Wednesday, September 14, 2011

On Being Motivated...Or Not!


Thanks to Anne Taintor
Two posts back I briefly touched on what holds us back from writing. I have to admit that good ol' fashioned laziness often holds me hostage although I refer to it as "just not feeling the writing today." I haven't been "feeling it" for several weeks now, but I haven't been very hard on myself since I have so many crazy things going on in my life. I've spent the last two weeks unpacking boxes and have finally gotten to the point where most everything is accounted for (except my passport...and the TV remote) and placed where it should be. Art work is slowly making its way onto the wall and I've already begun an exhaustive list of improvements I want to make if/when our purchase of the place goes through.

I'm still not quite at home, largely due to the fact that I have no sofa. A living room is not a living room without a sofa! That particular piece of furniture was my favorite place to write so I can only guess that my writing is being held up by its absence. OK, so that might be a far reaching excuse! Fortunately, I have felt the stirrings of Miss Muse the last few days--which is a good thing. I've been rethinking some of the early chapters of Rebellion and have determined that I am doing some of my characters an injustice. I certainly need to rectify that!

Anyhoo, motivation has been in short supply. So I was quite happy when a former colleague of mine sent me the link to a blog by Ollin Morales, an author who is writing his first book. He details 10 Tricks to Motivate Yourself to Write and I was pleased to see that his tenth tip was simply "Write." Write in your journal, post a blog, or my perennial favorite, write in your head. I haven't been actively writing in my head lately as my brain has been cluttered with so much lately. But just reading this post reminded me that sometimes you have to get back to basics and since my writing career began at age 10 with the elaborate stories in my head, I figured that's a good place to get back until I can sit down in front of a laptop again.

So what are your tips and tricks to keep writing?
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2 comments:

  1. Giles HashSeptember 14, 2011 at 1:47 PM

    Moving is stressful. When my wife and I got our new place, I took almost an entire month off from everything writing related stuff.

    I know exactly how you feel with the living-room stuff, too. And the motivation :). If you have reasons skip the writing for a while, then it's good that you're not beating yourself up.

    Good luck when you get back into it. Keep us posted. :D

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  2. RowennaSeptember 15, 2011 at 6:42 AM

    Sometimes I think you just have to buckle down and do it. I occasionally do need to give myself a break--I know when I feel that way--but I also know when I'm just being lazy or avoiding it out of some kind of fear. Often getting out of the house and going somewhere else helps me--to a coffeeshop or library. I've gone for the purpose of writing, and so I write!

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