I'm very motivated...in theory. My biggest problem is just the day to day issues that always arise. I try to write about an hour a day, but sometimes I'm just too tired. If I didn't have a day job and a family, I feel like it'd be easier, but those things (rightly) eat up a lot of time. So finding the motivation to write and write and write when I just want to sleep can be difficult. I think the key is just toying around with my schedule so I can figure out the times that I write best no matter how I feel. For me, that's usually just after waking up.
Your family and friends may not be interested in it, but you need to think why. Did they find something in the work boring? Or are they generally not interested in reading? True criticism lies from people on the internet or people you don't know... They will tell you straight what they think about the story, if they think its boring or not. Don't find motivation from people who sugarcoat stuff because it'll be a waste of time in the longrun.
Unless you have a cruel family or one who wants you to succeed. The only person in my family who is actually interested in hearing anything about my writing is my sister, everyone else is indulgent smiles (or sees it as a waste.) I'm not kind when I'm critiquing her writing or her art and if I ever gave her my actual work to read, she'd be just as harsh. She tears my ideas to shreds easy as pie which makes them stronger. I guarantee you that I'm more likely to sugarcoat things to a stranger on the internet than my own family because I don't know them and I don't know how much they can take before it's too harsh. The point that needs to be made is not that strangers are greater than family; it's knowing the person enough to know that they aren't going to be nice just so you don't break. True criticism lies with those who want you to succeed, period.
Well my rl friend read through my story and told me he really liked it, rating it 8.5/10. He tells me throughout the story what he doesn't like... But I get wary because I know he prob won't wanna upset me. I went on the internet and was suprised by similar responses, praising my story and characters.. I suppose the truth is, you should have an idea yourself how good your story is. If you're bored, your reader is bored... I did the opposite.. Some dude posted his story and asked for the honest truth. I struggled because he tried too hard and used too many confusing and long words, so I just told him how it was. Also I agree with your last sentence.
Thanks for all the responses, I suppose I have a fair amount to think about, though I am going to have to be a pest and respond with some things That used to be the case for me! Completely! They'd gnaw on my skull until I let them run free. But I guess lately they've been extremely easy to ignore. My characters are like my children! I really want to let them out to play, but getting my fingers to cooperate is strangely difficult. That came out weird. I don't think my writing is crap, but I'm sure many crap authors have felt the same way. And I'm not writing expressly to get published, for sure. I have my crappy little day job and am trying to figure out ways to improve it, etc. But writing something no one will ever read is also what I like to call a major downer. And I do love it. Love just hasn't been cutting it lately. I don't know about the motivation doubt of yours. I'm notorious for only being motivated to do things when I have someone else prodding me to get it done. Deadlines work wonders for me, and feeling obligated to finish what I started because someone else is holding me accountable (weather they actually are or not isn't really relavant in my braindome) helps. I finished my first novel a while ago. '08ish? But I am 50k words into my current project, which is apparently about the size of a mini novel...so it could be a whole new stage of burnout? I wish this were the case. But if I know the chances of me successfully shouting it out to the world, or even to like a handful of people I know, are extremely minimal... After getting a good night's sleep and further examination I'm almost wondering if my issue's more generalized than an acute sort of writers motivational block (I don't have writers block, there's plenty of crap bouncing around in my head) I dunno, maybe I'm depressed or something. Watching my degree wallow in uselessness while I make 1/3 as much money as my spouse for nearly as much work... Huzzah! But that would probably make me one damn chipper depressed person. Hrm. I guess I have one further question I suppose, but one I'll also investigate on my own. The short story thing has always come up as a way for me to share my work and even get exposure etc. But I'm terrible at short stories. I don't know why, they're just my bane. I once had a creative writing professor give me the oh so un-helpful critique that my short story had "The pacing of a novel" and, of course, no suggestions on how to fix it. And I thought that was one of my BEST shorts! Anyone have any suggestions for general areas I should look to maybe help develop my...short...muscle...hmm
DOH, missed yours They're just not interested in reading. The spouse reads non fiction (the last fiction he read voluntarily was Steven King, and bitched about how terrible his style was the whole time. But to be fair, I'm not a King fan either!) And I think the last time any of my family members picked up a book for fun was quite literally years ago. So yeah, I know I shouldn't take it personally. Though it is EXTREMELY hard to not start going all neurotic and thinking they're avoiding it because it's crap and don't want to hurt me. HOPEFULLY at least the spouse knows me well enough to not do that though. Letting me toil away in garbage seems way meaner than just saying that I might need to re-evaluate...
It doesn't matter who or how many are listening. It's getting it out of you that's important (for me, anyway).
Well, yeah, my comment is more to internal motivation instead of external. I love to procrastinate on everything and will do the same, unless there's a deadline and someone bugging me to do it, I'm not really going to work on it. External motivation is great, but if you're not getting any, then you need to focus on your internal motivations. You're at a good start, loving to write, reaching out to connect with people who share the same enjoyment of it, but work on removing that "Someone else is holding me accountable" from your statement. Make it so you feel obligated to finish because you began it; that's the only way I continue to work on multiple projects at the same time. Because I started it and, unless it's just obviously not working or is a weak idea, it needs to be finished. And that's for nothing but me. It could be; I did Nano and threw my hands up after November and said to hell with it. I had plenty of ideas but no will to pick up a pen for a few months. I can't help you with short stories; I can never manage to stay within the realms of it. Of course, you could do the site requirements of the two weeks and the reviews, then you could get some specific critiques that'll help you grow.
Last time a family member critiqued my stuff, he said I wrote like Dan Brown. He may have thought it a compliment because he LOVES reading Dan Brown books. Me? Not so much, so the idea that I wrote like Dan Brown made me twitch inside. Mind, this was four years ago, and I think my writing had improved marginally. To topic: I, too, struggle with motivation; especially when I have school work. Oh, I'll make up the balls-y excuses like "I gotta write 10 pages of that Ottoman paper!!" Now, I'm starting to realize that they're just excuses to let myself off the hook. Yes, I have to write that 10-page paper of Ottoman stuff for my Islamic Civilization class, but during that time when I'm not, I could put in...maybe five minutes into my story. I guess, sometimes, you just have to force yourself. Even if you would rather delete it all and pretend it had never happened, you just have to force yourself. Now, don't get me wrong, if the characters and/or plot does not give you joy, then by all means, flush them down the metaphorical toilet. However, if you constantly obsess over the characters and plots, still have that small, miniscule fascination with it...then you just have to sit your butt down and do something with it. Sometimes motivation comes later. It's weird, I know, but it's the same with all aspects of life. Sometimes it just can't come until you force yourself to do it.
I think if the family members are of the kind that always look down on everything you do /accomplish it's not great either. Sure, they might be honest, but they might also just take it as an opportunity to be mean to you or ruin your self confidence. Some people just have nothing good to say even if it was great they wouldn't say it anyway. I am fortunate not to have family members like that but I know there are plenty of them.
Yeah. There are plenty of people who aren't happy until they make someone else miserable. It's hard, but do not listen to those people. ESPECIALLY if they're your parents. They may know best about how you should lead an independant, fulfulling life, but they do not know what's best for your writing. To be honest, some (or most, not sure) think that when their kid says "I want to be a writer", the kid's saying, "I want to have a living doing writing, where I stay at home all day writing, and I don't have a day job."
Hm... I might be guilty of that. It would be perfect job just stay at home writing... BUT I don't write just to publish... Actually, I don't write to publish at all. I just really like to write and if someday I write something that is worth publishing, I am considering being just a writer. Meanwhile, I am also taking ballet classes to graduate in classic ballet and I study hard to go to college. I already know what I want to study: Biotechnology... So being a writer it's an option, but it's not the only thing I'm seeking. Then my motivation to write is not linked at all with the possibility of being a writer, or even famous. It's just because writing is what I like to do besides ballet.
Haha, oh man, I think living with my mother forever even if I was just writing would be a special brand of hell. I love her and everything, but lets just say we're better friends when we're not living together. The summer I had to come home during college was practically a blood bath. Though I did have a several month stretch where I was home all the time with the spouse where NO writing took place, but that one WAS because I was depressed. Whenever I look at anything I wrote down during that time period, fiction or just correspondence makes me cringe... Being unemployed does not a happy camper make. Not that this is overly relevant to this topic, but I'm allowed to derail my own thread, right? I think I'll staple my butt to the chair tonight, see if I can't get anything accomplished. It doesn't help that my best time to write is, oh, the middle of the bloody night, then I start feeling guilty about needing sleep for work. Damn you, catch 22. But eh, I can sleep on the weekends...
Come to think of it, would that explain why I've been so hesitant to write the past four years? I mean, being told you write like an author whose works you don't enjoy must be damaging! Only now am I finally getting over it and actually am writing.
So, how do you motivate yourself when you're stuck in a rut, feeling tired and/or bored and would do anything to just ditch the whole damn thing - how do you carry on? What do you do to motivate yourself to finish? This is a thread for your own personal tips My own technique is currently - write a little at a time. If 500 words is all I can manage because I'm so p**** off with my MS then I'll write those 500 words, even if I know they're crap, I write them anyway. Sorta one word at a time, so I always know I'm moving forward. It's sorta failing me right about now, hence the thread...
I'm in the exact same situation as you. My writing motivation is kinda gone...and my writing doesn't feel like it sounds like my character any more! What I try to do: - Read a good book or watch a nice movie. This inspires and urges me to write on. - Listen to some motivational music (This is pretty much any song I like for me) - Write a little bit each day [200-500 words for me] even if you think it's not your best. (I keep forgetting this is the first draft! There's still time to go back and edit) - Leave it for a little while and then come back later. - Talk to fellow writer (Basically what we're doing now lol) That's what I do to get myself motivated but it's failing at the moment ._.
If I feel unmotivated to continue, I just leave it alone for a while, because for me, I almost always come back to something I don't finish. In my opinion, it seems wrong to force myself to continue. Writing should be fun - not torture.
I'm the same way as Program, I can't force it. For me it's okay to walk away from what I'm writing for a day, a week, even months at a time if need be. There are a lot of factors involved as to why I would lose motivation. For example right now for me it's summer and I'm enjoying the outdoorsy things I can't during our (very long) winters. Gardening, swimming, sitting outside on my patio reading to name a few. If it's just a lag and semi-writer's block, I move onto something else and write that. Fan-fic for me is fun, brainless, I know it's writing just for fun so I don't worry about anything and just enjoy it. That usually helps me get out of a rut.
Keeping myself busy in other works makes me feel guilty that i am not writing and that somehow triggers ideas in my brain. Half an hour of break at work gives me more writing inspirations and ideas than sitting in my desk and waiting for ideas to come. I take notes of all the exciting ideas during the day and when I sit down at home I just open the notes and they never fail to motivate me.
I'm at the point where I really want to get published, so only writing when it's fun isn't on the table for me. Usually a good kick in the pants - like visualizing where I want to be in X amount of time compared to where I will be if I don't get the darn thing written. That usually does it.
I never stop writing but I do switch projects a lot. But read other things, analyze what I've written so far, and write a bit even if I am going to delete it in the other day usually works when I'm stuck in a project and I don't want to be.
I try to read a couple of books, knit, play a video game or take a walk. Anything to take my mind off my work. Always learnt that taking a break from the book may draw me back to it. Writing is not meant to be easy. If I can only write 100 words, I can only write that. I just never give up on a book that I have dedicated so much time to.
I go on a movie-watching streak or devour literature gluttonously. That usually urges me on, but if it doesn't work I try to force myself through some horrendous literature, movies or TV-series. That usually works wonders since I can keep telling myself I do actually like my own work a lot more than the laughable products on this planet. The "I can do it better"-mentality, I'm afraid.
I have a term for days like this, I call them 'write off days'. Sometimes the direction I want my MS to go in isn't clear, and I write 3 versions of a chapter and realize all 3 of them suck. Instead of piddling 300-500 garbage words that will eventually be cut from the final version, I'll write the day off. What that means is I completely forget about writing, I don't let it enter my mind, and I do something else. Usually I play Modern Warfare 3, exercise, hang out with my dog. After this I usually get an itch to write something, and I can get back to work. Another thing I do is called 'Flip outs', there's another internet forum that I've built a reputation on. I will ask the people on the forum to give me 4 random words, and because the forum is such high traffic it takes about 30 seconds to get 5 replies.Than I take the words and I write a 400 word short story with them in under 30 minutes (my record is a 400 word short story in 7 minutes), and I do this until I get a writing headache. One of my flip outs lasted 8 hours and I wrote 10 or 11 short stories that day for a total of 4,000+ words. All of a sudden writing 500 words for a manuscript in 4 hours seemed like child's play.
