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My friend and I have been looking for an apartment for months, and it’s exhausting trying to find a place that suits our needs, is close to where we work when we both work on opposite ends of the city, and is within our budget. Not to mention our schedules make it nearly impossible for us to go look at places. Oh, don’t forget to throw in the fact that Toronto is super expensive. At this point, I’m ready to give up. I hate the idea of staying in my parents’ house forever (that’s a whole other story), but I don’t know how to stay motivated to keep looking, to keep trying.
What does this have to do with writing? you may ask. I thought that was obvious. When everything seems to be going wrong, how does one stay motivated to keep trying?
Years ago, I was at a point where I wanted to give up writing altogether. I believed I wasn’t good at the only thing I was good at. I compared myself to everyone else around. Then something changed. I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but I stopped comparing myself to other people. I realized I loved writing for the sake of writing, so I kept at it. And I’m still at it. I’ve written TWO WHOLE NOVELS. That might not seem like much, but I was the type of writer who switched from idea to idea at the faintest spark. I had written one novella before this, and a whole bunch of flash fiction pieces, but it was always hard to finish a full-length novel.
Until The Fallen Star. Until 2016. My new year’s resolution was to write every single day. Didn’t matter what, didn’t matter how many words. Every day I wrote. And I churned out a novel in 11 months. The second one came 7 months later. I cried both times. It felt so good to write “The End” on my first finished novel. Now I’m editing/rewriting The Fallen Star, and — this is hard to say — it’s tiring. I’m tired. I’m exhausted. I want this book done. I’ve rewritten it once from scratch, keeping the barest plot points, and now I’m rewriting it for a third time, keeping…almost none of the original plot points. It vaguely resembles that messy zero draft. I want this to be the one. I love it. But I’m tired.
A few months ago, I realized I forgot to write one day. The first day in over 3 years that I forgot to write. I was devastated. I was at the point of my current draft when I had written and rewritten the first few chapters too many times to count. Those chapters are always the worst. And I was so angry at myself for failing. Except I didn’t really fail, did I? I’m human. I forget. I work full-time hours, and I was taking a night class at the time. I was tired. But in the moment, when I realized I forgot to write one day, I was so upset I wanted to cry.
And it kept happening. In the three years since 2016, I always forced myself to write at least one word on my novel every day. One word, one sentence. No matter how tired I was, how much I didn’t want to write — always one word. And this year, I forgot to write for three days. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to write — I just forgot. That had never happened before. And I was upset. I was angry.
It took awhile for me to realize that it was okay. I didn’t have to write every day to be productive. I didn’t have to write every day to be a writer. It hurt, but I had to take that step back. And this month, I’ve written over 42,000 words. I’ve never written anything this fast or this good before.
So now I’m going to share some tips on staying motivated when everything seems to be going wrong.
Take Breaks
This is the most important tip! Breaks are so so so important for your sanity, your health, and your writing. You do not want to see that you’ve written yourself dry, because when that happens, it becomes a chore to write. It’s hard to write even one word. Your health (physical and mental) can deteriorate. So take a break. Whether that means stepping back for a few days or taking a walk through town, figure out what works best for you, and implement it into your routine.
My Apple Watch likes to tell me to stand up every hour. Sometimes I get so deep into my writing, I ~forget~ to stand up and move. I usually end up regretting it later, because then my back hurts and words stop making sense. Depending on how you’ve set up your writing routine, it’s a good idea to take a 5-10 minute break every hour to refresh. Drink some water. Pet your cat. Longer breaks (a week or more) usually work after you’ve finished a larger project. Give it space, and come back to it later with a fresh mind. This will give you the time to reset before you start making changes, and will keep you motivated to stay with it. Taking a few days to think about it will actually make you excited to come back to it and will help you see any areas that need special attention.
Use Bribes
This is one of my favourite ways to stay motivated. When I know I have a goal to hit (more on goals in a bit), I will bribe myself with something, usually food, in order to actually write. I know I can write about 1000 words in an hour, so 3000 words will earn me a mug cake (or I will have one to celebrate other milestones). I bribed myself with Osmow’s a few times last year. Some days (Wednesdays, for example), I will bribe myself with the newest episode of The 100 if I write 1000 words first (or work for a certain amount of hours if I don’t have a specific word goal).
But, you cry, you can just eat the thing or watch the thing!
Well…yeah. I could. But then I’ll have spent the day eating the thing or watching the thing and not writing. I don’t bribe myself every day to write. I bribe myself with things I enjoy (mug cakes and The 100) when I have goals to hit. If I don’t write 300 words a day, it’s not the end of the world. But if I write 3000 words, I get a mug cake and a smile on my face.
Set Goals
If you find you’re struggling to stay motivated, set goals and then bribe yourself with something you enjoy when you hit those goals. I recently started bullet journalling, and part of my spreads include weekly and monthly writing goals (then I bribe myself with mug cakes to hit those goals). Those were easier to hit than daily goals, where most days I can barely get 300 words on paper (thanks, full-time retail job). But on my days off, I can hit 4000 words no problem. If my goal is 5000 words a week, that’s one-and-a-bit days off. I had no monthly goal at the beginning of this month. I was just writing aimlessly (that’s the pantser in me), but when I realized I had written 10k in less than a week, I thought, “Hey, at this rate I can hit 60k by the end of the month.”
And reader, I did. I celebrated with a mug cake.
Set goals for yourself, but make them realistic. A year ago, 60k by the end of a month was impossible for me (for reference, I actually wrote 42k this month in order to hit the 60k mark. One more month of writing like this, and I could have a 100k novel by Canada Day). If 1000 words a day seems impossible with your schedule, then set a smaller goal, and celebrate the little victories. This will keep you motivated! Unrealistic goals will not, and you will wear yourself out trying to hit those goals.
Change Stories
This is closely related to taking a break, but instead of a physical break from writing, it’s a break from your current project. A change of pace is always a good idea. When you feel in a rut, chasing a plot bunny might be just the thing you need (but don’t go too far down the rabbit hole!). Change perspectives in your story or change stories altogether. Write something different. When I found myself struggling at the halfway point in my novel (since I didn’t know what was supposed to happen next), I decided to throw in some interludes from another character’s perspective. I gave her three to fill in the gaps at this point in the novel (and she will definitely get more in the second half). I missed writing from her perspective, and it gave me the motivation I needed to keep moving, if only because I wanted to bring her back into the story and I couldn’t do that if I didn’t, you know, write the story.
Seek Help
Whether it’s a critique partner, a beta reader, or a writing group, seeking help is another great way to stay motivated. Additionally, if you find yourself in a seemingly impossible-to-navigate rut and your mental health is suffering, seeking professional help like a therapist might be the way to go. You don’t have to talk about writing to your therapist, but they can help you understand larger issues that may be affecting your work. On the other hand, CPs, beat readers, and writing groups are great at helping you stay on track and accountable. Create a routine where you send off a chapter every week (or whatever works best for you), and hold yourself to that schedule. Take it a step further, and find a local group to meet up with every week or so. Writing groups are great for motivating you and encouraging you when things get rough, and they’re available to help you work out any issues you’re having in your novel (plot holes, inconsistent characterization, etc.). I look forward to submitting to my writing group, because I love seeing their comments, and I love giving them comments on their chapters. I’ve seen them grow so much this past year, and I want to yell about their stories from the top of the world. They’re doing great things.
Staying motivated is ultimately up to you. You wanted this career — you have to stick to it. If it’s not working out, then maybe writing is not the right career path for you. I want to be an author, so I am writing and I am fighting for this story, tiredness be damned. I’m not ready to give up yet.
Let me know how you like to stay motivated in the comments! I’m going to celebrate finishing this blog post with some candy 🍬
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