Okay, I know I love to write, if I didn’t then I wouldn’t spend so much of my time doing this let alone try to get a published book out there, because believe me I’ve read the horror stories and know too well you don’t become a writer for the fame. That doesn’t mean that I’m motivated all the time or that I don’t try to trick myself into believing that I’m writing when I’m not. Listening to writing podcasts, following people on twitter, doing research or reading my genre are all important but I’m not actually writing when I do those things. And sometimes they are just easier to do. Take last night, I’d been feeling grumpy all day, had loads of work to do and was tired by the time I actually got a chance to sit down and write at half nine in the evening. Half of me just wanted to give up for the night, not bother, but that small nagging voice in my head kept saying treat it like a job. In the end I managed 700 words before bed, which was not a lot, but it was better than none which at 9.25 I was tempted to have as my word count.  So how do I, and how did I motivate myself to do write last night.

First I keep in my mind, that I changed my career to do this. Yes, I have a day job, I tutor, but I don’t teach anymore. There was no way that I could teach and write at the same time, not if I wanted to sleep. So I keep reminding myself that this is my career and my day job is just that a job, it brings money in, and if I want to cut back on those hours I need to sell something. Not brain surgery to work that out but it’s still easier said than done. Next, I set myself a word target, I try to write a chapter a week, which means aiming to write a 1000 words a day Monday to Friday and gives myself the weekend to plot of the next in detail and work out any changes to the central plot etc. The only way I can keep myself accountable to this is by keeping a spreadsheet that tracks my progress. I also keep my ipad on me, so I can jot down notes of chapters, while I’m working etc, and add to them later that night. That can really help when I’m having a slow moving night because even just transfer those notes and putting them into sentences can sometimes spark ideas. Finally and this is the point you are going to groan at because its so obvious but it’s also true, I sit myself down and force myself to write, often promising myself rewards if I do x number of words.

So what rewards do I promise myself. I like promising myself games as a reward – but I have learnt many times that promising myself a game on football manager is not a good reward. That game is just too addictive for me and one game will soon turn into many more, and before I know it two or three hours are gone. So I’ve had to shelf football manager just for when I listen to Sheffield Wednesday play and then at least I can win a few games even if the actual team is playing badly. Instead I’m going with playing mah-jong titans, a game where you have to find matching pairs, only some of the pairs are blocked, so you have to work out the order to clear them in. It’s also addictive but doesn’t take as long to play one game and somehow I can give this one up much easier after a few games. Another thing I reward myself with is TV, I’ve tried to pretty much given up watching TV as it eats so much of your time, but there’s still shows I want to watch. Luckily with the internet and box sets etc I can reward myself with one episode of something after x amount of words without being sucked into watching a whole evening of shows.

So here’s what I do in short (and if this helps anyone I’m happy it did, if not it just reminds me) –

1. Write everyday
2. Set a target – if you don’t meet this it needs to be made up.
3. Keep something to jot down notes on because even just transfer can bring up some ideas as you turn them into sentences.
4. Reward yourself but don’t pick something too addictive that will waste hours of your time.

I guess the only other thing to say, is after I get back from York this weekend, there’s going to be a few changes to this blog. Actually it’s not really changes more additions. I want to put something up here each week, but if I just focus on my writing, research and letters to agents etc, there’s not always a lot to put without it getting boring and repetitive. So as well as the stuff I have been writing, I’m also going to do some book reviewing – chapter by chapter stuff so its more detailed but does not eat up too much time into my writing schedule. After all don’t they say a good writer is a good reader? I’m going to start next week with the first chapter of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I have picked this book for a number of reasons. First because I love it, so motivation should not be a problem. Second because it is layered with so many details that you only pick up on a second/third/fourth reading. And third because it’s one of the books that I have brought with my to Geneva and it is not stuck away in a box somewhere in my parents home in Sheffield.

Talk to you soon and take care.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 at 9:46 am and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.