Fiction Scribe

Another question I was asked recently (well, asked to do a post on anyway) was how to keep motivated.

Unfortunately, I’m not the best person to talk about this, but I’ll do my best.

Motivation is a lot like inspiration; it comes and goes usually as it pleases. However, motivation is one of those things that, mostly unlike inspiration, ties into those “write for five minutes daily” writing goals.

Sometimes you just don’t want to do it.

Maybe you try to trick yourself into doing it by leaving a cheerful post-it for yourself on your laptop or leave chocolate in your writing studio to try to lure yourself in there to sit down and write. (I can just hear my friend Hawke saying, “Take the chocolate and run!”)

Something you should realize - if you haven’t already - is that yes, sometimes writing will be like pulling teeth, as they say. Yes, a lot of times it will be hard, you won’t want to do it, and, if you’re like me, you might just want to stamp your foot about it. That’s where your dedication to the craft and rediscovering your love for writing comes into play.

I realize I haven’t truly addressed the issue. Rather, I’ve acknowledged its presence.

To keep motivated, you could use the tactics above to “lure” yourself, but I think that goes more along the lines of getting yourself in proximity of your writing tools rather than the actual act of writing. Here are a few tips that might help you out:

1. I consider editing just another part of the writing process, which it is. So if you don’t feel like writing, edit! Either you’ll get a good amount of editing done or you’ll find some inspiration for something to write about.

2. Keep several things going at once. A few people I’ve talked to disagree with me on this, but for your interest’s sake, keep as many things as you can stand going at once. This keeps you from stopping writing completely due to boredom. If you aren’t too thrilled with one story right now, work on the other one and come back to it. I usually do this when I want to start a new novel. My preference is to get five or six going and then one will shine through, and I’ll end up dedicating most, if not all, of my time to that one.

AND…

3. This is so, so important: Acknowledge your triumphs. Athletes get medals, people get certificates… Why shouldn’t you give yourself something for achieving your word goal? If there are no rewards for you achieving your goal, then you’re probably soon going to be wondering what the point is. So take that bubble bath or go out to that movie. You set a goal and achieved it; reward yourself.

So fellow writers, good luck with your writing, and always feel free to use a rant as your required writing for the day.

PS. In regards to keeping several things going at once, one of the people who disagreed with me actually gave me this quote, which I absolutely adore but probably don’t have right because the forum is down so I can’t get to his post:

“If every first draft is [crap], then several first drafts must smell terrible.”

writing motivation