Motivation Issues

What inspires me more than anything is watching the TV series Justified, based on Elmore Leonard's short story "Fire Down the Hole." The writing, dialogue, and characters are so splendid that watching it makes me want to see if I can get mine anywhere close.

I've had to kick myself in the rear twice during this current work in-progress that I'm doing because of both depression, Block and motivation lackage. What got me motivated was just sitting and thinking it out that I've gone "too far" to "quit" now so just stick with it, deal with the depression and then take a sledgehammer to the Block. Worked both times, the last time this happened was very recent (2 weeks ago).

Take a break. Listen to some music. Read a book or watch some tv. Take a walk, draw and then after a week's gone by and you still don't feel motivated grab a pen or pencil and a piece of paper and write down what the problem is, sit back afterwards and wait. The break and then the writing of what's going on helps.

I listen to music when I write, and the music has to be the right music for what is happening that I'm writing. If I listen to the right songs, tonally, it gets me going. Also part of it is just good ol' fashioned self-discipline. I don't want to go to work in the morning but I make myself do it. Shouldn't I do the same with writing (which I do like to do, as a whole, even on days I don't want to)?

What inspires you to write? I sometimes get burnt out from a current work in progress, so that's when I either take a break (i.e. go back to reading books until that "I need to write!" urge comes back) or I'll switch to another story I'm writing.

Find what inspires you to write, work on a different aspect of your story if you feel guilty about not working on it, or see how you can improve what's there already. Sounds like your heart is totally in it, but your brain is spent from all the anticipation!

vicky271 said:

What do you do to get out of it? Anyone have an useful tips?

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Well, this is a little bit awkward, but - I find it helpful to imagine that i have to front up to JAR and explain why I didn't get the wordage I'd planned to get.

I'm still the slowest writer in the world, but I'm getting faster. Thanks, JAR.

Motivation, hm? That's a huge topic. An industry. It's hard to know where to start.

We all find motivation in different ways. The classic management theory is that some people are motivated towards something - a goal or objective that they want to achieve. Some people are motivated away from something, such as a bad outcome that they want to avoid. Others find comfort in a routine. Some lucky few have all the motivation they need burning inside them. They just need to find a way to let it all out.

Knowing how you respond to motivation is a big step forward in knowing how to tackle it. There isn't one solution that works for everyone. Some people might try to tell you that there is one sure-fire way, but that generally is only the way that worked for them.

As a huge oversimplification, people who are "towards" motivators often find that it helps to focus on the goal they are trying to achieve. Picture the objective, hold it in your hands, visualise it. Stick a motivational poster on your wall.

By contrast, if you are an "away from" motivator, be very clear about what you are trying to avoid. You can run just as fast away from danger as you can towards something pleasant.

If you like routines, then break a big task down into smaller manageable chunks. Schedule a time for writing and keep to that schedule. Take leetle steps.

There's lots lots more, but it's hard to know where to start without knowing more about you. If you want to delve more deeply I'd recommend The Chimp Paradox by Dr Steve Peters.

I vow to write 350 words. nsfw language. it's Chuck Wendig. That's it. I promise myself if I will write just 350 words I can quit for the day and do something else. It doesn't matter if those words are crap, I will write them.

And I find after I have started writing, I kinda don't want to stop because I'm on a roll.

I have a writing friend that sends me an inspirational quote every day and nags me to write. My goal is 500 words a day.

AND to keep me honest, I have to reply to her email with a couple of sentences from what I've written.

Sometimes it's a struggle to reach my 500, sometimes I make it to over 1,000. But her nagging gets me writing every day.

Lady Cat said:

I have a writing friend that sends me an inspirational quote every day and nags me to write. My goal is 500 words a day.

AND to keep me honest, I have to reply to her email with a couple of sentences from what I've written.

Sometimes it's a struggle to reach my 500, sometimes I make it to over 1,000. But her nagging gets me writing every day.

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OMG, I need someone like that in my life. Your friend rocks.

Do you enjoy the process of writing? Do you find in immense fun to sit down and actually write? I couldn't get anything done, if I didn't want to write more than I want to do pretty much anything else with my time. I wouldn't even try.

I'm not a believer in fan fiction, on in exercises of any kind to work on dialogue,m characterization, or anything else. I think the best way to work on these things is to read good fiction, and to work on original projects of your own.

Ben Franklin said, "Motivation is when your dreams pot on work clothes."

I tend to believe this. It's you dream, so put on your work clothes, and make it come true. What other motivation do you need?

On the other hand, I also believe the best motivation, and the only motivation that really makes a difference, is doing what you really love doing. If you really love what you;re doing, that is motivation to do it as often as possible. If you don't love what you;re doing, why not find something to do that you love more than anything else?

Life is short. Spend the minutes you have left doing something that makes you happy. You get none of those minutes back.

Bio's and Autobio's are good. They do not have to be on writers to be motivational. Ones on athletes, scientists, musicians, politicians . . . you name it. They are all inspirational, IMO. Of course those on writers are very cool. Libraries are good for books of such sort. Mine has a whole section, just for bios. Actually two. One in the kids section and one in the adults.

Music. Find the heart of your story in a song, put it on full blast. Play it over and over. And over again. See what happens.

Hate to say the obvious that has probably already been mentioned, but keep writing.

Ultimately if you get stuck, write an outline. Whether it is the entire story, the next chapter, just write. Today I have hit that motivation wall. However it is primarily because what I call the "Ghost of Creativity" is not tugging at me. Once I return home from work, I plan on sitting down and knocking out of the many alterations that needs to happen.

In the end, just sit and write.

bearilou said:

I vow to write 350 words. nsfw language. it's Chuck Wendig. That's it. I promise myself if I will write just 350 words I can quit for the day and do something else. It doesn't matter if those words are crap, I will write them.

And I find after I have started writing, I kinda don't want to stop because I'm on a roll.

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That post is too funny.

bearilou said:

I vow to write 350 words. nsfw language. it's Chuck Wendig. That's it. I promise myself if I will write just 350 words I can quit for the day and do something else. It doesn't matter if those words are crap, I will write them.

And I find after I have started writing, I kinda don't want to stop because I'm on a roll.

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Thanks. I needed that...

Jamesaritchie said:

Do you enjoy the process of writing? Do you find in immense fun to sit down and actually write? ........

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This, and also "do you actually have something to say?"

Enjoying the act of using language for functionality and aesthetics and creating a brain-movie for the reader, combined with having something to say, are motivations that blast through most obstacles as if they were made of...paper.

Although hard to imagine having something to say when writing fan-fiction regarded as 'merely practice'. Maybe fan-fiction as such is the great satan in this situation.

dondomat said:

This, and also "do you actually have something to say?"

Enjoying the act of using language for functionality and aesthetics and creating a brain-movie for the reader, combined with having something to say, are motivations that blast through most obstacles as if they were made of...paper.

Although hard to imagine having something to say when writing fan-fiction regarded as 'merely practice'. Maybe fan-fiction as such is the great satan in this situation.

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I'm going to hazard a guess and say the OP's problem is that they're regarding it as meerly practice. IME a good fanfic writer puts the same ammount of pride into their stuff as someone does their original work, and considers their audience/story worth getting right. The ones I read do at least, and I do as well when I choose to write fanfic. Yes, fan fic is great practice if you're doing it right. And I do honestly think there's a right way to do fanfic. It helps you develop story and learn to keep things in character, because readers read it to spend more time with the characters in whatever fandom they're part of. One of the weeknesses of it can however be setting, it may be a bit sparse compared to original work. But if it is 'just practice' then writing it is kind of pointless.