Welcome to Well Inspired, a space for creative writers to connect, spark curiosity, and reignite inspiration. In every newsletter, I share four recommendations, a note, and a prompt designed to unblock your creativity and find magic in the ordinary world.
Thank you for being here — I hope you’ll consider sharing this with a friend.
✨ DO: Embrace autumn vibes and make this apple cider margarita. Most of the ingredients in this simple recipe are probably already in your pantry like tequila, lime juice, and cinnamon. If you’re a real fall foodie, the apple cider will be there, too. Playing the Practical Magic theme while you drink will help you feel even more aesthetic.
✨ LISTEN: To this episode of the podcast First Draft, featuring YA author Kristin Dwyer. Dwyer is fun and off-the-cuff, but isn’t afraid to get real when it comes to an inside look at her writing and publishing journey. She discusses the importance of surrounding yourself with a good community and waiting for the right opportunities.
✨ READ: Anything from the Mythopedia website, especially if you love mythology. Explore characters and stories from cultures like the Aztecs, Chinese, Hindu, Egyptian, Greek, and more. Start with one of my favorite figures from Celtic mythology: The Morrigan.
✨ BUY: Timeless literary and history-themed stamps and cards. Get inspired with a vintage-feeling Emily Dickinson stamp or a Keates poem carefully typed on a classic typewriter. Is it unhealthy to say that I feel inspired when I buy things like this?
I’ve hit the ugly part of writing no one likes to talk about:
The part where you just want to give up.
For the past few weeks, the thought has been pretty compelling. I’m past the magic phase, where words don’t just fall from my mind on the page — they leap off.
Now, it’s like trudging through a forest of doubt.
At first, the thoughts are slightly less confident but bearable.
This isn’t turning out like I imagined.
Everything is different than in my mind.
It’s fine… I can revise it later.
But the thoughts have gotten loud and turned sharp. They become weapons I use against myself.
You’re not good enough to pull this story off.
This is silly — you don’t have what it takes to make this believable.
BORING. No one is going to read this far anyway.
I try to push past it. But the thoughts are like quicksand, fastening around my ankles and dragging me down.
Giving up would be the easiest choice. Put the story to bed in a forgotten folder on my laptop. I’ve done that before; it’s why I don’t have a full manuscript to show for my years of writing.
So I’m going to try something different. Instead of focusing on the things I don’t know and can’t control, I’m going to concentrate on what I do know:
Stories are in my bones; I was made to write them.
I’m not relying on pure talent; I’ve studied craft for years.
If I give this up, one day I will wish I had pushed through.
This story is worth finishing.
I think writing is a lot like love. It starts with a tingly, heart-racing feeling that keeps you dreaming in the day and up at night.
At some point, the chemistry fades away and you must choose to go forward. Or give up. Both have their own consequences to accept.
Do I have what it takes?
I think that question will follow me whether or not I have a finished, published manuscript in my hands, or a million fans around the world.
So I have to make the choice to get out of my own damn way and write. To silence the damaging thoughts that roam freely in my mind. Because what I let live will kill my creative spirit one day.
I will choose to love my story, my characters, and the way the words sound on the page.
I will choose to believe I have what it takes.
I hope you make that choice, too.
Because the writers that fail are the ones that give up before they even get started.
Now go create something amazing,
Ashton
Inspiration Prompt: What keeps you writing even when you want to give up?
Drop what phrase, thought, or thing keeps you going below and be encouraged by someone else’s response.
If you enjoy this newsletter, it would mean the world if you wrote a recommendation. It could help someone else find our Well Inspired community <3
What keeps you writing even when you want to give up?
For me, it's finding a "nugget" of something I still have yet to write in my story. A carrot on a stick, if you will