Post # 216 June 8 2020

“I’ll Get Around To It.”  Writing and Motivation

Every writer needs motivation from time to time.  Even me.  And every writer is different in how they are motivated to put pen to paper…or cursor to screen.  The important point to remember is know yourself and do what works for you.

I’ve been polling my writer friends in recent weeks on this subject and from that, I’ve come up with some 11 different tricks, tips and techniques for motivating yourself as a writer.  Herewith….

1. Set up a deadline.  It doesn’t have to be a real deadline, like for news reporters.  Sometimes, nothing concentrates your mind better than knowing you can’t procrastinate any longer…you have to get the job done or there will be consequences.  Of course, for some writers, deadlines are quite real, which is even better.
2. One writer I know literally sets a timer, for maybe an hour or thirty minutes.  In that time, she forces herself to get some words down, any words, on anything, even what you are seeing out your window. 
3. A technique that motivates me and others that I know is to print what you have written, even if only a first draft, and enjoy watching the pages stack up, day by day.  The notion that you can and are actually writing a story or a book then becomes quite real and tangible.  Seeing the stack pile up makes me want to write more so I can see the stack pile up even higher. 
4. Provide yourself a set time and a set goal.  “In the hour from 8am to 9am, I will write one page, on anything that comes to mind.”  Just forcing your addled brain to focus and concentrate on putting words down regularly can become a useful habit.
5. Write a journal or diary entry first.  Same as above, the act of selecting and writing words to form coherent sentences is a habit that can be formed and exercised regularly.  It really doesn’t matter, in this scenario, what you write as the very act can stimulate the old juices quite well.
6. Similar to #4 above, commit yourself to a daily goal.  I do this.  Every day, I wake up telling myself I will write 3-5 good pages, no matter how long it takes.  It usually takes me about two hours, because I always have a detailed outline to work from. 
7. Write something down.  Write a grocery list.  Or a thank you note.  Or a editorial criticizing your city’s lack of road repair.  Just write something.  See #5 above for an explanation.
8. Re-read what you wrote yesterday.  I do this.  If you’re writing a story, it helps to get you back in the story.  I often go to bed with the last words I wrote in my mind.  Overnight, I chew on those and by the time I get up, I often have the next sentence or paragraph clearly in mind.  Another trick is to stop your day’s writing right in the middle of a  sentence.  Getting started the next day is then a matter of completing that sentence…usually not too hard.
9. Go for a walk.  Or a work-out.  I swim and ride bikes.  Often, during either time, whole snatches of sentences and text will come to me unbidden.  This is your subconscious working.  It helps to prepare your mind beforehand.
10. Read a story.  Very often, the act of reading a favorite story will unblock a mind and trigger ideas and words to come.  This may even give you ideas of your own for a later story.  I do this and I especially like to re-read things I’ve written before that are well-written.
11. Change your schedule.  This does not work for me, as I am the proverbial creature of habit, like my dog.  But it’s something to consider.  Changing your schedule around may force you to concentrate more on things that in the past you did by rote and that new-found concentration can then be transferred to the need for words.
     
     
    There are undoubtedly as many ways to motivate a writer as there are writers.  Doing this properly really means understanding yourself well enough to devise a trick or a strategy that will work.  It may the same as what motivates you to work out or do your taxes or pay bills.  If you don’t write words today, there will, for sure, be consequences: the world will have to wait a day longer for your great work to be available.
     
    Cheesy?  Maybe.  But it may just be true.
     
    The next post to The Word Shed comes on June 15, 2020.  In this post, I want to go back to the idea of inspiration…where do those crazy ideas come from?  
     
    See you then.
     
    Phil B.