There are so many examples of people constantly claiming they are going to write a novel or are indefinitely working on a novel that it has become a cliche. Lots of people have admitted they want to write a novel – even a short story – but far fewer people follow through with it. There are a multitude of reasons why people don’t follow through, but today, I’m going to talk about motivation. More specifically, I’m going to talk about what I do when I am not feeling motivated.
There is a plethora of resources available online with a quick search regarding what you can do to acquire and maintain motivation as a writer. In addition to reading this post, I would recommend that you do such a search to find what works for you. For this post, I’m only going to talk about the ones that work for me.
Get excited!
If you’ve never been published, allow yourself to dream about what it’s going to feel like to be published. If you have been published, allow yourself to dream about what it will be like to be published again. And if you have been published multiple times, allow yourself to dream about what it might feel like to write a best seller, or go on a book tour, or do an interview on late night tv. Whatever your current achievement is, allow yourself to dream about the next one. Yes, it is true that you may not reach the next level, but if you don’t try, you never will.
You can also allow yourself to get excited about the story you want to tell. Maybe you have some great philosophical insight that you want to share with the world. Maybe your story is going to have a scene that few will ever forget. Maybe you have the next great horror icon wrecking havoc in your pages and you’re ready to unleash them unto the world.
Set up your environment.
I have two places where I like to write: one at home, and one at my private practice. Both places are comfortable. Both places are (usually) not cluttered. Both places are accessed quickly and easily. I also typically write during times when there is a low possibility for distractions. I do most of my writing in the night when everyone is gone to bed, or when I have finished my sessions for the day. Sometimes, I will even squeeze in an hour or so if I get a cancellation. It is hard for me to schedule times to write, so I have to grab them when the opportunities arise. What that looks like for me is simply pulling out my laptop and setting it up on a desk. I have the convenience of using the same laptop for working as I do for writing, so I almost always have it with me. Having a place that is easily accessible and quick to set up removes so many barriers to motivtion.
Just write!
To dip into the world of therapy for a moment, one of the most effective treatment strategies for depression is something called Behavioural Activation. One of the core principles of behavioural activation is that motivation follows action. Most people believe that motivation is a necessary precursor to action, but that is not true. Part of behavioural activation is adopting the mindset that you initiate action because you know it is good for you, and that action then creates inertia of motion, thus leading to motivation to continue and/or complete the action. If you are struggling to write and don’t feel motivated, just write anything! It should help to free up the gears, shake off the rust, and get you started to build motivation.
Create a writing routine.
I used this one more often when I was writing my novel; I don’t use it as much while I am writing short stories. When I was writing the first draft of my novel, I would often go long periods of time without writing anything. I would lose momentum and even lose the feel I was trying to capture with the story. I love music, so much so that I would probably put it above writing and psychology on a list of my favourite things. I chose a song to associate with the story I was writing. One that I felt came closest to capturing the feel and atmosphere that I wanted. I would listen to the song while I thought about the story and what I wanted to write next. I reserved that song for that story and only listened to it when I wanted to get back to writing it. Pretty soon, I created a strong association between the two and was able to use that song to get my mindset back to the story and into a writing mode.
You can certainly use other stimuli to create an association with a specific story or writing in general. Having a bedtime routine helps to signal to your body that you are preparing for sleep. The routine in which you engage to get ready for work signals to your body that you are preparing for work. Taking the time to develop a routine to prepare for writing can make it easier and easier to write.
On the topic of music and writing, I have to share something about the next publication that will be released later this year with a story of mine. There is a Christmas themed horror anthology coming out in November by a publisher in the U.S. and that publisher asked all of the contributing authors to include a song that we felt best represented or was associated with the story we wrote. The publisher then compiled all the songs into a playlist to accompany the anthology, and I thought that was an incredible idea!
I hope this post helps you with your motivation. If there is nothing here that works for you then please do search online for other ways that authors have motivated themselves to write even when they didn’t want to. It would be a shame if those great ideas never made it to the public.
Thanks for reading,
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