Sometimes we want to write, but we just can’t summon the motivation.
But thankfully, there’s a ton of different tricks that you can use to get your fingers flying across the keyboard.
During the last stream, the viewers voted that we go over “How to Get Motivation to Write.'”
You can see our full discussion here,
or scroll down for the highlights.
How to Get Motivation to Write
- The first and most important thing to keep in mind is that motivation is not some sort of magical energy.
- Motivation is just like anything else you do — exercise, eating right, basketball, chess, your job — the more you do it, the easier it gets.
- The first few times will be unbearably difficult, but humans are very adaptable. It will never be easy, but it will get easier.
There are three different types of writing motivation, depending on what stage you’re at:
#1. Motivation to Get a Story Idea
- When you want to write something, but don’t know what.
- You might be waiting for the perfect idea, “The One” or Mr/Miss Right, but it’s important to keep in mind that sometimes we don’t fall in love with our story until we’ve gotten to know it better (just like people)
- Things to try:
- (1) A stream of consciousness writing warmup
- (2) A “what if?” (What if all water turned to blood? What if dads didn’t exist?)
- (3) Draw on your own life experience and put a twist on it (A retail worker on Mars.)
#2. Motivation to Get Started Writing
- When you have an idea, but you just can’t sit down to write it.
- You might not know where to start your story and are overwhelmed by all the different possibilities, but it’s important to keep in mind that your beginning is going to change eventually anyway during editing.
- So just pick a spot to start and try it! If it doesn’t work, great! Now you know not to start there. Try a different place next.
- Things to try:
- (1) An outline can help ease stress of starting and build excitement.
- (2) Write an interview with your character, or an advertisement for your world.
- (3) Use something from your story and write something silly about it.
#3. Motivation to Keep/Finish Writing the Story
- When you want to keep writing/finish a story you’ve started, but you just can’t do it
- You might have writer’s block, or get stressed thinking about how much more there is to write, or just don’t like your story anymore. But it’s important to keep in mind that that’s all perfectly normal. Every writer goes through it.
- Consistency is key: just doing a little bit every day, even if it’s absolute trash, even if it’s just 100 words, will eventually get you to the finish line.
- Things to try:
- (1) Treats if you write, either small daily ones or big weekly ones.
- (2) Write your daily goal on a schedule and cross it off each day.
- (3) When you physically cannot write, tell yourself out loud: “I’m writing garbage, and that’s okay.”
Chat voted on a “what if” idea and we wrote a quick outline, and then a beginning to the story, using the methods above. They voted we write this idea: What if everyone’s feelings for you were reversed?
Here’s the outline we came up with:
BEGINNING: Main character is about to get married with fiance, working a job he doesn’t like, hates his boss and coworker Steve.
MIDDLE: The feelings switch happens one day. At first the main character thinks it’s a joke, then thinks he’s going crazy, then finally accepts it. Along the way, the main character becomes friends with the people he didn’t like before (his boss and Steve) because they love him now, and he discovers they’re decent people with struggles of their own. Despite his fiance hating him now, he doesn’t want to lose her, but over the course of the story now that she hates him, he discovers some unpleasant truths about her.
END: The feelings switch back to normal. The main character keeps his new friends, and his relationship with his fiance… (don’t know what happens yet!)
As you can see, the outline is incomplete, and that’s fine. You don’t need to have a full outline for your story to get started; you just need enough to get started.
Here’s the beginning of the story that we wrote, which we only accomplished after telling ourselves: “I’m writing garbage and that’s okay.”
Steve sucks. I hate the way I can smell his decaf coffee strengthening in the air as he walks over to my cubicle. I hate the chewing sounds and smacking lips from his Starbucks cranberry scone that he gets every morning. And worst of all, I hate when he stops and leans his elbow on the side of my desk, the way his tie is so perfectly ironed and hangs down like an arrow pointed straight to Hell. Just thinking about him actually taking the time to iron press it before work, whistling to himself while probably watching Jeopardy and chuckling as he gets all the answers right, makes me want to press a hot iron against his face too.
Is it the best opening ever? No. But it’s a perfectly fine first draft, and something on the page is infinitely better than nothing.
After that, chat voted that we write a prompt based on this randomly-chosen YouTube video:
Here’s what we came up with:
Oliver the otter sat in front of his birthday cake made of his favorite foods: snails, crayfish, and the smelly head of a catfish. He was surrounded by his otter friends, Olivia, Owen, Otto, and Oakley. And yet, all he could do was sigh through his little otter whiskers.
Olivia piped up and put a paw on Oliver’s back. “What’s wrong? You look otterly forlorn.”
“It’s nothing,” Oliver grumbled. “Really, it’s otterly insignificant.”
“Oh come on,” Owen said. “You’re our best friend, so it’s odder if you don’t tell us.”
Oliver rocked his head back and forth, then finally spoke. “It’s just that, well, you know. I’m getting old. I’m five years old now, over the hill. And what have I done with my life? Caught some fish… reading soggy Harry P-otter books that float down the river… and that’s about it.”
“Hey!” Otto said. “That’s not true. Remember that time a squirrel fell in the river and we ate it. That was awesome!”
“And!” Oakley added. “When it get h-otter out, we can sunbathe on some rocks and crack open some clams, just like we always do.”
“Yeah, you have plenty to look forward to,” Olivia said. “My Canadian cousin Oscar is coming to visit from Otterwa next month. You otter join us. He’s bringing some real maple snailup to share. It’ll be a ton of fun!”
Oliver’s eyes glistened as he looked over his friends. “You guys… I should’ve known, the number of my age doesn’t matter, whether it’s otter even, what matters is the number of my otterly amazing friends.”
“Exactly,” Owen said, nodding his adorable little otter head. “Now, come on. Let’s finish this cake and then go gang up on a turtle and suck it out its shell.”
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you. We stream on Twitch every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 6:30pm-10:30pm (U.S. Eastern Standard Time).
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Scott Wilson is the author of the novel Metl: The ANGEL Weapon,
forthcoming March 2019.
Featured image: Pakutaso