“Keep Writing Forever”: How Paula Luther Beat Burnout and Found Her Spark Again

Paula Luther spills how homeschooling discipline, stubborn independence, and a teenage pep talk shaped her writing life.

You know that feeling when you’ve been staring at the same page for hours, and your brain’s just… fried? Paula Luther gets it. Her secret weapon isn’t fancy apps or productivity hacks, it’s good old-fashioned breaks (and a bit of that homeschooled grit that made her a self-starter from day one).

When she was sixteen, another young writer scribbled in her book, “Keep writing forever!” She’s proof that sometimes stubborn independence (hello, self-publishing) is exactly what keeps the spark alive.

Let’s meet Paula!

What is the best advice you have received as a writer?

When I was 16 years old, I was a finalist in the "Yesterday, I Will" anthology competition. We had a book launch and interview special at a local book fair, and I got to meet some of the other finalists. We signed each other's copies of the book, and one of my fellow finalists inscribed my copy with "Keep writing forever!"

That message has stuck with my all of these years. It wasn't fancy or profound advice, but it meant a lot to a teenager who had just published her first short story. It meant I was a real author. If I had written and published something once, I could do it again, so keep moving forward.

Today it's a reminder of the joy and accomplishment I felt in that moment. I don't know where my fellow finalist is now, but if he happens to read this—I've followed your advice. I've kept writing.

How do you avoid burnout from all the pressure of being an author, and get back your creative spark?

I think one of the best ways to avoid burnout is to just take a break sometimes. There have been several times when I simply put a story to the side and work on something different to give my mind a break. Then I can come back later with a fresh perspective, and that different perspective can help a lot with moving the story forward.

As with a lot of things in life, one of the keys to writing is moderation. If you push yourself too much, the story can come out feeling stilted and unnatural. Sometimes you just need to give your brain a break.

A lot of times, you will find that any plot tangles are a lot easier to resolve when you return with a fresh perspective.

Where does your self-discipline come from?

From homeschooling! I was homeschooled from pre-K to 12th grade. The self-discipline I learned through homeschooling has greatly helped me in other areas of my life, including my writing. Homeschooling frequently requires you to be a motivated self-starter, and it's easy to fall behind if you aren't diligent.

By keeping myself disciplined to do my work every day, I got into the habit of staying motivated no matter what I was working on. It was not always easy--there were a few stories that lapsed because I didn't dedicate as much time to them as I should have--but having that basis and previous experience with homeschooling definitely helped me form the habits for staying motivated.

What is the most difficult part of writing (a book or a story), and how do you handle it?

The part I tend to struggle with writing is the ending.

My ideas get too big, and I can't come up with a good way to conclude everything satisfactorily. This ends up leading to frustration and sometimes not finishing the story at all.

With some practice, though, I've been making some improvement in this area. Something that helps me is streamlining my ideas so they are more manageable, sticking to the points that are the most important to the story.

It may not be as grand or as epic as I first wanted to write, but at least the story got finished, and that's the main point.

What do you think makes a good story?

I think the best stories are stories about universal themes—heroism, courage, love, survival. These are themes that people can relate to regardless of where they come from or how old they are.

They transcend boundaries and speak to everyone, inspiring them to greatness, giving them hope. They can unite readers from all over the world; people who might not think they have anything in common suddenly find that they love the same book.

In a world that seems increasingly divided, I think being able to unite people in this way is something incredibly special.

What is your publication preference, and why does it work for you so well?

I typically stick with self-publishing. It gives me the flexibility to write what I want instead of worrying that publishers will try to make me change my story too much.

Perhaps it's just me being too stubborn and independent, but I know how I want my story to be told, and I dislike the idea of a publisher telling me that it's not what they're looking for or it's not what is currently popular in the market.

Discovering the existence of self-publishing was a revelation to me. It suddenly gave me an avenue to share my stories with the world without worrying about a long stream of rejections or criticisms and being forced to mold my stories into a shape I didn't want.

I'm not opposed to one day publishing a story in the more traditional way, but for now, I quite like the ability to write a story the way I want it to be told and then being able to share it directly with readers.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer, and what did you write about?

I don't know if there was ever a concrete moment of realization. Making up stories was something I had simply always done, so I suppose you could say that I was always a writer.

Before I could type, I would draw what I called "picture stories", which was a story drawn out in a series of pictures instead of written with words. When I learned how to type, transitioning to the written word was just the logical next step.

My first officially-written story was a short adventure involving my pet rabbits. I had recently gotten Watership Down from the library, and that inspired me to write a story about my own rabbits. After that, I just kept typing away at the keyboard whenever I had an idea.

‘Tears of the King’ was published in Echoes of Avalon, the LegendFiction anthology.