Writing Motivation

"If you really think about it, hitting the snooze button in the morning doesn't even make sense. It's like saying, 'I hate getting up in the morning, so I do it over, and over, and over again.'" 

~ Demetri Martin

Sometimes it's hard to get going when you feel unmotivated.

I feel like that some days, but just like author Stephen King so famously said, don't wait for the muse to show up before you sit and write because it won't show up for work until you do.

So, in other words, whatever it is you have to do, just make a start and the rest will be easy.

The problem though is that we all want to achieve the goal (no matter how big or small it is) but we don't want to put in the actual work to make it happen. And it doesn't matter if your goal is small like having a shower every morning or writing a letter, or huge like redecorating the whole house or writing a book, getting started, or knowing how and where to start can seem like a bit of a hurdle.

I recently bought the Hal Elrod book, "The Miracle Morning" and in it, he talks about this problem too.

He says, "It's been said that nobody actually likes waking up early, but everyone loves the feeling of having woken up early. Kind of like exercising -- many of us struggle to get ourselves to the gym, but all of us love the feeling of having gone to the gym. Waking up early, especially when done with purpose, always starts you off feeling empowered for your day."

And it's true. We all dislike doing things, but we want the feeling of having it done.

Motivational speaker Mike Litman used to say it's important to focus on the goal, not on the process of getting there.

And it’s the same with writing. It’s hard to actually sit down and concentrate on getting the writing done when you have low motivation and there are so many distractions on the computer like games, social media and emails, just to name a few.

But what I find is that as soon as I sit down and make an effort to at least start, by taking out my diary and my notebooks and looking at what I was working on the day before and what I have to do that day. And I find that once I begin to just ‘look’ at what I have to do and re-read what I’ve already written, then I seem to get my ‘writing head’ on and that makes it much easier to get to work.

And when I have a productive day, it doesn’t just give me a feeling of satisfaction (and help me to earn more money), but it also helps me to generate more ideas for other writing projects.

So when you feel unmotivated to write, just remember what Nike said.

Just Do It.


And if you want to read more about writing motivation, go on and take a look at my latest writing article over on my website, The Gene Schwartz Japanese Tea Ceremony Distraction-Free Writing.