What if you have no motivation to write?
I’ve seen people bring this up as a struggle a few times: “I’m just not motivated to write.” And I’ve been there too. You found this thing you love doing, so why aren’t you doing it all the time?
I’ve got two thoughts on this:
- I have no motivation to work out. I mean, I hate working out. But I’m also 40+ and my metabolism isn’t doing the heavy lifting it used to do, so I need to work out. So here’s what I did: I started small and I created a daily habit. Alexa has a “7-minute workout” program that I started doing just 3 days a week. Now, I know that sounds like it would make zero difference, and maybe I’m not gonna lose any weight from that, but what I am doing is establishing a habit. You start small and build up. And here’s what I’ve found: the more I do it, the more I enjoy it, the more motivated I am to do it. I even have an app that tracks my habits so I can go back and see my progress and that also gives me more motivation. So set yourself a small goal, keep track of it, and see if that doesn’t increase your motivation over time.
- If you start dating someone and you find yourself with no motivation to hang out with them, it’s probably time to start dating someone else. For a writer, that might mean that the story you are working on is not the story you need to be writing right now. You should be so thrilled to sit down and knock out that story every time you sit down to write. It should be a love affair. If you’re not “feeling it” it’s okay to break up with that story and move on to one you are passionate about.
I will say that these two things (habits and passion) get easier the more you do it. These writing habits start to become less of a chore as you go and just like dating, you start to recognize what you like or don’t like in a story the more you “write around.”
So it’s gonna be hard at first. It’s gonna be a lot of false starts and a lot of giving up and coming back. But that’s okay. It’s all part of the process as you discover yourself as a writer.
What about you guys? Got any tips for increasing your motivation to write?
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