All About Motivation (Tips + Tricks To Staying Motivated)

Last week, I discussed outlining and the beginnings of a story. In the time between last week and today, I finally finished writing my ghost story! The actual writing/drafting of this novel was very different from my other, more scattered drafting moments. I decided to try a few new things and learned a lot about motivation. So today, I’m going to discuss all of the adventures that happened during these past few months of writing. 

Motivation + Plans (little tidbit from last week) 

In last week’s post, you may remember me mentioning how planning out my scenes helped me feel more motivated to write. Not only did planning out scenes give  me a roadmap, but I had scenes that I was looking forward to writing. Those special scenes made me very motivated to write. 

Will planning out one’s scenes work for everybody? Absolutely not. Writing is such an individual hobby, we all have different ways of getting a similar result. But it may be something to experiment with. 

Turning Off Your Editing Brain 

One of the most challenging parts of writing a story is the actual writing part of it. How can I write that sentence just right? That’s bad, I need to rewrite that. *backspace backspace backspace* 

It can be hard to turn off different sides of your brain, like the procrastinating side or editing side. As helpful as these would be during editing time, they can be just as unhelpful when you need to write with reckless abandon. 

I think editing and writing are two very separate actions. I can’t write and edit at the same time. I try to go through one round and just write all the typos and clunky sentences. Then, I come through again with my editing goggles and focus solely on picking out plot holes and typos. 

It definitely takes practice to write without editing. When I was younger, I would write a chapter, edit it, then move onto the next chapter. It took a lot of energy to go from editing to writing all in one sitting.

One way to help the editing brain turn off would be to hop on over to The Most Dangerous Writing App. This baby is scary. You start writing in it, and if you stop for too long (or go back and edit for too long) it starts to delete your work. This forces you to write as the life of your words flashes by your very eyes. 

Another option would be to write without looking at what you are writing. I did this one morning when I had a really bad neck cramp. I laid face flat on the floor with my arms sticking out in front of me, hands on the keyboard of my computer. While I smashed my face into my carpet, I typed without reading what I was typing. I told a story, but there was no way to go back when I wrote a questionable sentence about flying squirrels or hiking boots. 

A less face-smashed-into-the-carpet solution would be to turn the brightness of your computer all the way down or put a piece of cardboard over your computer screen. Basically, try not to look at what you are writing every now and then, and the editing brain might go away for a bit. 

Pushing Through

As much fun as the actual writing of a story is, it can be very boring too. It’s a long and tedious process and can quickly become like the dredges of winter. Day after day, same words after same words, no adventure, excitement, or sunshine. 

But you know what? You should finish your story. You should push through and get to the end, because I can promise, getting to the end is one of the most amazing feelings in the world.

One way to get yourself motivated again is to talk with someone about your story. Maybe you tell a parent, siblings, friend, old lady you mow for, someone from church, anybody. Tell someone about your story, and then you will be excited about telling them about your story and they will be excited about your story with you. That was a very Captain Jack Sparrowy sentence.  Then there’s lots of excitement about this story that NEEDS TO BE FINISHED. Voila! Motivation 

Another way to motivate could be to read your favorite book. There’s always a book that you read and then think, “Wow. I want to write something like this.” 

Or we can go in the opposite direction. Choose to read a book that you absolutely hate. When you come across bland characters or a blood boiling cliche, think about the fact that we need more books that are better than this. Voila, again. Motivation. 

One more way could be to simply change up the setting or time of day you are writing in. Routine can help provide structure, but it can also make everything feel bland and unmotivating. If you often write in the afternoon, take your computer to a coffee shop or library to live out your writerly aesthetic dreams. Sometimes just changing the location from your desk to the kitchen counter or picnic table outside can do wonders. 

Motivation is one of the hardest things to manage. It’s fickle. Motivation is like a match. It’s a great spark to start a large fire with, when paired with wood and kindling, but on it’s own, a match quickly burns out. 

We need motivation to get us started, but we can’t necessarily rely on it all the time. Motivation isn’t sustainable on it’s own, but when it’s paired with discipline and perseverance, it can be very powerful. 

So, tell me, what things get you motivated to write? What are your go to ways to push through and finish a writing project? Thanks for reading, I hope you have a great rest of your day! 

-Hannah

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