What you’ll learn
- Motivation shouldn’t be something you rely on because it comes and goes.
- There are ways to encourage motivation when it won’t come naturally.
- You don’t actually need to be motivated to write.
If you prefer videos to text, I discuss this same topic on YouTube!
Welcome back to another blog! In this post, I talk about finding and maintaining motivation to write. I see this pop up on X a lot—authors asking for advice because they’re feeling unmotivated and uninspired—and they can’t seem to get themselves to write.
In the last year, I’ve written, edited, and completed two manuscripts. I wrapped up a third that I started working on a couple of years ago. This is a lot for me. I used to write roughly one book every two years. But I want to be traditionally published, and I know that to increase my odds of finding success, it’s in my best interest to write more than one book every two years.
Writing this much was challenging, but I found it quite doable and even enjoyable! Here’s what works for me personally.
I don’t wait to feel motivated before I write
Here’s where I think a lot of us instantly go wrong: If you want to seriously pursue writing books and you only write when you’re motivated, I don’t think you’re on the right track, personally. Motivation comes and goes. If you let it dictate when you write, your results are definitely going to reflect that.
This leaves us with a few options:
- You can try to “force” motivation.
- You can write even when you’re not motivated.
I do both! Let’s go through them.
How to “force” motivation
First, I understand that this might sound weird. Do you ever really want to force motivation?
I say yes, and I’ll give you an example: I “force” motivation by finding it elsewhere. I might listen to music, go on a walk, work outm or do some other kind of creative pursuit, and I find inspiration in one of those things that puts me in the mood to write.
I don’t wait for motivation to find me. I go out and find it.
How to write even when you’re not motivated
In my opinion, learning how to do anything, even when you can’t find the motivation, is crucial. This simply comes down to grit and work ethic. Even when I’m not motivated, I tell myself, “I have this thing I really care about, my writing, and I want to take care of it, so I’m going to sit down and spend some time with it.” I never regret it. Never.
When I use one or both of these approaches, it’s empowering for me, because I’m not at the mercy of motivation. This is especially helpful because the longer you do something (anything), it’s only natural that motivation, at least in the traditional sense, will fade.
Everything is exciting when it’s new and fresh. That’s when motivation comes easily. But when the novelty wears off and that thing becomes routine, then what? I’ve been writing books for 15 years. I should be super bored by now. But I’m not.
That brings me to my next point.
Motivation CAN come easily, as long as you have this one thing
I feel like there’s a big caveat here. Writing a book is so challenging and can take such a long time that if you don’t love it, should you even be doing it?
I recorded this video after a subscriber asked me, “How do you know you’re not wasting your time as an author?”
The answer, to me, is fairly simple. If you enjoy the process of writing a book, you’re not wasting your time. If you don’t enjoy it and you’re only writing a book because you think it’ll make you rich—which is a horrible reason to write a book, by the way—you could very likely be wasting your time.
So, even when you’re not motivated, I feel like you should still have a deep love of writing. I love writing. I love it so much that motivation isn’t even an issue. I crave writing. I want to do it every day (and I usually do).
I’m not saying it looks like that for everyone. If you need a break from writing, take a break. Breaks are good. My point is that motivation can fluctuate, but my love for writing doesn’t. It’s never been a question for me.
Long story short: If you love writing, the motivation is there, whether you can immediately see it or not.
Too much of a good thing
There is a caveat to all of this. I mentioned that sometimes, you may need a break.
If you’ve been writing nonstop for a month and you’re feeling burned out, take a break. In this case, it’s not a matter of motivation, grit, or work ethic. We all need breaks of some kind, at some point.
You could very well find that what you really needed was a chance to miss writing, and when you come back to it, you feel fresh, renewed, and motivated.
Staying motivated through rejection
There’s one more layer to this that I wanted to explore with you: staying motivated in the face of rejection. As I said, I want to write books for a living, which means that I want this to be my income.
Whether you self-publish or you have a literary agent like me (or you’re trying to get one), at so many points in this journey, you encounter rejection, whether that’s from readers, agents, editors, or publishers.
How do you stay motivated through that?
Again, for me, a lot of this comes back to loving writing. I remember years ago, when I would write a new book, I’d say, “If this isn’t the book that gets me an agent, I’m done!” I was never done. I never quit. I just love it too much.
That doesn’t mean that the rejection doesn’t hurt. It does.
But I’ve noticed a shift. In the past, all of the rejection got to me. It always stung really, really bad. These days, I’m much better at compartmentalizing the rejection. Sometimes, it doesn’t hurt me at all. Sometimes, I’ll be sad for a few minutes, and then I get back on the horse.
Every so often, it’ll really get to me, and that’s when I have to be mindful of taking a step back. I ask myself, “Why do I do this?”
Because I love it.
It’s okay to want to earn money as an author
This is a bit of a tangent, but still relevant. I’ve mentioned a couple of times having a love for writing and also having the goal of earning my income from my books.
I got into a healthy debate with an author friend not long ago, who said, “Well, if you love writing so much, the money shouldn’t matter.” I totally get that. Here’s what I think matters.
What I have to remind myself, again, is that I do this because I love it.
So, even if I never earn a penny from my writing, does that take away from the joy I felt during the writing process? No. That’s the difference. If I define my joy and my success by the outcome—by whether or not I end up writing for a living—I’m gambling. On the flip side, if “success” is, “I wrote this book and I loved doing it and I’m so proud of it,” I already won.
This is not easy for me. I had to learn this mindset, and I still have to actively remind myself of this at times. But that’s why I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to make money as an author.
Just write
If you can confidently say, “I love writing books,” you already have what you need. From there, motivation can be as simple as, “You know, I’m not totally feeling it but I do want to make some progress, so I’m going to set a 10-minute timer, and for 10 uninterrupted minutes, I’m just going to write, even if it’s garbage.”
Just write. That’s it. Just sit down and write. Quite waiting for motivation. Go out and get it, or just do the darn thing. And if your brain is tired, rest.
It might not always be easy, but it is simple.
Happy writing!