Writing is amazing. You’re creating stories, people and worlds that never existed before. You’re in control of everything. When the words are flowing and the ideas are fresh and new, there are few better feelings. But sometimes, the motivation to write goes missing, no matter how much you love your story. On days like those, it can be very difficult to get your butt into the chair and the words onto the page. Today I thought I would share five tips that help me to keep writing on the days when I really don’t feel like working on my novel.
Make Writing Your Top Priority
When you’re not feeling particularly motivated to write, it can be easy to put it off until later in the day and do something more immediately interesting first. Rather than doing that, make writing the first thing you choose to do. The longer you put it off for, the less chance there is that it’ll get done. It’s easier to motivate yourself to put words on the page if it’s the first thing you choose to do, especially if you’re able to do it earlier in the day when your willpower is a bit stronger. And then you can reward yourself for finishing writing by doing all the other things that were so tempting before.
Write Alongside Some Friends
If you have friends, or a group that writes, joining up with them for a writing session is an easy way to motivate yourself to get the words down. I tend to write with my NaNoWriMo group, year round. We have a vibrate group Discord and most of my writing friends pop in at some point during the day, which means that there’s usually at least one other person online running writing sprints at any given time. Having another person writing at the same time as you is a great way to peer pressure yourself into doing some writing, while having fun doing it. If someone else is writing, it makes you feel like you should be too. Creativity is contagious.
Do Something Connected To Your Writing
Obviously don’t do any of this in the time when you’re meant to be doing actual writing. But making a playlist for your book, or creating a Pinterest board for it can get your creative juices flowing. It’s exciting to hear the songs that bring to mind your book, or to see your ideas represented in a board full of amazing pictures. As well as being fun to put together, it also gives you something to listen to, or browse through when you’re a bit lacking in motivation. Something to remind you of just how cool your book actually is and how much you actually love your ideas and characters.
Make A List Of Things You Love About Your Book
If you’re struggling to feel excited about writing your book, it, try writing down a list of all the things you love about your book. I have done this for almost every book I’ve written so far. These can be things as big as you loving a character, or a magic system, down to a tiny little character interaction or a tiny reference that only you will get. Write down everything that is good about your book and everything that makes you feel excited about it. Then, when you’re having a tough day, you can look back over this list and be reminded of why chose to write this book in the first place, and why it’s worth working on right now.
Halve Your Goal
Some days, even with the best of intentions, motivating yourself to hit your daily goal just isn’t going to happen. Instead of sitting there, staring at the pile of words you still need to write, try cutting your goal in half. Make it something more easily achievable. Sometimes a big goal is too intimidating and you become paralysed. Making the goal smaller, something less intimidating that you can manage makes it easier to push yourself to get started. You might find that once you get started, the words come easier and you can push through and achieve your original goal. But even if you don’t, you’ll have written something, and that will make the next day that much easier.
Writing, especially when you’re feeling unmotivated, can be hard, but having strategies in place to help you on the days when you really don’t feel like doing anything makes it so much easier to get that book written. But I would love to hear from you. How do you motivate yourself to keep writing when you don’t really feel like it?
