Thread: Lacking motivation - what helps you?

I have two fictions that I've written a substantial amount on... both really good ideas and both fictions I treasure completely. And are two fictions that I've not really touched in awhile. It's irksome to be a writer that isn't writing! I look back on the years passed and how I used to write DAILY... and now, although everything has improved and is more of a quality I'd love to share, it's not something I'm doing all the time. Hell, I'd be happy to write once/twice a week at the moment just to get somewhere. But instead it seems the lull continues and nothing gets worked on. There are brief stints - I wrote six chapters on my newer one of the two in the space of a couple of days and then haven't picked up since... I dislike this creative breakdown. What do you do when you've hit a roadblock like this?

I've hit roadblocks before. Spaces of time when I don't write anything at all. But eventually I get back on the horse and craft something. I suppose you have to write in order to enjoy it. Really, it's not about the quality of the work. It's more about the discovery of new ideas. I mean, if you're already satisfied with your work, then why are you writing? It's the fact that you can never have the last word that keeps me going.

You can choose one of several things:

1. Sit butt in chair and work on one.
2. Sit butt in chair and work on the other.
3. Sit butt in chair and work on something completely different.
4. Give yourself permission to take a vacation from writing. Take time off to relax and renew. Then see 1-3.

Sometimes it's a matter of remembering that writing isn't always fun, easy, exhilarating, or anything at all positive. And sometimes it's accepting that you need to step away and not even think about it for a while - and then go back to work.

Originally Posted by shadowwalker

You can choose one of several things:

1. Sit butt in chair and work on one.
2. Sit butt in chair and work on the other.
3. Sit butt in chair and work on something completely different.
4. Give yourself permission to take a vacation from writing. Take time off to relax and renew. Then see 1-3.

Sometimes it's a matter of remembering that writing isn't always fun, easy, exhilarating, or anything at all positive. And sometimes it's accepting that you need to step away and not even think about it for a while - and then go back to work.

Couldn't have put it better myself. Although "Shut up and write" does have its merits, this is the more eloquent version.

Share it with someone. If they like it, they'll want to read more, so you'll want to write more.

You are only a writer when you are writing. I write 5-6 days a week even if I don't feel like it. I finished one book that way and am more than half way through the first draft of my second. There is no magic to it, there is no secret. Dreamers dream -- writers write.

Originally Posted by Terry D

You are only a writer when you are writing. I write 5-6 days a week even if I don't feel like it. I finished one book that way and am more than half way through the first draft of my second. There is no magic to it, there is no secret. Dreamers dream -- writers write.

This.

I think part of it may be fear of finishing. When you have a great idea that you can see clearly in your head and know the finished book should be wonderful, you don't want to actually finish writing it in case it isn't.

I used to suffer from that more until I spent a while reading Dean Wesley Smith's blog with his various 'a book is not an event' comments; rather than spending years trying to write a perfect book you just write one, send it out and write another one.

I got tired of being a so-called artist / writer, but having only unfinished paintings and rough drafts, so one day I just decided I was going to finish the projects I started. Has worked well so far.

As they say, apply butt to chair and get going.

I like shadowwalker's the best, but all have merit. Shut off the music, keep off the internet, only do those chores that absolutely cannot wait. It doesn't matter if you have ten different stories going at once (one of the romance novelists writes that way - Danielle Steele maybe - & only uses typewriters), put it down. That's the great thing about computers. It's so easy to save a ton of material that you can use whenever you want. Write anything that comes into your head & save it whatever way you save your work. You will end up using it some day. Any whimsical thoughts that come, put it down.

I wrote a passage for my story that would happen toward the end. It came to me when I was eating out, & the song 'Wildfire' came over the PA. I got 2 pages out of it. It can happen that easy if you let it.

An author came to my school a few months back and she told me to try interviewing my characters. It helps! Hope you get over this period of not writing. I'm having the same problem too.

I wrote six stories this year. I work 40+ hours a week. I'm taking a break unless the mood really catches me. I often find when I'm not writing or working my head is stuck in a bar. So, in between writing droughts I drown in booze. Probably not the best thing to do but we all have vices.