How do you keep writing when it feels too hard? The pandemic, the sickness, the tiredness, the ‘when will it bloody end?’ When you try to concentrate but you can’t. Where you used to have ideas but you just feel empty. Tips to help you write when you’re worried.

Just like devouring a bag of salty crunchy crisps, or savouring a bowl of smooth vanilla ice cream, sometimes writing is so delicious, that you can’t help yourself going back for more.

How do you make your writing tastier so that people keep on reading?

Sometimes writing is easy. The ideas and the words just flow. You don’t even notice the time passing. Most of the time it feels like work. Eliminate distractions and get into a flow and it goes okay.

However sometimes it feels completely impossible. You have the time and the space, but you don’t have any ideas. Or motivation. Or anything.

This is for that time.

Our words are a proxy for everything we can’t do at the moment.

We can’t meet people; touch them, hug, laugh, persuade, smile, show, flirt, reassure, explain, commiserate, calm. We can’t just be with each other, passing the time doing nothing in particular, sharing the everyday mundane things that connect us - but our words can do at least some of that for us.

Here’s how to make your writing feel more immediate and alive while you’re isolating.

Having a few metaphors up your sleeve is a short cut to making your writing warmer and more memorable. But how do you write a good one, and how do you use them to best effect in your content?