A friend of mine, we’ll call him Bernie, just returned from a summer in Paris. Luckily, his working life allows him to produce remotely; it doesn’t matter where he is, the work can get done. I remember chatting with him after he had been there for a month or so and his lamenting of the summer literary scene in Paris. “It’s like the literary scene shuts down in summer,” he told me. “Everyone goes out to the countryside or lays on the beach all day. Nobody’s writing or reading all summer.”

Let he or she who is not guilty of this sin speak now and chastise us; the indolent writers who give in to the beauty of summer, cast their laptops aside, and instead of filling themselves with coffee and banging away at the home row for hours on end, opt to fill themselves with blonde ales and kick off their flipflops at the beach. But, in case you were unaware, we are now into the ninth month, September, and the summer she is drawing to a close. The nights, at least here in Chicago, have become breezy and chilly, no longer do we talk of taking trips to the dunes, and I have begun to wear socks again. Yes, whether we would like to admit it or not, the summer is ending and it is time to return to the task at hand.

But how does one do it? As any writer knows, if you avoid writing long enough it becomes harder and harder to start back up again. This is why so many novels go unfinished, so many stories languish in your computer’s “To Submit” folder, so many readings go unattended. The truth is, and one of the hardest things for writers to overcome, is that it doesn’t matter what you write as long as you’re writing. Quality will come in time. We all know this, yet we also all expect genius to pour out of our fingertips every time we sit down at the keys. So let’s start off with…

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Just Write

Do it, dammit. Just make time and sit down and write and forget everything else. You’re a writer. What else is there but writing? Don’t make excuses. “But I have this project at work coming up,” “But I can’t think of any thing to write about,” “But my keyboard is missing the S key,” “But Top Chef is on.” Really? C’mon. It doesn’t matter what you write as long as you’re writing something. You’ll be okay, I promise.

After taking the summer off and feeling a bit rusty, I’ve personally decided to take part in National Novel Writing Month. In the past, my opinion of NaNo has been tepid, something I thought wasn’t particularly for me. But it does actually offer a great community of writers for you to lean on. I’m still not sure if I will sign up on their website and take part in the social aspect of it (maybe I could be convinced), but I think it’s a great goal for one to set. Write 50,000 in one month. It took me a year to write my novel, and that’s only 70,000 words (after some generous cuts). If you’re unfamiliar, NaNo takes place in November, starting at midnight on the 1st and going all the way through the 30th. You’ve got plenty of time to decide if it’s something for you. If you’re having trouble getting started, November and NaNo could help turn that around.

Read A Book

Yeah, you’ve probably been reading all summer. But don’t just read any book. Read your favorite book. There’s nothing to get you started better than reading a book that made you want to be a writer. One of those books for me is Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut; it’s a short book, I can usually finish it in a day or two, and something about it is so weird and awesome and inspiring. It’s one of those books that gets better as you turn each page, you fall deeper into the rabbit hole, strange stuff happens, it’s just pure creativity. If you asked me what my favorite book is, I don’t think I’d say Cat’s Cradle, but Cat’s Cradle is a book I have read over and over throughout the years whenever I’ve needed to remind myself what it’s like to be a writer. And being so obsessed with books-as-ephemera, my copy of Cat’s Cradle is one of my favorite vintage books in my collection; I love it so much that a description of my copy actually made it into my own novel. I love holding it, I love reading it.

Submit For Publication

It’s scary, I know. But autumn is when the universities resume session and the journals begin accepting submissions again. You know you’ve got a ton of stories hiding on your hard drive, stories that might just need another quick look before they’re ready for submission. I will be the first to say that writing, that being a writer, is not about publication; you shouldn’t write just to be published. If it’s not ready, if it’s not what you want, then so be it. But on the same token, giving yourself goals and deadlines, “I will submit this story by September 12th,” will provide an extraordinary impetus for writing. The worst that can happen is that you get a rejection letter — if you’ve never submitted a word and have yet to get your first rejection letter, let me assuage your fears: they’re not anything to fret over. Seriously.

Maybe you don’t even know where to begin when it comes to submitting. Let me, then, point you to an awesome resource for the submitting writer: Duotrope’s Digest. I’ve written about Duotrope in the past, but the site deserves a relinking. It’s essentially a search engine of journals, outlining what kind of work they accept, if they pay, their submission guidelines and dates, and everything else you might need when it comes to finding the perfect place for your work. Now that I’ve given you this resource, you have no other option but to start submitting.

Start A Blog (Or Just Write For One)

Maybe I’m a little biased. I think blogs are great. Who cares what your topic is or if a great number of people read your posts, just having a blog, having that outlet, allows the creativity to flow. Once you get serious about posting, that dedication to the project will provide the inspiration to get some words on the page. If you’re not the most tech savvy person in the world, plenty of blogging websites make it easy to start your own blog in minutes. Wordpress, Blogger, and Tumblr are just a few of the most popular platforms that will provide you with a completely free blog. Personally, I prefer the Wordpress engine (which is what Bookish Us runs on), but my experience with all of these different options has been positive. You’ll be surprised at the possibilities that may come from even the smallest, most esoteric blog.

Expand Your Horizons

Read something new, something that’s pushing the envelope or looking at things from a different perspective or taking you out of your comfort zone. About a month ago, I interviewed Andrew Zornoza about his recent novel Where I Stay. This book is a great example of modern literature that’s trying to show you something new, something in way you haven’t experienced it before. While you will of course have your favorite books and authors, things you’ll read over and over again (like me and Cat’s Cradle), you need to move forward and explore what some modern writers are doing. You might just find someone modern, someone alive and accessible, whose work inspires your voice to go places you didn’t consider going before. At the very least, reading a modern novel might inspire you to think, “This is all it takes it get published? I could do this!”

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These tips might sound pretty obvious but I think it’s important that we all hear them over and again because even the most obvious thing can be forgotten (or ignored). Whether you like it or not, writer, it’s time to get back to your work. Since this list was as much about inspiring myself to start writing again as it is to inspire you, what kind of tricks do you have to get yourself motivated? Maybe you’ve got a secret from which we could all benefit.