Two Tips to Motivate You Into Finishing That Novel
You can do this. And these can help.
We all have it.
The lonesome Word doc abandoned in the farthest, darkest reaches of our hard drives, the first chapter or two of an unfinished novel languishing within.
You know there’s a story to be told. That’s what made you sit down and start typing in the first place. But we can only get so far on the initial excitement of a new idea; like any source of energy, our motivation will eventually run low and need to be replenished — or else we risk running out entirely.
In this post, I’ll share two tricks that helped me stay motivated to finish my first novel, and hopefully they can lend a helping hand to you along your own writing journey, whether it’s finishing that slumbering beast once and for all or starting something new.
1) Choose Someone to Write For
Despite how it sounds, this has nothing to do with the concept of your target audience. That is a necessary part of the process if your goal is to write commercially, but it’s not what I’m talking about in terms of keeping you motivated.
Instead, this suggestion is all about picking someone you really care about — a friend, a family member, a significant other, that one barista who’s always really nice but you feel guilty because you can never remember his name — and choosing to write the novel for that person.
For me, my first novel was inspired by my best friend, Nick, and his dog, Alma.
Therefore, I chose to write that first novel for Nick.
Who, as you can see above, clearly appreciates people taking an interest in him.
How It Helped Me
When I started losing momentum and motivation to write, my mind would inevitably wander to Nick, and how I had promised myself I would deliver this novel for him.
And that kicked me in gear to get back to writing.
Why I Think It Works
It keeps you accountable.
All of a sudden, finishing your novel isn’t entirely wrapped up in your own need for accomplishment and validation (don’t get me wrong, it’s still very much about those things), but it’s also about making sure that friend, that family member, that lover, that nameless barista, can have the experience of reading something you created for them.
Should You Tell Them?
For me, I chose not to tell Nick I had written a whole novel for him until I was finished.
In fact, a recent study showed that talking about a project too soon can give you a false sense of accomplishment. In my own personal experience, this is absolutely the case.
But again, this tip is about keeping you accountable. If you think having another person keep tabs on you will help you stay motivated, by all means, go for it.
To my brain, though, that path involves the other person basically shaming you into doing the work, and that just doesn’t seem like a great way to motivate you into doing something you’re supposed to enjoy (but you may also have a healthier relationship with shame than I do, so whatever works, really).
2) Create a Purpose Statement
Think of this as a kind of writerly worry stone: something you can utilize when you’re feeling anxious and overwhelmed.
My idea of the “purpose statement” is summing up, in as few words as possible, why this story matters to you.
It doesn’t have to make sense or mean anything to anyone else. As long as it reminds you why you set out to tell this story in the first place, it’s doing its job.
Here’s the purpose statement I came up with for my first novel:
A young girl’s love for her dog saves the world.
How It Helped Me
My mind often feels cluttered, ideas banging around my skull like a thousand of those crazy bouncing balls Will Smith set loose in Men in Black. Free writing helps clear it out, especially when I get into a tricky writing spot and the words simply won’t present themselves.
Free writing helps me let loose some of those frustrations.
Many times, though, my frustrations have a very specific target — me.
I’ll write very unkind things about myself, my abilities, my hubris in thinking my thoughts or ideas could hold value to anyone else. It doesn’t matter if I’m writing a novel or this very article; those same fears and anxieties will inevitably lash out and bring my productivity (and self-esteem) to its knees.
That’s where having a purpose statement helps.
When I was having a particularly difficult time on my novel, I would simply write down my purpose statement — “A young girl’s love for her dog saves the world” — and stare at it for as long as I needed to calm down, and then I got back to writing.
Why I Think It Works
It’s so easy to become adrift at sea in the middle of your novel, mired in a fog of anxiety and self-doubt, bogged down by all the words and characters and choices you have to make as a writer that you forget the big picture.
It’s nice, therefore, to have a simple set of words you can jot down and look at to help you remember why this story matters in the first place — a kind of lighthouse, guiding you home.
Before You Go…
These are not hard and fast rules.
Try them, ignore them, tweak them to better fit your own process.
I can’t say these tips will magically make you a writing machine, churning out thousands of words a day.
But what I can say is that I was chronically unable to finish any of my attempts at a novel until very recently, and these were two things I did this time around that I truly believed helped get me there.
I didn’t sit down and say, “Time to come up with my purpose statement!” I was simply having a bad day, so I wrote something to help refocus myself, and it helped.
Now, going into my second novel, I am actively thinking of these things, with the intention of using them to help keep me motivated when times get tough.
My hope is that if you give these ideas a shot, they could help you along your own writing journey to finally, at long last, finish that novel.
