Thread: How do you stay motivated?

When I write, I usually do stories going from 1,000 words to 10,000 words long, or at least they're planned to be that long.
I'll have great fun building the character and creating my own worlds as I write, and I have lots of fun writing the story throughout the entire thing, usually... but the problem is that I can't get myself to open the darn notepad and start writing a story, and keep writing.
What I think the problem is, is that I get distracted too easily and always think of finding other things to do. If I have absolutely nothing to do but write, like this one time I lived at my grandma's house way out in a farm, with nothing but a computer without internet, I wrote and finished a 25,000 word book in the span of 3 months. But I can't do that now, I live in a busy city, with internet on this computer.

Are there any other ways of keeping yourself motivated to write your story?

I am no one special, but I do suffer the same problem often. What I have found that personally works for me is to change up the scenery and sometimes just turn off the computer or router and just sit with some music. I have found my best writing done alone in my room listening to music that matches at least somewhat with the scene I am writing. Being in the city can be hard I can imagine but perhaps you could try visiting a local park with a notepad and pencil.

The best part of me giving advice on this is that while writing this post I opened another tab and did other things three times. I am horrible. Good luck with your writing.

-William

My writing is prompted by situations. For example: I woke up one night, having had a nightmare about an ex-girlfriend who was a little obsessive concerning me, and very jealous. She was dangerous. I got out of bed and started writing "Obsession," the story I posted in fiction. Not that the story is what happened to me (the story is much worse than my experience), but it was inspired by true events. All of mine are. So I will get struck by inspiration through various real events that occur in my life, and when it happens, I write about it. Or rather, I used to, but I'm getting back in the habit now.

I find that when I get slightly bored of a piece it is best to just stop writing it and walk away. I can not push myself through a scene, if I do then it comes out bland and rushed. So I guess I'm saying that I keep motivated by just walking away and doing other things. Sometimes I just open a new document and start writing a completely different idea. Then when I get bored of that one my main story doesn't look so daunting any more.

I think the "walk away and do something else" advice is bad. If you walk away every time you hit a wall in your writing, it'll get to the point where you only write when you feel motivated. You don't want that. If you think about it, that advice applies to nothing else in the world. If you hit a problem at work, you can't walk away from it.

The way I keep motivated is by treating my writing as a job. I'm on a deadline. If I don't produce a novel by that deadline, no reading books for three months. If I do, I give myself a month or two off and start all over again.

But I push through the hard parts. There's no point in walking away, because pretty soon you'll be walking away every time you sit down. Then, you're just making excuses.

I think it was Vangoghsear who said he made himself write for a short period every day, if he felt like carrying on fine, if not he stopped. that seemed like a really good idea, it often is not the writing so much as the starting, and that does not seem so hard if you know that you can stop soon if you want.
Personally I find it is not the stopping because of a problem in the writing that gives me trouble, when I walk away it is all still going on in my head, it is bothering to sit down and write out something that I feel I have already worked out. Of course when I get round to it I always find that it is not quite that simple and there are still issues which grab my attention and keep me there.

If you ever feel the need to force yourself, you aren't doing it for the right reasons. This isn't about a paycheck at the end of the line; most of us know we'll never see that, but if you just DO it you'll be doing yourself a great service by acknowledging your predilection to write and get it out of your system. Me, I know I'm not great. Only great writers get published, not just good writers like me. But I keep doing it because I can't NOT do it. If the entire planet thinks my writing is subpar, then so be it. Hell, in 1987 I put a gun to my head, never to do it again. Why? Because I wasn't GREAT at anything. But I see now that it isn't the point to be a superstar, just be me and do what comes naturally; in my case, writing and painting. I'll never be a professional -- I'm not good enough. But I need to do this for me. If my writing comes in bursts, I'll now take advantage of the inspiration and try to do something positive with it.

I won't get into it, but at this point in life I'm dead. I lost everything a person could lose. My body continues to draw breath and my mind continues to function, but all other things are gone, so I need to have this kind of outlet.

Whatever technique you decide is best, just don't stop. I've burned and tossed a hundred paintings; I've deleted dozens of stories, all because they weren't "good enough." If you read "Obsession" you will see I'm a good draftsman but probably a lousy author. Do not give up, do not feel as I do about yourself, just keep trying, and when the inspiration hits, take advantage.

Sometimes you have to push pass that minute wher your not feeling it. I play music. Slow music and write
I get a drink and go at it. Even if Im writing shitty, I keep it for the tie being. Then the time I do come back to it, I know what not to write.

This is really useful information to me. Thanks for it all. I'll just have to keep pushing past this story until it's finished.

Good BUT you wanna take breaks at times. Breaks can be a minute, a day or a week. But for now push pass some of the rougher moments.

Oh I've had my break. It was 4 months long

For starts, great advice Sam and Olly!
Devour the reason I'm here is I'm finding yet another thing to do rather than write. I find writing one of the hardest things in the world, which is a good thing I guess, I mean if it were easy every man and his dog would be a successful writer. Writing is in my blood, I have scenes playing in my head all day long. The weather can't change without me plotting how I would describe it. Yet putting this down on paper, for me, is the most hair pulling, headache inducing thing in the world. I feel it's my creative brain wrestling with the weaker, less used analytical side (that writing needs) that does this for me.
I have to MAKE myself write, I have to FORCE myself to open my Word document rather than solitaire. I PUSH myself everyday to jot down at least a couple of hundred words. If I’m struggling I give it a break for a while, if I'm still struggling I push through and write, even if it's rubbish I can always edit it later. Sometimes I have whole scenarios jotted down in a single line, waiting for me to come back.
Anyway that’s what works for me, push through, be brutal, make yourself do it. Hey that’s why the delete button was invented
Good luck!

I would consider getting a tape recorder if it's the passage from your brain to the paper that is bugging you. I recently did this and it's working wonders. I'll have days where I can just type up a thousand words, or scribble them down, or whatever, but there are times when I'll have all of these scenes and fleeting images in my head but when I try to push them out through my fingertips, I go into panic mode...then I get in my car and go driving somewhere and press record, and out it comes.

Fox80 - You say 'Only great writers get published' and you are wrong. There are a lot of really awful writers who get published every day. And there are many, many craftsmen like me who can always find a market and make a decent living putting one word after another. We're not famous and we don't become multi-millionaires, but we do okay.

I'm actually trying to get back into the habit of writing daily myself. I used to do it regularly when I was studying creative writing, but then my college career took off elsewhere and it suddenly became too hard. Here is the thing, though. We all know that when we sit down and actually do it, 90% of the time it is the most satisfying thing out there. And like all those incredibly satisfying things... it takes work. Why don't you try to set up a schedule? Not sure what kind of computer/phone you have, but I've got both of mine set off to give me a reminder every day at the same time to write for 15 minutes. It does not take that much time, it is not that hard, yet... you'd be impressed by how much you can do with 15 minutes a day. I also joined websites, such as FanStory.com - Online Writing Community. Just knowing that I'm paying to have my work reviewed makes me write so that it doesn't end up being a waste of money. And then there is the things about making it fun. Did you know that if you do something regularly for a period of 30 days your brain re-sets to make it a habit? A great way to do this is with the fun, insane, thrilling action that is NaNoWriMo (true, that's not till November, but still something that might help -National Novel Writing Month). Don't push yourself, because you don't want to end up resenting writing. How about rewarding yourself instead? I find chocolate excellent for that - but then, I'm just that kind of girl. Find what works for you.