This Is Where I Write Stuff.
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It’s the ultimate problem – you love to write, and yet the motivation doesn’t love you. I know this problem well. There are ways to get back on the horse though, even when it feels impossible, so I’ve put together a list of ways to stay on top of the writing game – even when you aren’t feeling like playing.
I know, you’ll hear this one all the time, but it’s really true. If you pencil in a set time each day to write then you’re more likely to do something, as opposed to absolutely nothing. Try and make this set time one that you can stick to and won’t vary with the days and weeks. For example there’s no point setting an hour aside each day smack bang in the middle of the school run. First thing in the morning is usually my most productive time, but after I’ve dropped off my daughter at school – anything before that is just madness.
Find your most productive time and stick to it. Even if it’s only for half an hour a day.
Sometimes you might have the motivation to write but the ideas just aren’t coming. This is when you need to get inspired. Check out some art, look at the world around you; step away from the computer and start listing ideas. Even if you’re not writing your writing, collecting ideas for your content is time equally well spent.
Mostly because everyone else is blagging it too, but also because it’ll de-motivate you to feel that you’re not as far on in your writing progression as others perhaps seem. Remember though, it doesn’t matter about that – if you’re only writing to gain followers, or a book deal, or fame, then you’re always going to be motivated by the wrong things ad your writing will suffer as a consequence.
Fill it with new words, every day. Writing is something you need to practice and improve every day, and the key to that is to build your vocabulary. No one likes a dullard, so don’t be one with your choice of words!
Really, it is. Don’t give yourself a hard time if you’re really struggling to get into it – you can’t force writing but you can cultivate a habit. Just writing one sentence is better than not writing anything at all.
What is your goal? Why are you writing in the first place? If it’s becoming a chore then you’re going to find it even harder to stay motivated, so try and remember why you started to write in the first place and see if you can work your way back to that place of excitement.
Use a book. Or a jotter, or notepad, or bullet journal – anything paper based! Sometimes the feeling of actually putting pyhsical pen to paper is as cathartic as it is motivating. Step away from the keyboard and give it a go.
What are your ways to stay motivated? Do you have any tips that work well for you when you’re not feeling very productive? Let us know in the comments below or over on Instagram.
Writer, tweeter and illustrator. Starving artist and thrifting expert. Pen for hire and first-time author at work.
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The writer often hoped that her writing would not come off too autobiographical. She wanted to write, for the love of writing. And yet there’s no real way to keep the writing you create truly impersonal, she thought. Laughing internally at the use of ‘and’ after a full stop, she enjoyed testing syntactic boundaries.
She had always been a writer at heart. Though she exercised this ability in various forms, she was the writer above all other things. And there had been a lot of other things.
The writer had spent a long time masquerading. Playing the part of other, creating a multitude of alter-egos in order to carry out the work she loved. Alter-egos become tiring after a while; they create worlds of their own that are impossible to navigate all at the same time.
The writer did not want to portray falsehoods in her writing. Happy to portray falsehoods in her virtual world, as a safety net from those who may find her in reality.
The difficulty with creative people, she thought, is their multiple personality potential. A writer is also an artist, is also a comedian, a creator, a designer, a fast learner. She is an editor, photographer, digital literate, professional at adaptation.
Jack of all trades, master of none?
The writer was tired of being multiskilled, as arrogant as that may sound. She wanted to regain her focus and try to reconnect with her first love – writing. She would try, although time had not been kind to her mind, to the language she used to know and flex like the muscles of Van Damme. To her memory, ravaged by a lack of sleep and proper care. It had eaten away at her confidence, at her linguistic ability.
She believed this to be true.
Perhaps, thought the writer, this voyage of reconnection may rebuild neural pathways. Maybe it will repair lost skills. To write every day if possible, even if the writing is dire at first, must have a benefit to her brain. The writer worried frantically about her brain, so greatly that it kept her awake in blind defiance of the one thing that could perhaps repair it.
Will this writing identify her? She had considered this point at length. There comes a moment to stop hiding, and perhaps this was hers. The writer would write to improve. To engage and entertain. To inspire and return to her once capable mind the words, concepts and ideas that had slipped unintentionally through the sands of time.
The writer would write. Truth and lies, falsehoods and fantasies. She would contemplate the reality of writing, and present it to the world in it’s raw form. She vowed not to flatlay the truth of her work.
Who knows what would become of it?
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Writer, tweeter and illustrator. Starving artist and thrifting expert. Pen for hire and first-time author at work.
