How To Stay Motivated and Write More

Sitting alone in a room and writing for hours can sometimes feel hard, because being a writer is so different to how others earn a living.

Writers don't have to get up at a certain time and don't even have to leave the house to travel to work. We just sit and write, which is why it sometimes feels hard, and why motivation can sometimes feel like it's lacking.

So, what is motivation, and how can you have more of it?

The word 'motivate' has the word 'motive' built right into it, which is why you need a good reason to do what you're doing.

I find that sometimes I lack motivation to write because I have no set deadline to finish what I'm working on, and no one will know if I've done my writing or not. That's why I always schedule my time so that I can sit down at a designated time and start writing.

Naturally, it's not as easy as it sounds, and many different things get in my way and try and stop me.

Just the other day, I promised myself that I'd sit down and write at 9 a.m. But I got distracted reading an article, and when I looked up, it was way past 9 o’clock, and I was angry at myself for getting distracted. But clearly, having a writing schedule doesn't always work.

It can be that the lack of motivation comes from a goal not being important enough to stick to. 

I found that the best way to stay motivated is to have a clear goal of what I want to achieve, and then I map out a plan of how I'm going to achieve it. Then all I need to do is stick to my plan. But the goal has to be important, otherwise, why would I care? These are the 3 things I need to stay motivated:

- A goal that's worth reaching 

- An action plan to get me there 

- A deadline

I think that the most important of these is a deadline. And this doesn't just apply to writing. 

As an example, when we were recently refurbishing the house we have now moved into, we knew what we wanted to do, but we didn't give ourselves a deadline. After a few weeks, we were sitting discussing what we still had to do and how long we thought it would take. We wanted to get out of the house we were renting as soon as we could because it was costing us nearly $600 a week to live there.

So we set a deadline for the end of the month, ev
en though the timing was a bit tight. 

Then we gave notice on our rental property, organised a removal company, organised the flooring and carpets to be installed 2 days before that, then we told the tradies who were putting in a new bathroom and kitchen that they had to be done before the new flooring went in. Not only did this deadline make us work faster (and longer hours at 12 hours a day), but it also mustered the tradies who were mostly not even turning up every day. Without a deadline, it might have dragged on for weeks.

And it's the same with my writing. If I have a deadline to meet, I get the work done no matter what. And I also need a goal and a plan to get there.

Once I know what I have to do, I have to make sure I stick to it the best I can. Every time I have a plan of what I want to do, life has an ugly habit of throwing as many obstacles in my way as it can, which often makes me want to quit.

But then I think to myself that the time is going to pass anyway. The only question is, how am I going to use it?

With the right motivation, I know I can achieve anything.

Why are Writers not like Other People?

One of the baffling things that I find about being a writer is that no one respects what I do. And it gets worse than that. Sometimes I don't seem to respect what I do either.

Let me explain what I mean by both these things.

People don't respect what I do for a living at all, which is probably because they don't understand what I do on a day-to-day basis. Non-writers don't seem to understand how writers work, which is probably because we sit alone for hours and don't talk to anyone.

If I went to an office every day and spent most of the day writing and typing, they'd understand. But because I sit alone at home and do that instead, it seems incomprehensible to most people.

Writers are never seen as noble as the man who comes to fix your oven, or a person who works on a construction site, or even the people who work in the cabins on a construction site.

Nope. If we don't physically go out to work every day, no one seems to respect what we do.

I find it strange because these same people will read a great book and admire the author, yet if they saw the author writing at home, they'd say it doesn't look like real work.

So how do you get respect from those you know for what you do?

You don't. It's impossible to convince others that you’re a hard worker and that what you do has merit if you're a writer working from home. Those you know you won't respect or understand what you do.

But they don't have to, so don't share.

It doesn't matter what anyone thinks about you being a writer. I’ve been earning all my income from my writing for over 20 years, and my friends and family still don't want to talk about it with me. Even if I bring it up, they change the subject.

My latest novel, Jackolantern, was published four weeks ago, in time for Halloween. It's selling steadily, and I even pre-sold quite a few copies before the publishing date because people were eager to read it. But my friends and family don't even know I wrote it, let alone that it's published and plenty of people are buying it ready for Halloween.

And they'll probably never know. So let them not know.

I enjoy what I do,

And that's really all that matters.

Mission Critical For Life

Start Living Life On Your Terms By Pursuing Your True Life Mission

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCFL.html

Writing Freely and Hypnotically: Put Your Readers in a Writing 'Trance'

One of my favourite books on writing is Dr Joe Vitale’s "Hypnotic Writing." It's good because it's full of so much useful informa­tion. It's also good because it's written "hypnotically", so once I start reading, I can't stop.

And that is exactly what hypnotic writing is. It's written in such a way that the reader can't stop reading, which is exactly what we want from our writing, isn't it? We want our readers to be drawn quickly and deeply into what we have to say. 

And hypnotic writing is actually easy to do.

In the book, the author says that we have two Inner Writers, so inside all of us we have two inner selves.

Self One is the critic.

Self two is the master writer. 

Self one is a critic who picks on everything we write, so this is the one to ignore (easier said than done).

Self Two is a master writer. The author says, “When you allow the Master Writer to write freely and not be impeded by Writer One, the critic, you can do your most extraordinary writing. This is usually called 'free writing' and it's fun.

3 Steps to Free Writing

Step One. Set a goal of not only what you want to write, but also what you want

to achieve from it:

A sale? 

A Sign up? 

A drama? 

A comedy?

Step Two. Start writing and stay in the moment. Ignore Self One, the critic, and don't let him into your head.

Working this way is what Stephen King calls" the writer's trance." This trance is only possible if you can write without interruption from your inner critic.

Step Three. Trust what you're writing, whether you think it's good or bad. Just allow Self Two, the master writer, to come through completely, and you're writing will be great. If it’s not, it's because you allowed Self One to guide you.

Self Two, the master writer, will always come through if you give him complete freedom to do so.

Just plan what you want to write, then release Self Two. Trust him no matter what, and he will come through for you. 

I believe this 100% because my best writing is when I'm free writing.

" There is no great writing, only great rewriting."

    ~ EB white.

Write first and edit later. 

Hypnotic writing helps in the editing stage when you make improvements and make it all perfect so that your writing really works for you. You may even need to tidy up only a few sentences.

If you haven't tried it before, do it right now. Plan and then free write for just ten minutes. Release your creative master writer and silence your inner critic.

Just keep writing and see how hypnotic your writing really can be.

Hypnotic Writing: How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words
https://amzn.to/3ID9dO3

Doing The Math of Daily Word Counts

I was reading an online discussion recently between a group of so-called writers about how difficult it is to find time to write.

I called them 'so-called' writers because they all blamed a lack of time every day for their lack of writing. Hence, the term 'so-called.'

Not having enough time to write is a common grievance for many writers who want to write more, but they say there aren't enough hours in a day.

I say that's nonsense. Twenty-four hours a day is more than enough time to write.

Back when National Novel Writing Month was a thing, most people found it difficult to write a 50,000-word novel in a month.

I tried it two years in a row (a long time ago) and it's how I wrote my first novel, Playing For Real, which is still selling today.

Being my first novel, it was a bit of a shock to write so many words in such a short time, but my novel worked out to over 70,000 words. To be able to finish the first draft in a month, I had a detailed outline ready so that all I had to do was write, write, write

I also broke down the math of how many words I needed to write every day, and the following is the math of the daily word count to write a novel in a month.

It's well-known that many writers only write for 2 hours a day. So I figured on aiming for that.

Most writers average writing 1,000 words an hour, so 2 hours of writing is 2,000 words a day. For me, that was 10 A4 pages of writing.

- 2,000 words a day for 30 days is 60,000 words

- 2,000 words a day for 20 days ( 5 days a week for 4 weeks = weekends off) is 40,000 words

So I figured that if I wrote my novel in 2 hours a day for 20 days, it wouldn't add up to 50,000 words. But I'd probably write faster as I went along, so even if I didn't write on the weekends (I had a job and family obligations back then), I could still make the 50,000-word goal.

And I managed to write 20,000 words more than the expected 50,000. 

Now I'm not saying that everyone can write 50,000 words every month, but everyone can try. And as we know from experience, whatever we do regularly and consistently becomes faster and easier. 

And it's the same with writing. Working just 2 hours a day means you could start producing between 50k and 100k words a month. You may not be able to write that much every month, but imagine how great it will feel during the months that you do.

The math says it's possible, so all you (and I) need to do is make it happen.

The 12 Month Writing Challenge
Write and Publish 12 Books in a Year
https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/12MTH.html