7 steps to keep you motivated to write

I will be writing about the typical writer’s meal, which will contribute to your work-in-progress and hopefully help you finish it. Naturally, the dessert in our writer’s meal is the yummy story, complete and beautiful. That salad you eat before your meal is that refreshing idea you are excited about and the outline that starts the project, and the bread on your entree plate is the filler—the thick editing you do after everything is finished (unless you eat the bread during your meal). But what is that disgusting spinach we see? The gross, unavoidable slime that we sometimes find haunting the plate. Oh, dang. I forgot I needed that…it’s motivation.

As creative writers, the staple to our diet includes the clicking of a keyboard or the scrape of a pencil’s graphite tip against a blank, paper canvas. There are many appetizing elements to our meal, but any good meal has veggies, even if it can technically be called a “meal” without them.

Motivation is one of the most important parts of your writer’s meal. It contains all the vitamins and nutrients that keep your writing going, just like spinach or some other vegetable fuels your body with lots of nutrients. The problem is that writers overlook it, not because it’s disgusting but because it is taken for granted, and we think it’ll stay nice and hot throughout the meal.

Once an idea appears, it’s hot and ready for you, and it tastes great if you eat it with everything else. However, if you let it cool and you don’t keep yourself motivated while you work, you’ll kill your story, and you will set your idea aside and lose it.

Sometimes you discover when it’s too late that you already lost the motivation to continue or start an idea; your spinach cooled off.

Good thing we have microwaves, right?

So, let’s start there and talk about how you can keep yourself motivated or revive the motivation you lost.

Here are 7 steps to keep you motivated to write

1. Find the nutrients that fuel you

Remind yourself why it’s great

You fell in love with the idea for a reason. You kept it because you wanted to use it, so what is it? Take time to write it down and expand on it, little by little. Brainstorm and get engaged.

Read!

Read something similar to your idea. If you are writing a romance about a cowboy, read a romance about a cowboy. If you haven’t touched that romance WIP in two years, glance at it, then go buy a book about a cowboy.

When you read about something successful, you’ll find yourself hungry to do the same. That’s a trick that won’t fail until you no longer wish to be a writer. Find something that works and make yourself jealous.

Tell people about it

One thing that fuels your idea is making it known. Tell someone. Tell them you’re going to write it, or keep up with it in a blog. Ask people what they think or what excites them about your idea. Don’t let it go, and cling to those who are just as excited about it as you are.

2. Keep yourself accountable; make someone watch you

To expand on the previous statement, keep updating people, your blog, your support group, etc. as you progress and add to your idea. If you simply post a tweet or Facebook post that says, “I wrote 2,000 words today! Let’s see if I can do it again tomorrow,” or even, “I have to finish my chapter today. I will not fail,” you will find yourself obliged to follow through. You’re a writer, and you won’t fail yourself. No buts.

That’s accountability. If you want a physical bat, keep an agenda or give someone the ability to hit you upside the head (not really). Find someone who will ask you if you wrote that day, or tell someone about your idea and ask them to help by asking for updates about its progress or asking questions as they come up with them.

Find a fellow writer and keep them motivated, and ask them to keep you motivated in return. Co-motivation is a great tool, so use it. You may even find a long-term friend. You may even want to join a writing group or take advantage of a writing group you’re currently in. Ask for help and offer help in return. Keep in mind that you’re not the only one with this motivation issue, and another writer could benefit from you.

Authors’ Tale is a great group to find other authors, as is Fiction and Beyond and Inkslingers Den.

3. Don’t beat yourself up

You’re going to have bad days, bad ideas, bad writing, and bad everything else at some point. We’re human; even our characters are screwing up, so expect that you will, too. Do not think you’re running in circles, because your screen or paper has a rectangular shape, and every word makes your story bigger and longer, not curvier. Besides, you’re writing, not running. Do that on your own time.

4. Set goals and deadlines

If you’re picking up an old idea, the key to getting started is setting goals. Sometimes, this is best accomplished with an outline so you know where you need to be in your story. If you have an accountability person, use them. Tell them you’ll have an updated chapter or excerpt by a certain day, and send it to them for feedback.

When you do reach those goals or make your deadlines, reward yourself. Take a night off, sleep early, write something fun, eat chocolate…do something to reward yourself, and use that reward as a motivational cookie.

5. Don’t touch the backspace button. You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life

Many times, when you do get yourself to write, the result is lukewarm mush and you get frustrated. Who cares? Let it be mush for a while. Type your thoughts, save it, then come back the next day. Read over it and think about what you didn’t like, or just try again the next day, see what you type, and keep going if you like it. If you don’t like it either, compare your two bad ideas and figure out what your brain is trying to get your fingers to type/write.

Need help combatting writer’s block? Check out this post.

6. Follow the lit path of those wonderful ideas

When you’re trying to meet that ridiculous deadline you set for yourself, you find yourself grunting and slamming your head against the table because you’re on a boring chapter or a transition that simply needs to be written. At some point, you’ll have to write it, but sometimes a light turns on in your head like a little demon saying, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if this happened when you get to the scene in ten chapters?”

Write it. That isn’t a demon—it’s an angel. You had a flicker of an idea, so your day will change, and you will now write that thought out. It’ll simply be ready for you to use or expand on when you get to it later. Don’t lose it!

7. Become a life coach for yourself

You have a life outside of writing, so you won’t meet every deadline, and you will skip a day or two. First of all, don’t sweat it. Shake it off and plan your next writing day. If you need to take a step back for a couple of days, do it, but schedule a day when you will look at it again. You can’t let that spinach get cold, and you can only microwave it so many times. Remind yourself why you’re writing, and remind yourself why you like the idea that created your story.

Most importantly, remind yourself that your future readers need the story. They haven’t read it yet, and you’re the hero who will save them from such a terrible fate. You can write this story, and you need to tell yourself that, no matter what. Your grammar or initial presentation of the idea may be awful, but that’s what people like me are here for. We get paid to read a story and refine it. So don’t worry about that. The idea is the thing, and your words are the message. Feed your readers, or you have denied people the chance to love it, too.

Remember, no one else can write what you can because no one else knows how. You’re the only one who can write it, and no one else will do it for you.

In the end, you’re going to have to sit your butt down and do it. You have to make it a daily thing…a routine. After a while, you’ll find yourself eager to sit down.

Don’t be afraid to write a few smaller stories or ideas when you take a break. Keeping your creative wheels practiced and oiled up may help your writing, and it may even help your WIP. Pick up the project and start. You can’t motivate yourself to finish something until you first decide to start it, so pick up the fork and dig in.