% in my heart and wrote songs on the park-and-ride bus to and from work. God poured His words & music through me almost faster than I could write them down! Looking back, the writing that came from that traumatic time was phenomenal, and I know it’s how I survived. I wrote my first poem at 13 and my first novel at 24, but I’m older now, and like you so bravely confessed, it’s harder to summon the creative energy that used to be second nature. When my sewer line exploded, I faced several months of restoration work with no money, and I shut down writing-wise to deal with contractors. A woman in my critique group had her house flooded during Harvey. Another member had her house burn to the ground. A third survived cancer. Having that support group and the sure knowledge that this life is temporary at best helped, but basically you have to wait it out. You stand quietly. You read books about writing. You jot down ideas for later. You watch movies and study plot lines and dialogue. You are not alone in thinking that window of creativity is shrinking. But is not writing even an option? After all, it’s the only thing that keeps us sane in an insane world.

“…but basically you have to wait it out. You stand quietly. You read books about writing. You jot down ideas for later. You watch movies and study plot lines and dialogue. You are not alone in thinking that window of creativity is shrinking. But is not writing even an option? After all, it’s the only thing that keeps us sane in an insane world.”

This is so spot on!

Can hidden anger be another problem I’m battling that is using my creative energy?

I’d say, definitely. IMO, anger is usually a defensive front for a deeper pain or fear we’ve yet to confront.

I’ve been struggling with my latest story. I’ve been endeavoring to employ most of the writing tips you (and a few others) have given me over the past year. I’m at the last confrontation scene in my story and I’m stuck. I can’t decide which characters I should or should not kill or even how. I feel like I’m way over my head and I’m afraid I’l write a ho hum ending. I deplore glitz, nonetheless I don’t want to be lazy and disappoint the reader.

So I have decided to put it aside for awhile and come back later and do something else creative and been dying to do namely write music. To do this I have two sources: MuseScore and youtube.

MuseScore is a free virus free downloadable music notation software https://musescore.org/en . It has a number of instruments to choose from. You cannot only see what you’ve written, but also can hear it when you play it.

Youtube I’ve gone to to learn music theory.

My advice is (unless you have a deadline from a publisher) do something else creative: write music and/or songs, poetry. paint or draw a picture, do wood work and or garden.

God created us in His image and one of His attributes is being creative. In other words we are programmed or wired to be creative. So go and create and have fun.

This is great. I’ve poured a lot of energy (and enjoyment) into interior design projects these last few years. It’s been a rewarding and cathartic alternative to my more traditional artistic pursuits. I’ve joked that it’s my therapy. 😉

By the way, I enjoyed your article and it has given me things to think about and explore.

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

Oh, my goodness–I emphasize with this. I’m 34, and for the last three years or so, I’ve felt like the wardrobe to Narnia in my mind has been slowly closing. It’s been not only more difficult for me to write the fantasy and cyberpunk that I normally love to create, but more difficult to read and engage with it, as well. It left a hole in me I couldn’t fill with anything else.

I’m a senior copywriter at a health insurance company, and so I think that’s where a lot of my creativity and energy goes. But it’s not only that–there’s more to my decline, and I think you just helped me figure out the last few of my impediments with this post. Thank you. I mean that.

Something else that really helped me, I found, was novelty. Trying new things and going new places. Something about the New unlocks my creativity and leaves my mind active and more “roomy,” for lack of a better term. So I make an effort to explore the woods, go to events, attend to a live symphony that includes my favorite film soundtracks, and so on. It makes an enormous difference in my creative energy level.

Our creativity uses the raw material of the entirety of our experiences, breaking them down into the colors that make up our literary palette, so it’s no wonder this works out so well for me. 🙂

“I’ve felt like the wardrobe to Narnia in my mind has been slowly closing.”

Bam. Great analogy.

Confession: I fully understood the meaning of creativity when I experienced cognitive decline. In other words, human’s capabilities that diminish in strength or quality are typically noticeable when the fear of losing “the younger version of you” grows. But like most things in life, controlling self-traits is only an illusion. And this brings me to only one conclusion: Don’t fret when you feel that you’re losing your creativity, because nothing declines or rises forever. Just like a good story, we are all designed to ride beams of light that temporarily buckle under the pressure of inconsistent gravity…

I appreciate that. I feel like that is what I am learning right now. It’s a time of learning to let go, rather than hanging on and trying so hard to control outcome.

You are one of the most creative persons I know! I’m glad came into contact with you over the last few years of my life—which have been the hardest. I echo what you said about healing psychologically, physically, spiritually, or creatively. It seems we’re our own worst enemy at times, the worst critic, pummeling ourselves into a formless pulp until we’re paralyzed.

I thought the “Acts of Life” analogy was good too. Whether we’re in the first, second, third, climax, or conclusion of our lives, God is the author. Give your mom a high five for us 🙂 I love the way you used the word “husbanding” too. That’s creative! Seriously, to consistently put together these great posts every week is hard evidence. Just think how many writers you’ve help become more creative in their writing!!!

I’ve been paralyzed myself for some years. Learning to take a viable idea and shape it into a story is no easy feat. But anyways, I had a little “aha” moment that helped to write just 60 words of an opening scene that tied up a few challenging matters of my WIP. I know it’s only 60 words but it FELT SO GOOD. I actually wrote something.

I’m not sure if I subscribe to the window of creativity in relation to age. Perhaps I’m too simple, or hopeless optimist. I’m sure it’s a lot harder if you do it full time though. There’s plenty of distractions to keep me from writing. But I think it was David Baldacci who said finding time to write is also creativity. Cool eh?

I’ve always considered creativity to be an act of bravery. This is probably why it’s sometimes so hard. But also why it’s inevitably so rewarding. 🙂

Hi K.M. I always find your articles relevant, truthful and hard-hitting – and this was no exception! Just this morning I woke up with a sadness, longing to just close my eyes and be instantly in that creative place where my imagination runs wild.

I appreciate your theories on what makes our creativity diminish over time. As a busy wife and mom of 2 extremely busy kids and another on the way often times the last thing on my to-do list is actual writing. My energy is too divided. The enneagram however sounds like a great tool and one which I’ll be looking into in more detail, even as I continue to try and carve just a few minutes out of every day to write.

I certainly feel dedication and stewarding our gifts well is key to pulling ourselves out of the mire. I suppose it’s like any calling or profession in life. We have our good days and our bad, days we perform exceptionally and are rewarded for those efforts and others where we wish the day had never dawned.

Thank you for insightful articles which are always so timely and relevant. And for being willing to share your own experiences and lessons learnt for the benefit of others! I really value your work and turn to your articles time and again when looking for guidance on everything from actual story structure to some much needed motivation.

I’ve always said moms who write are superheroes. 🙂

Hi Katie! When I write fiction, one thing that always helps me is imagining that my teenage daughter is again much younger – and I am sitting by her bed at night telling her a bedtime story. She used to be mesmerized with my bedtime stories LOL even when they weren’t that good. I would just make them up as I went. But her attentiveness and appreciation brought a satisfaction to me for creating the story and created a motivation inside me to make the story really, really good! Not sure how, but I’m pretty sure this helped bolster by creativity because I had a purpose in telling the story to my daughter. Even today, putting myself in the frame of mind of “telling a bedtime story” helps me a great deal. As I struggle today to write my first fiction novel, I often let my daughter read my outline and sections of my draft-in-progress so that she can see the process and even give her ideas and suggestions. Deep down, I’m hoping that she may pick up on the art of story telling herself – but I also want her to really enjoy the story, just as she did when she was younger at bedtime. I also see my daughter’s enjoyment of a story as a good measure of how good the story really is (now that she is older and will tell me when some part of the story just isn’t the best in her opinion and why). I guess my summary of this is that, for me, involving loved ones in every aspect of the process can make a huge difference.

That’s wonderful that your daughter can be involved in your writing. Sharing creative pursuits, in any capacity, is tremendous. 🙂

I believe the creative part of our brains is indeed childlike. As the adult side of our brain takes control, we may develop a disfunctional relationship with that creative child and start reasoning with it critically and harshly, expecting it to be more adult, tougher, more mature. When the reasoning side of our mind does this to the creative, childlike side, we frighten the child into running and hiding in her room, afraid that whatever she tries will be criticized and ridiculed. We experience this phenomenon as a loss of creativity or writer’s block.

One way to deal with this is to speak to our creative side as if she is a child. When a child presents us with a creation we don’t think is very good, we should be encouraging for the effort and provide constructive ways to improve things. “Wow, that’s a really good start! But, maybe you can get this part a little better?” Rather than, “Oh, that stinks! Why can’t you get it right? Is that the best you can do?”

When we develop our critical side, we discover more about what we think is good. When our creative side falls short of our ideal, we are tempted to let the full force of our critical mind crush the creative child. Our critical side needs to think of itself as a parent of the creative side, and treat that beautiful child like a beautiful child, and not like a sweatshop owner overseeing an illegal child labor racket.

There is no greater feeling than when our critical side looks at what the childlike side has done and says, “Now, that is really good!” And that creative child wants so much to please our critical mind. But the way to get there is to encourage the creative child, talk to her as a child, and be a good parent and guide.

To be at our best, the parent and child need to work together in love. The parent tasking, directing and encouraging the child. But we need both sides. Undisciplined children can really make a mess.

If you find yourself blocked or struggling to be creative, go knock on that child’s door, and coax her out. “I’m so sorry I was so hard on you. Won’t you come out? Let’s work together and see if we can make something really great! I promise, I won’t ever be hard on you like that again.”

Literally talk to yourself as if you are a parent encouraging a child, a child who does not understand big words or complex concepts. Make your mind-world safe for play and experimentation. Laugh with your creative child if she suggests something silly. If you get this relationship right, you will be happier and more creative.

Then, when you do get to something really great, I promise, the mind party you will have will be the thing we live for. That inner child will jump for joy and do cartwheels across the floor. And the inner parent will weep for joy.

“There is no greater feeling than when our critical side looks at what the childlike side has done and says, “Now, that is really good!” And that creative child wants so much to please our critical mind. But the way to get there is to encourage the creative child, talk to her as a child, and be a good parent and guide.”

This is really well said.

That’s an amazing way to see it. I love how you phrased this. Creativity is one of my favorite topics for some reason.

It’s a topic of endless wealth, that’s for sure. 😉

Thanks for sharing. You’re one of the most creative persons I know. Creating stories and great posts every week is hard evidence. I’m not a full time writer so I won’t pretend to know what you’re going through at this point in your life. At 45, I’m well into the second act of life. Love that analogy by the way. The last decade has been onslaught of traumatic experiences to wade through. But during this time writing poetry, discovering your books and blogs has helped me discover my creative side. So I’m really grateful for that. Energy wise I’ve hit a brick wall the last 7 or so years, especially the last 5. The good part is that our creativity is still there!!! Just waiting to come out any chance it gets.

I tried posted last night but it disappeared somewhere. Apologize in advance of any double posting.

Looks like the first comment got flagged for some reason and was waiting approval. It’s up now as well. But thanks again for the kind words! It’s great to hear the blog has been useful to you. 🙂

Of course! It’s always helpful. I’m definitely going to come around more like I used to. It’s been in the back of my head for a while now.

Always good to have you around. 🙂

You have great articles as always. I’m in my 30’s. I am struggling with getting my book finished and also doing character profiles for my characters. I like to watch movies like Anne of Green Gables the Continuing Story . I also think working on my weight is also a struggle because I want to be 140 pounds and not 170 pounds being only 5’3″. I am still going to self publish my books. When I was in school I did not like some people said my first name wrong. I don’t have a boy friend yet. I want one who loves his mom. I will have children one day.

These are great goals. Good for you. 🙂

Saw this on LitHub after reading your post and thought of you. https://lithub.com/maybe-the-secret-to-writing-is-not-writing/

Wow. Loved her closing lines.

“During those two years when I believed I was blocked, I was reading. I was traveling. I was grieving. I was falling in love. I was going to art galleries and listening to music and flying to Michigan with a new puppy for my parents and cooking chicken with 50 cloves of garlic with my sibling and drinking black coffee and falling asleep with my head on my beloved’s chest and watering the pots of aloe that line my windowsill. All that time, without realizing it, I was writing.”

Hi, K.M Weiland !!!

I’ve always wanted to drop you a comment but my fellow writers have always expressed what I wanted to say …

First of all, I think you’re BRILLIANT and an AMAZING WRITER and so HUMAN… I deeply admire your discipline, passion and commitment to study the craft and yet share it with us. (Even though, when you put too much of the CONSCIOUS brain in it, it can be dangerous. Everything FLOWS better after we let go of thinking TOO MUCH and trust in our DEEP. Not that I don’t like learning the craft myself that’s why I’ve come across you. And like you, I LOVE learning how a writer I LOVE does it and absorb his insights) I guess that sometimes it must be a real struggle to keep going and this is so HUMAN… After reading this post I’ve just fell even more in love with you cause you’re so HUMAN… I just love the EMOTIONS I feel reading your post and the others your WORLDS full of human passions and limitations invokes in me. We need it! We want to feel. We want to experience. That’s what makes us alive, right? It’s so much disasters, reactions and sequences that our MIND goes spinning out-of-control with so much to acknowledge every single day. And we need these outlets to keep going, to give us hope, to give us faith… But, I firmly believe all of us, in the end, are going to be rewarded beyond our wildest dreams for our courage to FEEL all of them. For our courage to be HUMAN. Don’t worry! As long as you’re HUMAN, you’ll never run out of creativity. Your ability to imagine and create will never, ever, ever, leave you. It’s your very breath… Keep pushing through your SECOND ACT. Your FIRST ACT was FABULOUS already! You’ve done so much, that I on the sideline can only stand in awe and only dream of writing as beautifully as you.

Aww, thank you so much, Aimee. 🙂 This is a great pep talk for all of us humans. 😀

Aimee, wonderfully said! I couldn’t agree more. And Katie, you are a magical beautiful soul and writer. I, too, am in awe of what you’ve accomplished at such a young age. My first thought when you said you were 33 was “to buckle up, dear! You’ve barely just begun this wild rollercoaster ride we call life!” LOL! BTW, wasn’t Jesus resurrected at 33? I’m not Christian but 33 and 3 are very powerful numbers with angels and in numerology. This is a 3 year of creativity and Sept. is a 3 month so were getting it full force and there are many many spiritual teachers talking about shadow work right now (there’s good reason for that!) so your bringing it up is perfect and I loved your perspective. Debbie Ford is the one who brought it to the forefront decades ago. She really was an angel on Earth and her past was quite dramatic, which she used for inspiration to help heal so many. Timing and the astrological forces and the amazing solar energies we’re getting from the Sun and the heavens are blasting everyone in ways this year like never before so you have not been alone in your long struggle that’s been intensifying for even the most advanced spiritual teachers and as people are finally waking up all over the world. I believe our creative forces will be rising in such powerful, positive ways like no one has ever imagined after this next new moon. An exciting time to be alive. It’s taken me all the way to my 54-years to learn how to embrace my shadows, work with their gifts, love and listen to my body’s language, and begin to take my writing seriously rather than giving away my power by selling it to corporations on subjects that weren’t even my passion, for material rewards. So I’m continually in awe and inspired about the future of our world when I read such deep HUMAN feeling and wise words from young people like yourself. This post really spoke to me in that way and was so heart-centered, even if a bit monkey-minded (who doesn’t do that?), that I just wanted to hug you! You are so blessed to have a close, wonderful relationship with your mother. Devouring more and more information has long been a driving force for me (always will be), but now I’m committing myself more to a focused practice to what I already know, listening to my higher Self, and not running away from the necessary, patient waiting inbetween times (a long-running programming in my body’s cellular memory so tbc…) But I just wanted to thank you for all you do and acknowledge how far ahead of the curve you are at this stage of your life, further than most have come in a whole life in prior generations. You are a gifted, talented, beautiful teacher with so much more to come I can’t wait to see what else you create no matter how long it takes. To the ever-evolving journey…much love!

Thanks for sharing your wisdom, experience, and kindness. Your words are very encouraging! Keep being awesome. 🙂

@Aimee hit the nail on the head. You are doing—and have done—such a fantastic job with your creativity, your dedication and self-discipline, being a hugely helpful mentor, and so much more… Fast approaching my third act, and struggling with an overwhelming challenge, you’ve given me hope and perspective. Thanks so much for this post. It was just what I needed to read.

I wish you all the best with your own challenge. 🙂

I, too, am in a season of healing and change, and have not been as productive creatively as I would like. These words hit home for me and are very encouraging. Thank you for your vulnerability and wisdom.

It’s comforting to know what we’re experiencing, however unique it may be for us, is not abnormal. 🙂

As one who is two-thirds through my third act, I believe one’s creativity increases as memories and living itself become more meaningful. By eighty years old, I have known such a variety of people, traveled to thirty-four countries, and experienced so many emotional states, including the death of my spose and the murder of my daughter. I have watched young people grow into adults and parents. I believe the secret to creativity is loving life and all things alive.

What a inspiringly full life. Very sorry to hear about your losses though. 🙁

Three years ago I began my Third Act. The year before at the end of my Second Act I took a fall which started a journey of pain that was unrelenting and led me through a morass of medical opinions, tests, surgeries, and ended with a complex spinal fusion (my third) in March of this year. Not all things go as we wish, and this recovery is the longest I’ve experienced. I’m told by my surgeon it will last another 18 months or more. These nearly four years I have felt the draining of my creativity. I lost my focus to pain and pain meds. I’ve been living in a fog, and I’ve not yet returned to seriously working or writing anything other than my blog posts.

I can’t begin to tell you what your courage in writing the words in this post have done for me tonight. I’m battling among other things depression from what I feel I have lost. You’ve given me hope and shed light on what I’ve been believing about myself and my chosen craft. Now I can respect you not only as an exceptional writer and teacher, but as a woman who takes in hand her problems and works them out. Then she turns around and shares her answers with her followers. Bless you!

So sorry to hear about your painful journey. You an unrelenting force of cheerfulness and goodwill! I wish you absolutely all the best with your recovery.

Sherrey, I’m so sorry you’re going through so much. My husband was in a car wreck 2 years ago and had his 3rd spinal fusion last December and his second knee replacement in August. I’m sure he could relate to everything you’ve said here. Between the pain and the meds, he’s stopped making art, and some days are a struggle just to get up and function. But together we try to find the bright spots, even small ones, in each day. I hope you heal soon and well, and your bright spots grow more frequent.

This is one of the most moving posts I can recall from you; it resonates with me. I appreciate your openness and directness and clarity in addressing something that can’t have been easy for you (or any of us). This sounds like what I have needed for a while now, without even letting myself realize it before. Thank you.

So glad you enjoyed the post! Thanks for taking the time to read. 🙂

Thank you. Your companionship was exactly what I needed this morning. I was, for the first time in my life, considering giving up writing for just the reasons you talked about. My creativity has abandoned me and I’m on my knees asking my inner child, and God, and The Creative Force of the Universe – Why? What have I done? Why have you left me? I am frustrated and discouraged, filled with self-doubt in ways I have never felt before. Reading that you have experienced this as well has given me a glimmer of hope that perhaps it’s not just time to give it up and walk away, that perhaps it is just part of the process and I am still a member of the Writer’s Club #imstillwriting 🙂 I know many before me have written to say your words are helpful, your creativity is inspiring, but I wanted you to hear it again and I hope the light and the passion returns to both of us soon. Also, as a mother of a very busy daughter who lives thousands of miles away from me, I loved how you started this post sharing that you talk with your mom every day about everything and nothing. Mom’s are grateful for continued connection with their daughters. Thank you!

#imstillwriting

I like that. I’m keeping it. 😉

And I wish you all the best as we continue onwards and upwards!

Thanks once again for sharing your struggles with us, Katie. It brings me hope, having gone through similar experiences. It could just be me, but I’ll bet every serious writer has known that terrible time of feeling uncreative at some point. I think you’re dead on when you express the need to face our own fears and shadows in order to refill our dry creative wells, otherwise we end up continually spending our energy putting it off. I also agree, creativity is so much more than making art. If we allow it, creativity can seep its way into everything we do. Of course, it comes at a cost (energy being one of them) and we have to decide what is worth expending creative energy on. This is often a hard decision, but I think any regular use of creativity helps one grow in all aspects of a creative life, even though the results aren’t always apparent.

Thank you for sharing the things that God is teaching you through the dark night of the soul. My writing has been extremely dry lately. Reading your article encourages me because I can see how the struggles of life have been eating away my energy and thereby stealing my creativity. The fact that my creativity can return in time is bliss. God will restore the years the locust has eaten. Perseverance is only built by pushing through the hard times with the grace the Lord provides. He’s not done with me yet, and will get my writing where He wants it. Your encouragement through your vulnerability in sharing is a big blessing. May the Lord restore your creativity by the boatload.

Thanks for such an encouraging post and for the great advice. I’ve been struggling too, it seems like for almost the last decade, due to various family problems and job problems. But your advice about faithfulness to projects has worked well for me. I try to just show up and write each day, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Sometimes that’s all it takes to pull me into the magic and passion of creating. Other times, I grind out an obligatory paragraph or two and call it good. But forward motion, however small, gives me the encouragement I need to show up the next day and do it again.

I also want to thank you for your wonderful books on writing. I’m using Structuring Your Novel and Outlining Your Novel to lay out my second novel (and to get ready for NaNoWriMo), and they are both super-helpful.

Thank you so much for this wonderful blog and the wealth of information and teaching envouragement in every post that you so unselfishly share with everyone.

It is my first time commenting. Ive always felt i dont know enough to be a writer. Iam sixty two this year and have still not completed any writing.

Since my laptop was stolen i have been scrambling around for drafts which i could work from but havnt had any success.

I have found myself in that tunnel with those shadows lurking around me still wanting to drain my creativity. Thank you for this awesome post you have encouraged me, it truly gave me a wake up call to forget about my losses and stop waiting for the creativity to return.

I can now start by showing up with pen and notebook day by day revitalise energy and create new ideas.

Once again thank you so much for your brilliance and love tha you share.i have learnt a great lesson today. God bless.

Very insightful article! I’ve long thought creativity is very energy-intensive, but thinking of walls being put up and using further energy is VERY intriguing. I think that people who are creative are more easily hurt. They’re more open to beauty and wonder, but also put up walls as time goes on to protect their fragile inner selves the more negative experiences they have. And that this walls up creativity is such an interesting concept. I got used to people laughing at my joy in beauty and my cringing at ugliness, and have realised that I’ve suffered abuse of many forms throughout my life. Being an author is a very vulnerable enterprise, and that requires both being open and being resilient. Working on both, and working on healing through natural means, by God’s enabling!

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What to do if you haven’t written for a long, long time.

I received the following question from a subscriber. I asked him if I could share it with you, and he graciously agreed.

Dear Sarah,

I’ve always enjoyed writing, not just creatively. As an introvert, it’s enabled me to communicate more readily. However, I haven’t written anything creatively for quite a few years now. I’m concerned that I’ve squandered my passion, and lost the knowledge for creative writing indelibly.

In your professional opinion, Sarah, have I lost my edge? If so, how can I get it back?

Learning takes place at an unconscious level, so what you’ve already learned about creative writing is still there. You just have to bring it back into your conscious mind, to remind yourself that you have this knowledge. You can do this right away, as soon as you start to write again.

Writing begets writing.

The best way to find your passion for creative writing is to write creatively. I know .

This is just one of those things you have to go through. Make space for a slow start. Take it easy. Be good to yourself as you start writing again. Treat yourself like a sweet, sweet creature, worthy of patience.

As you write those first awkward sentences, look at them with gentleness. If any thoughts come up about lost time, acknowledge them, and then continue writing.

These things will help you reconnect to your writing life:

▪ Listen to a guided meditation for writers, like this one.

▪ Take a one-week break from streaming TV shows and podcasts. Your creative mind needs some white space to fill.

▪ Journal by hand for ten minutes in the morning, before you read the news, before you check email. Start with the prompt, “I want to write about…”

▪ Read the freewriting classic Writing Down the Bones , by Natalie Goldberg.

▪ Make time for wondering walks. Do not pick a destination or goal - just walk with an open mind.

▪ Join a supportive and non-competitive writing group, like this one .

If you are reading this right now and you’re afraid that too many years have passed for you, that you’ve missed your writing window, please take heart. There are no writing windows that you have to squish yourself through. There are no walls, in fact.

Your creative mind is right here, right now. You can always access it. Many excellent and fulfilling writing careers grow along non-linear paths.

The very fact that you’re reading this shows you that you’re still in a relationship to your writing. You might be out of touch, or even estranged from each other. Yes, that’s painful. But you can absolutely repair the relationship. Start simply, using one of the suggestions above.

If you are ready to seriously reconnect with your writing, consider giving yourself the Story Course . This self-paced program reconnects you to your writing, your creativity, and your love of language.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something using one of these links, I may earn a commission. I only recommend books or products I trust.

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The Labour party is in my blood. Here’s why I’ve just cancelled my membership

My ancestors had their own complex relationships with the party, but they could point to policies that transformed people’s lives. In 2024, I cannot say the same

I t’s difficult to disentangle Labour from my sense of self. Grew up in Stockport, looks a bit like Macaulay Culkin, bad dress sense … the Labour party always seemed to fit in there somewhere. My great-grandfather, a railwayman who had his wages docked in the General Strike nearly a century ago, was a Labour councillor. So was my grandmother; her proudest achievement was stopping a family being evicted by a private landlord over Christmas. My parents met at an open-air Labour meeting outside Tooting Bec in the 1960s (romantic). My mother bought me a Labour membership as a 15th birthday present. Under every Labour leader in my 21 years of adult life, I’ve plumped for the party’s candidates at local, national and European level, and campaigned for them to boot.

And yet, after a uniquely calamitous 14-year stretch of Tory rule, just as Labour looks set to reconquer No 10 by a landslide, I’ve just emailed the party cancelling my membership. My committed critics will understandably seek to link the two: Labour has shed its aversion to electability, and off sulks Home Alone’s patron saint of unelectable ideas.

But my decision isn’t based on a desire to see Labour for ever in the wilderness. Reaching it has been a gradual, painful process of realising the party won’t even do the bare minimum to improve people’s lives, or to tackle the crises that have led Britain to catastrophe; and that it will, in fact, wage war on anyone who wants to do either– making anyone with politics to the left of Peter Mandelson feel like a pariah on borrowed time. Yes, my relatives had conflicted relationships with the party, and were often frustrated by its insufficient radicalism. But they could always point to policies that transformed the lives of the people Labour was founded to represent, from the welfare state to the minimum wage and the NHS, where my grandmother worked for her whole life.

The premise of Keir Starmer’s leadership bid in 2020 was that popular policies such as taxing the rich to invest in public services, scrapping tuition fees and promoting public ownership were not to blame for the party’s 2019 electoral rout. Jeremy Corbyn’s 2017 election manifesto, Starmer declared, was the party’s “foundational document” – centred around such commitments and credited with the party’s biggest surge in vote share since 1945, even if it wasn’t enough to win two years after a shattering defeat. “Jeremy Corbyn made our party the party of anti-austerity,” Starmer told shattered Labour members, “and he was right to do so.” Though I didn’t vote for him, his pitch gave hope for the broad church my ancestors believed in. In response, I wrote a column titled : “Starmer can succeed, and he deserves our support.”

Yet five years on, Labour has become a hostile environment for anyone believing in the very policies Starmer relied upon to secure the leadership. Sure, Tony Blair’s leadership bid didn’t include laying waste Iraq, but he didn’t pretend to be a slicker version of Tony Benn either. “Circumstances changed,” plead Starmer’s defenders. Weird, then, that according to Margaret Hodge, she was led to believe by a Starmer ally during the leadership election that he was “lying” in order to get the job. Weird, too, that during that same campaign Starmer told Andrew Neil that nationalisation of utilities would feature in a Labour manifesto, but 18 months later said : “I never made a commitment to nationalisation.”

Ah, the luxury of a Guardian columnist, goes the predictable retort, demanding the most vulnerable pay the price for his lofty principles. Consider, though, that ending the two-child benefit cap would lift 250,000 children out of poverty, and lessen the effects of poverty on a further 850,000, but Starmer backed keeping it anyway. Why? To sound tough, presumably. On who? Impoverished children, like those I grew up with in Stockport? This is the same Labour party that has ruled out bringing back a cap on bankers’ bonuses or instituting a wealth tax. The same Labour party committed to Tory fiscal rules that lock the country into dismal austerity policies that have delivered collapsing public services and an unprecedented decline in living standards. The same Labour party that gutted its one distinctive flagship policy, a £28bn-a-year green investment fund , not because it came under pressure, but because it feared it might.

Some argue that Labour is doing a Clark Kent, and will unveil its hidden progressive Superman upon assuming office. Yet those fiscal rules make that approach impossible, even if you disregard the propensity of Labour governments to become more rightwing in office.

The assault on Gaza, the great crime of our age, adds moral indecency to the pile of dishonesty and vacuity. When Starmer declared Israel had the right to cut off energy and water to Palestinian civilians, he did so as a human rights lawyer who understands the Geneva conventions. After letting shadow cabinet ministers defend him, he claimed it “has never been my view that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines”. We all have political red lines: mine is supporting what would amount to war crimes against innocent civilians, toddlers and newborn babies among them, then gaslighting the public over doing so.

Where is my gratitude for Starmer delivering a now inevitable landslide victory, you may ask? Well, he didn’t force Boris Johnson and his cronies to violate their own pandemic rules, or to trash the NHS, or oversee the worst squeeze in living standards in history. Nor did he propel to power Liz Truss, whose unhinged economic experiment crashed the economy – the moment when the electorate turned on this Tory party for good.

The absolute power a landslide victory will give Labour should scare you. When Starmer allies deployed antisemitic tropes – with one joking about a “run on silver shekels” when two Jewish businessmen missed out on peerages, and another calling a Jewish Tory donor a “ puppet master ” – an apology was deemed to be sufficient. When another racially abused a journalist and had a sexual harassment complaint upheld, they were reinstated after investigation.

Contrast this with Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black female MP, who was suspended after immediately apologising for an Observer letter in which she argued that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people are not subject to racism “all their lives”. She has been left in limbo for 10 months and counting while the party investigates – only for Labour to use the racist abuse directed at her by a Tory donor for political capital, while still refusing to reinstate her.

Another fellow leftwinger, Kate Osamor – again, a Black female MP – was suspended for describing the assault on Gaza as a genocide on the day the international court of justice placed Israel on trial for alleged genocide. Questions of racism, then, seem to be judged on whether they have a factional use – a sure sign of moral bankruptcy. This leadership style is crude in opposition; with an overwhelming majority, it will be chilling.

That is why I think those who believe in real change from the Tories’ bankrupt model should vote for Green or independent candidates. A new initiative – We Deserve Better – is raising money to support such candidates, judged on whether they believe in, say, taxing the well-off to invest, or public ownership, or opposing war crimes, even if they differ on this or that. Those seeking transformative policies are now fragmented, but they don’t have to be. The premise of this new initiative is simple: if the left doesn’t band together, the only pressure on Labour will come from the migrant-bashing, rich-worshipping right.

The Tories’ chance of winning is infinitesimally small. What matters now is whether anyone who wants to redistribute wealth and power is denied a voice in Starmer’s administration. That is certainly the ambition of his lieutenants. When inevitable disillusionment with a government rooted in deceit and lacking any solutions to Britain’s woes seeps in, it will be the radical right that stands to benefit.

So bid me farewell, even cry “good riddance”, but before you do, ask yourself: what do you think will happen next?

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

Guardian Newsroom: What is Labour’s plan? On Tuesday 16 April, 8pm–9.15pm BST, join Gaby Hinsliff, Tom Baldwin, Polly Toynbee and Kiran Stacey as they discuss the ideas and the events that might shape Labour in power. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

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