Writing Tips: Staying Motivated

Writing Tips: Staying Motivated

Any aspiring author knows there are times where continuing with your story gets difficult. You make excuses. You lose interest. These are facts of the trade (and really any hobby/interest) that threaten accomplishing your goal. 

I will be the first to admit that Orcblood Legacy: Honor did not come without its struggles. I started writing it in the summer of 2012. The first 30,000 words were written in two weeks. My interest was insanely high, and there was no stopping me. Or so I thought.

After that intense, highly productive introductory period, everything died off from there. I made excuses. I lost interest. Though, I always hated not being able to push through. Always. 

Each subsequent year, I would randomly get the interest renewed to wish to finish the story. It was a lifelong dream to write a novel, and Fangdarr’s story was the one I knew I wanted to tell. Each year, when I picked up the abandoned husk that I had left, I reviewed all the previous work to get reacquainted. Unfortunately, by that point, I had managed to lose interest by the time I read through and lightly edited my progress–typically only adding another few pages once I had caught up.

Finally, in December of 2017, it was enough. You reach a point that you realize your mistakes and you buckle down. This time, I picked up the story again and told myself to continue. 

This time, I did. I pushed through. So, what changed? To be honest, nothing. And everything. I started the exact same way as I did before–reading through all of my previous work. This time, rather than a light edit, I went deep. Every line went through intense scrutiny that was not done in the previous six ‘edits’ that were performed over the years my story lay dormant. It was dreadful and tedious, I can’t lie. There’s a reason (many, rather) that I am an author and not an editor. Nevertheless, I found a vast amount of errors from picking apart my writing at a nearly molecular level.

Inconsistencies, plot holes, everything. Littered everywhere. I fixed dozens and dozens of issues and re-wrote any plot holes I found. If you are stuck on your In Progress novel and are having trouble staying motivated – start here. Go through the grueling task of rigorous self-editing. It sucks. It really, really does. But if you can trudge through the muck, I promise you’ll be better for it. Both your story and yourself.

So, where is my Writing Tip, Bernard? I know, I know, get to the point! All of this background is important to show that I know first-hand that motivation is a killer of novels. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your story may be if it never makes it onto the page. Ideas are endless, execution is where you make your name. 

In addition to doing a self-edit that made me realize my story wasn’t the shining pinnacle of beauty that I thought, I set myself on the path of success. Here’s the tip, the key to success. Habits. 

Writing is no different than practicing an instrument, working out, or even learning to draw. It takes practice. Ritualized, chore-like practice. Practice needs to be habitual. Build the habit and stick to it. Set a time that you can write, undisturbed, and stick to it. I write between 4:00 a.m. – 6:00 a.m. three days a week, and that’s it. This is the only time I get while the family is still asleep. My shining window of opportunity. 

Let me tell you, the decision to get out of bed at 4:00 a.m. on my only days off of my day job can be difficult. Even this morning that I’m writing this post, my daughter woke my wife and I up twice with blood-curdling screams. Last night was just miserable. Yet, I woke up at 3:45 (15 minutes before my 4:00 a.m. alarm) and rolled out of bed. I started the coffee, gave the cats their weekly treats, checked my e-mails, then got to writing. I will do the same tomorrow on Saturday. I will do the same the next day. And then I will do it all over again starting the following Friday. Because this is my ritual. The habit I’ve formed that allows me to progress through the Orcblood Legacy series. I make good, steady progress every week that I look forward to throughout the week (even though I know it means waking up in the cold mornings and sitting alone in my kitchen to write). 

So, there it is. Build your habit and stick to it. Like anything else, you will see results as long as you continue. Set your schedule and designate a slot of time that suits you (I only slot six hours per week, where I actually end up writing about four). Stay on that schedule. It doesn’t matter when it is, as long as you can continue on the same time every day you schedule to write and you can do so without distractions.