I just sit down and write, and move the novel's plot forward. Making progress, for me, builds momentum.
Like TWErvin, I just start and let momentum build. I reward myself with something small every 100 pages. Every 10 pages I post the page count on fb for my friends to see. I'm at 479 right now and I'm excited to throw that big 480 up today sometime. I've been slaving away for so long, that often it's not so much motivation, as it is habit. I think about the story constantly. I've fallen in love with my two main characters and when I think of them triumphing, or falling in love with each other, I get excited and want to write it. Same with epic battles, or a good joke. Coffee. What I find demoralizing/demotivating is the lack of time to write. It makes the task seem impossible. Cheers!
I take an old paperback - sit down and make a fake book cover for it - with the title of my book on the front and my name on the spine. Then I place it on my desk. Whenever I get discouraged , I look at the book and say don't give up, this will be real some day! It gives me a little boost. Plus , it gives me a much needed break from plain old writing.
_____If your project sucks, then everybody else will think it sucks too. You made the baby. Now, what you've got to do is make sure that thing comes out right. Who's to say that kids always turn out right? They're getting to be real brats these days too. (I expect a moderator to come in and call me retarded for saying that at any minute.) So, what do you do with wayward brats? You correct 'em. _____First, let me ask if you've got an outline. You DO have an outline, don't ya? Don't even think about coming around here with difficulties pertaining to writer's block, Charley horses, or anything else unless you've got an OUTLINE. I tell you, anybody who tries to write without an outline might as well be trying to navigate the New Jersey turnpike at night in foggy weather with a few drunk relatives in the back seat trying to sing '80s songs. Miss your turn on that highway; see what happens. I just hope you live to tell the tale. But about tale-telling, without that outline to serve as your roadmap, don't expect to finish it any time this decade. _____Now, assuming you've got the outline, it's time to do some correction. Find out why your story is growing up to be a piece of crap. Destroy everything past your current point of progress. Kill off some characters while you're at it. Hee-hee...! Get the chainsaw! Killin' stuff is ALWAYS fun! Uh, did I say that out loud? Anyway, on with the slaughter! You need to re-craft the latter portion of your outline in a better image. I've trashed whole chapter-plans before myself, and I'll probably do it again. Okay-okay, you don't have to kill characters. You can also add characters to make things more awesome. Give it a go. _____I'll give an example of what I've done with my own work before you think I'm just preaching without practicing. My current novel-in-progress is about a pair of robot-girls made to do battle with the forces of darkness. They're tough as tanks, and all the enemies they've faced were little green bastards in red coveralls who pretty much do little else but try to set up evil devices and set themselves up for slaughter. (Think about the gremlins of World War II military folklore.) I figured the plot was getting repetitively repetitive, so I threw in a black-clad cybernetic Goth-girl to sort of anchor down the psychotic personalities of the other two frontline-combat protagonists. That, and I've used the character to introduce the means of bringing the story to a head. That is, the cybernetic Goth girl has the technology and the know-how to put a stop to the little green bastards for good. I'm just finishing up this piece-of-crap novel just for the sake of completion. But hey, at least it gets done. Now go forth, and complete your great work.
Sometimes I edit. Usually I work on things for my dayjob that I would be neglecting if I were writing. I write because I want to. If the feeling isn't there, I'm not gonna force it.
Uh, wrong. Not every writer needs an outline. A great many published (and successful) authors don't use them. And telling someone not to come here asking questions if they don't have one is ludicrous.
Hi, It's less of a problem for me because I write for myself. The days I get less motivated are when I spend them editing, proofing, or tying up bits and pieces to make my story into something publisher ready. I truly don't enjoy that at all. When it gets rough my thoughts are time out of one form or another, coffee, - so much coffee, and doing something completely different - dvds, books, friends etc. One thing I have found a huge motivator though, is doing book covers. It helps me enormously because even though I have the artistic capacity of a spastic ant, I just love it. And as the book cover is for whatever book I'm writing, it helps to return me to that. Cheers, Greg.
Shadowwalker, I absolutely agree with you. To say that every writer absolutely must have an outline or they have no right to ask writers block questions is preposterous. I understand that if you just sit down and start writing with no sense of the plot whatsoever, you might not get very far (but who knows, maybe you will!). But for a lot of writers, a general idea of the plot - even if it's just "Bob went to town to buy some milk but was stopped by the police for questioning about a murder" - is sufficient. Anyway, what I do when my writing sounds old and uninspiring and just so dang bad it's ridiculous is stop writing that particular piece. If you find it boring, do you think anyone's going to want to read it? Don't stop writing altogether, just write something different. Give the little plot that's been forming in the back of your mind a try, or have somebody give you a prompt, and word count requirement, and a time limit. When you're ready, go back to the original piece.
I want to get published. I'm a student, and I'm finishing school soon. I see two roads i can go down. One of them is spending up to $200,000 on a certain graduate school, or getting published and being able to continue to write. So most of the day I write. This is the last summer before i graduate, so i see it as something i really need to try and do. If i end up going to graduate school i don't think i would hate life, but its not something that i feel i really want to do, its only a substitute for the real thing. So in other words, i'm motivated by the thought of not doing what i really want to do.
I write for fun so when something stops being fun, I move on to a different project with the intention of returning to it after a few months. When writing itself stops being fun, I take a break from it for a few weeks. It's not the greatest method for efficiency, but I'm not in any rush.
I take a notebook with me wherever I go, and since I'm usually on the run, I write down thoughts here and there about the characters themselves, or a situation they may be in. I write when I can, and some times I take a day just to write. Of course, that whole day is not taken up with writing the book, but also with blogging, answering threads on here, reading other's work, and possibly dancing around the house for a while. The one thing that helps the most is repeating to myself that my characters have a story to tell, and without me, it will never be told. Makes it seem more pertinent.
I try to do what you do and write as much as I can muster a day, even if it's a paltry amount. Usually I end up completely throwing out everything I write on days I'm not really inspired, so technically the end result is the same as if I hadn't bothered, but meh, I do it anyway.
I honestly just can't help myself. There are some days when the actual act of writing is hard. I can write 100 lines and then start looking at the clock. On days like this I tend to find it is a real drag for the first 1,000 words and then somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 I start to get in to it, even if the muses are not being exactly kind. But getting myself to sit down and write I find very very easy, and when I'm in the zone I barely notice anything going on around me. A few days ago I wrote something like 4,000 words and the time just seemed to disappear.
I try to never lose motivation to begin with by taking frequent breaks. Though I write every day, I only do so for about an hour at a time. By doing this, I always look forward to the next writing session instead of let myself get burned out .
First, let me state I'm not dealing with writer's block. I'm actively thinking of ideas of things to put into my story and how to advance it. I am, however, dealing with a situation in which things I'm having to deal with in everyday life are leading me without much motivation to actually sit down and write them out into the story. I want to do it, but when I sit down to try, I just can't do it. My question is this: for any of you that have experienced something similar, what do you find helpful as far as getting yourself out of the funk?
I can only speak for myself obviously. For me motivation came first. I am driven to write and have been as far back as I can remember.
When this happens to me, I keep writing down the story ideas; keep brainstorming, but I just don't write the story (or, for me, the poem or essay) until there's time to properly flesh it out. I'm in one of those stages right now because I have 3 doctor's appointments per week, then there's some major family issues, then I'm in summer classes that take up 5 hours per day, and I'm still looking for a part-time job. There's some time to write, but not nearly enough to really sit down and create a whole story. I still have moments of inspiration, so I write all the ideas down in a notebook as they come to me. I picked up a tiny notepad, almost small enough to fit in my pocket, from the dollar store and I just keep that on-hand.
prescription drugs okay seriously, i just take a break for like anything b/n a month and a week and then it starts fresh
I've had many times when this happened to me. My rule was always: real life issues come first, recovery from real life issues comes second. If recovery meant writing, cool. But there were many times when real life issues left me way too drained to be able to do what I had to do in order to write. When that happened, I did what I had to do to recover (in my case, that often meant late-night sessions playing Football Manager). Then, when the batteries were fully recharged and real life receded sufficiently, I was able to dive back in to writing. Also, during those down periods, I always tried to make time for reading, which also helped recharge the batteries.
Hey Scott. I'm finding this to be the case too right now. I would say that if you just can't do it, you don't really want to. If you want to bad enough, you just would. The same goes for myself. Many times I've opened up a document, and I feel I want to write. Then I get distracted; however, it's occurred to me... I'm choosing to be distracted. I choose to go on youtube sometimes, instead of finishing a chapter. I once heard an author say he could only finish his writing by putting something else off. Writing was his procrastination. In his case, he wrote two stories side by side... Perhaps that will help! See writing as you putting something else off. Otherwise, deal with your distractions quickly, and make your story the only thing that exists after a certain time. Just stay on that page, and leave everything else.
For me it happens when I read some amazing story or watch a movie with an incredible plot. It immediately inspires me to try and come up with my own ideas of worlds yet not created by others!
What's that one quote by that one person? Something original is original without even trying. But when you try to make it original by comparing it to something you think is original... Just don't always depend on previously published material to come up with your own stuff. I get jealous of a good plot and then hate myself and then I can't seem to like anything I write b/c it sux.
No.. i like the story.. but the creativity behind me inspires me to write something.. not to steal it or write something similar.
