How to stay motivated and write well.
- mark-french1
- Apr 2
- 5 min read
I took an ice bath yesterday.
I watched the tub fill, and didn't want to do it. I dumped the ice in, and didn't want to do it. I stripped down and stepped in, still didn't want to do it.
But I did it.
After the ice melted and the tub was drained I felt amazing. I was happy I did it. Writing for me works the same way. I know it's good for me, but the lead up to it (and sometimes the actual act itself) makes it seem like I could do literally anything else and feel just as accomplished, but the truth is I wouldn't.
When I don't write for a while I get irritable, grumpy, and feel like I'm stagnating in life (which in turn kicks off a negative thought spiral that makes me question my future and what I'm doing with my life.)
If you are anything like me then you know the feeling. You have something you love doing, but sometimes at the end of the day you are exhausted, or hungry, or need to spend time with your family, or go buy groceries, the list goes on.
So much of building a writing habit is writing everything you can. You have to write the bad to get to the good. This means you have to write at least once a day, so how do you stay motivated to build this habit and begin to see yourself as an actual author rather than just a writer?
I'm glad you asked.
I'm going to give you five tips to not only help you stay motivated to write, but to end up a better writer because of it.
The only way around is through.
The first thing to understand is that there's no way around the hard work. The sooner you accept that the work will be hard, the sooner you can get over this fact and begin breaking it down into digestible steps. It will be hard, but it will be worth it. And here's the part no one tells you: it's only hard for about 5 minutes. Once you start writing you get lost in the story and the difficulty melts away.
Plan your steps and track your progress
If you have a framework (even a rough one) then you will avoid the trap of starting a bunch of projects, but not finishing any. Pick a writing project, plan what you want to write, and then track your progress. The last step is essential in staying motivated because you actually get to revel in the success. As you track your progress you will see that the story that was once just an idea in your head becomes a stack of printed pages in front of you, and that's an amazing feeling.
Get a fresh perspective
I was having luck a few months ago waking up early, going downstairs, and writing for about an hour. Shortly after that my toddler began waking up as soon as I sat down in front of my laptop. I started to suspect I was waking him up somehow in the process of getting down to my computer. This left me feeling distracted and frustrated because I felt like my writing was stagnating and I wasn't getting time to do what I loved. My wife had a life changing suggestion when I told her my tale of woe:
"Why don't you just keep your laptop beside the bed? Then you don't have to go downstairs."
It was simple, it worked, and I never would have thought of it. To this day I wake up early and write in bed. It has not only helped me start working in earnest on edits to Skeleton Unburdened (novel) but it allowed me to create, edit, and post The Refracted Man, free horror fiction you can find on this blog.
When you invite someone you trust into your writing woes, they have a unique perspective that you don't, and they may just save your writing habit. Understand that change is a good thing, what worked in the past may not work forever. You have to be able to recognise when you are sinking and pivot accordingly.
Keep everything
Sometimes I run into trouble with a story and have to put it on the back burner. Sometimes I edit out large chunks of work because they don't work during revision. I keep all of these half finished stories and snippets because chances are I can re-purpose them and use them to generate new ideas. This is huge not only for helping me stay motivated (I get a new idea to sink my teeth into later) but it also helps me write better (maybe I am stuck on a certain structure piece of the half finished story, yet once I research a relevant topic to assisting with that I can move forward. For the edited snippet, I can work with it and shape it until it resembles the seed of what the original text was, but is now a fully roughed out story. Then through the editing process I get to understand what words flow well together, and which concepts sound tired or confusing.)
Write down all of your ideas.
I have a notes app in my phone and anytime I get an idea I jot a quick one down. I try to be as detailed as possible because it may be months before I get to that note again. The story may end up miles away from the original note, but it's complete (The Refracted Man for example started as an idea of a case of mistaken identity in a train station. Readers can see the bones of this in the opening scene, but the end product is much different. It turned into what I would consider my most thought provoking story, and one that improved my writing a lot because it forced me to edit smarter as I wanted to get it to 5000 words. The second benefit is the hit of satisfaction you get when the story is written and you get to delete the note, talk about satisfying.
Writing is a passion project, but passion alone won't always pull you through. You've got to cultivate motivation through discipline and patience. Start small, aim for 20 minutes a day, set a timer and just start writing.
I guarantee it'll feel better than an ice bath.
Check out The Refracted Man and leave a comment of what you think.
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