Motivation - 5

Still with me? Still motivated to try and figure out how to harness the motivation you need to write—and keep writing?

For the last few weeks I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of why it is we writers seem to—at times—lack the motivation to write and, instead, fritter away our time doing any number of time-consuming things. Last week I concluded that perhaps it was fear of failure that causes some of us to retreat from writing. And that’s logical—why pursue something that has little chance of coming to fruition? Why play the game if there’s no way to win?

Hmmm…. what does that word mean? What is it to ‘win’ when it comes to writing? What if it’s NOT the outcome, but is, instead, the process?

Think about that. What if it isn’t the ‘sale’ of your writing at all—what if it’s the act? What if the motivation to write should be focused on the ideas you want to get on paper, not whether those ideas will succeed in the marketplace.

The marketplace. I think the key to staying motivated is to NOT think about the marketplace.

Instead, think back. When did you first want to write? Do you remember when you wrote your first poem or story as a kid? Why did you choose to do that instead of playing baseball outside with your friends? You certainly didn’t have any thought to sell your story, did you? I think that’s true of most creative endeavors—selling them isn’t the real motivation.

Think about the great artists. Did they begin painting or sculpting because they needed a job? Sure, they might have hoped to make money with their creations, but that’s not why they began creating. They began creating because there was something inside them that needed expressing. They began creating because they were different. They weren’t satisfied living the life everyone else did—waking, working, eating, interacting, sleeping—they were driven to do something more. There was something inside of them that needed saying… somehow…

If you can get past the fear of failure that we talked about last week, you’ll become free to write unencumbered by thinking about what the outcome of your work will be. And then you can focus on the writing.

That’s all it takes, really. To focus on the writing. I almost said ‘the joy of writing,’ but let’s face it, it’s not always joyful. Raymond Chandler used to have to drink excessively to loosen himself up to write—not, dare I say, a recommendation for a writing routine.

But if you can just focus on the work you want to do, the stories you want to tell… if you can find it in yourself to enjoy the actual writing, then you won’t want to procrastinate or find reasons not to write. You’ll want to write—you’ll be able to channel your energy into what really matters to you, and that’s taking the chance of putting words on paper, people in interesting situations—and emotions driving it all—to have the true joy of creating something that’s never been created before—your view of the world and the people in it.

Copyright © Diane Lake

08May22

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com