Ah, yes. A writer’s worst enemy: motivation, or lack thereof. To be entirely honest with you, this isn’t a huge thing I personally struggle with (knock on wood), but I’ve had my moments, and I wanted to theorize on why I think this hasn’t been a big issue for me.
I think the first thing we need to look into is why motivation is a tricky thing. Like most things, motivation comes and goes, and if you only wrote when you were perfectly in the mood, you probably wouldn’t write very often. That’s not to say that I force myself to write all of the time, but I view my writing more as a job I really enjoy, rather than something I could do in my free time. As a result, I’m able to get quite a bit done, regardless of whether or not I feel like it.
I have discovered that, at least for me, having deadlines and a bunch of to-do lists helps me stay motivated to get things done. The deadlines give me a sense of urgency, and make it feel like there’s more of a point to what I’m working on. The to-do lists allow me to mark things off when I’m done with them, meaning it feels like I’m actually making progress on my projects. Both of those things work together to keep me “motivated”. I say motivated with quotations because I know I’m going to accomplish a task for my writing, even if I don’t entirely feel like it that day.
Although having a bunch of lists (thirteen at my last count) usually helps, there have definitely been times where I just can’t write. Most recently, this has been because of health issues, but honestly, life sometimes just gets in the way of creating. Whether that’s because of working full time, or going through a break up, there’s a lot of things standing in the way of me and my keyboard. But because I love writing so much--and can’t seem to stay away from it--I keep forcing myself to find time for it, and to set up systems that allow me to work on it. It’s not perfect, but I’m making it work--and that’s more important than waiting around for motivation.
That's all for now, folks!
-C
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