We adore its presence and dread its absence.
We treat it like a mystical muse, or a slavish tool to master.
In either case, it remains ever elusive, ever undefinable and near-impossible to permanently hold:
Motivation.
Another writing motivation post? Alright, maybe you’re thinking “oh no not another one, we’re already drowning in those and I’m still staring at a blank page…”
But wait a minute. From the sheer amount of memes and posts on the internet revolving around the seemingly complete absence of writing motivation/inspiration/a will to live that many writers seem to get when they sit in front of that blank page, I decided it wouldn’t be amiss for me to add my contribution.
So here’s my ten cents, because I usually don’t struggle with writing motivation/flow so much. Maybe that’s my personality, but maybe the things that I do tend to do work?
I have no idea. Try these out and you tell me, I’m curious.
1. Writing Online vs. Offline
Contrary to what many advise, I don’t turn off the internet when I write. First of all, I love to put on a long-ass fantasy elf wizard space magic YouTube playlist, which keeps going for an hour or two without interruptions. And on Spotify, the playlists I’ve curated for each writing projects are my ride or die. On shuffle and with discovery mode on.
Another big reason I stay online is to quickly look up words, definitions or more interesting synonyms for blah words on Wordhippo (not Thesaurus. Thesaurus has got nothing on Wordhippo).
I might need a fact at the drop of a hat, like what the most popular weapon was in the 17th century or the average speed of a snail caught in peanut butter. Taking a look at my book’s Pinterest aesthetics & research boards can also provide the needed boost for a scene or sparks the perfect description that would otherwise have eluded me. Granted, if I’m in a flow zone I’ll just drop a ……. in the story to return to it later in a dedicated ”naming session”, but that’s all down to what you like to do.
2. Social Media
Ahh, the bane of the writer’s existence…Or perhaps only a tool to measure our level of self control.
I personally wish the efforts of marketing necessary to promote books would be on the level of Jane Austen’s day, but I do know it can be tempting to go check every single page and notification you get, so this ties in with the previous point.
Whilst I don’t turn the internet off, I at least have notifications on silent so my phone doesn’t even buzz. Turning off notifications on the different social media platforms altogether is the simplest trick in the book, and shouldn’t need to be repeated. Ever again.
Checking a message or two here and there inbetween writing does no harm, and sometimes it even helps by providing a “micro-distraction” and a break for your brain. But this is dependent on the individual, so if checking one notification is like eating one potato chip for you, please don’t open the bag. Throw the bag out of the window and get back to your writing, you.
3. Structure and Planning
This is a HUGE one for me. The only times I tend to feel “unmotivated”, are the times when I don’t have a clue what I’m supposed to be writing in that session, or nothing seems to be very clear in my head. This is not an issue of motivation, then, but one of structuring your work and planning ahead. I know there’s different styles of writing and some people just like to pants it, which is fine- I’m just saying that if you feel “stuck” there could be other reasons to it than you being a lazy piece of writer trash. In fact, don’t ever believe that to be the main reason.
For structure, a chapter-by-chapter outline helps so much. If I sit down and read the description of what’s approximately meant to be happening in that chapter, what it needs to accomplish and why it’s there in the first place, I’ll be much more motivated to start writing it than if I stare at a blank page or a half-assed description. (“They go to the shops. Something happens.”) Even if you’re a bona fide pantser, you’d probably like to have an approximate clue of what you’re meant to be putting down on the page in the next chapter.
Also: if it’s boring to write, it’s boring to read. Sometimes I’ve found myself in the middle of a chapter, feeling the “writing force” draining out of me like a lazy pug’s desire to go for a walk, and that’s when I stop myself and ask: “Why am I not enjoying writing this? Why am I bored?”
Then I think about it for a while and the answer is usually not hard to find. I ask myself
🔸Is what I’m writing even necessary?
🔸Does this scene need to be here/be this long/happen this way?
🔸Is it from the ideal character’s perspective? Are the character’s interactions boring?
🔸What would inject some energy into it and throw a twist in the works?
🔸How do I get back the tension, the zing, the emotion?
I believe many of my “meh” scenes have benefited from this question-answer process, and yours probably will, too. Our brain likes to answer the questions we ask it, whether in the negative or positive, so don’t overlook this power. And sometimes a scene might have a valid reason to exist, but you’ve just run out of juice and need to take some distance from it. There’s an art to figuring out first causes.
4. Getting Stuck
Done all of the above and still stuck on a scene or chapter? Sometimes things just do not flow no matter how much we’d want them to, and we need to accept that. But only sometimes – most of the time we can get back in the flow for at least a couple more pages. If I really get this stuck, I simply jump to something different.
I might read an interesting scene from somewhere way further down the book, or read back over previous chapters and do some light editing. I *always* have blanks to be filled and chapter contents to be fleshed out in the editing doco, so at the very least some form of writing-related activity will generally present itself.
Don’t feel like you need to hammer your way through that one scene that you’re stuck on: it’s much better to move on even if it takes another twenty chapters before you get back to it, for by then it will often have worked itself out much better in your subconscious than if you’d forced it and ended up with a piece of lame garbage. This kind of block has definitely happened to me more than once, but I simply let it be until it’s time comes. It has never not worked, at least so far.
Example: when writing my first book I simply could not for the life of me get chapter 11 on page. I don’t know why. Maybe I was confused, and not very clear on some aspect of the scene. I knew what happened after and before, and what needed to go on, but it just…didn’t come out of its corner. So I left it.
I simply wrote the next availabe scene, and the story rolled on splendidly. Guess when I came back to write chapter 11, when it really came to me?
After chapter 24. Yes, it took me THAT many chapters of story for the pieces of the past scene to finally click into place, and when they did, it worked perfectly without any additional painfulness from my part. (I will be writing a blog post on this technique in the future)
5. Work on Other Aspects of Writing
This includes -but is not limited to- things like research, proofreading and editing, planning and outlining, making up character questionnaires, creating visual moodboards…
Okay, this last one doesn’t really speed up your writing progress per se, but I like creating massive pinterest boards chock-full of visual inspiration and ideas for the world, characters and story I’m writing. I never put it under my official writing time, but it’s great “semi-useful fun” to be had on the side, and can provide some real inspiration if you’re running out of ideas or not sure what direction to go with something.
To make sure the best bits don’t simply drown under the next 945 pins, I often physically write down the ideas I definitely want to use into my writing notebook. From there I type them up into my editing/story documents, so they’re ready to go and fresh at hand when applicable to the story.
There you go, five simple ideas you can try out the next time you feel the creeping advance of writer’s block!
What are some ways you deal with feeling unmotivated or stuck with your work, and how do you stay on track?
Delightful writing,
x the Foxglove Scribe
The Foxglove Scribe 