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Margaret
is talking about being motivated to write
How many times have you heard
someone say, I’d love to write but I don’t have the time? If you really want to
write then you can find time, even if it’s only for a few minutes each day. It’s
surprising how much you can write in such a short space of time, especially if
you already have ideas bubbling away in the back of your mind.
So why don’t you give it a go?
Put the children to bed (if you
have them), find yourself a nice quiet spot – and WRITE. Pen to paper. Fingers
to computer. It doesn’t matter which. The main thing is to get your ideas down.
Let them flow. Don’t worry about grammar or punctuation; write, write, write.
You’ll be amazed how much you can write in a few minutes.
Sometimes ideas keep nagging away
in the back of your head, not happy until you set them down on paper where they
can relax and, with a bit of luck, multiply as you keep thinking about them. Or
you might be lucky and able to formulate these ideas into a whole story before
you even put pen to paper. This has never happened to me but I’ve heard of
other people doing it. If you’re one of these lucky ones I can imagine you now
writing frantically to get your first draft down. This first draft is the
important part. After that comes the polishing. The fun part. You’ve already
got your story, now you can add or delete, change what isn’t working, polish
what is. And does it matter how long it takes? No! The important thing is
motivation.
Go on, make yourself write each
day. You’ll enjoy it, I promise, and when you have a whole story you can feel
extremely proud of yourself.
Sound advice, Margaret. Butt in chair is the only way books get written.
ReplyDeleteAgree that you will find the time if you really want to write. Another angle to this is making yourself write even when you think you're not 'in the mood' for writing. You may not be wildly happy about what you have written, but it's been truthfully said that you can't edit a blank sheet of paper - or a blank screen!
ReplyDeleteTrue, Paula. I make a habit of writing every weekday even if I'm not in the mood. I find it actually gets me in the mood. Once I've written a few sentences the work begins to flow. I'm hoping this blog will encourage people to write who think about it but have never got around to it.
DeleteTotally agree, although I'm not always writing creativly each day, sometimes I'm blogging, or commenting on blogs, or writing book reviews.
ReplyDeleteI've just had a long period of time on necessary prescription drugs, and feel like I've been living in a fog, but I still managed to keep the writing going, even if it was only short pieces.
Good post, thank you for sharing.
I'm sorry to hear you've not been well, Maria, but its good you've kept writing. Writing takes us into a different world where we can escape our everyday lives. It doesn't matter whether they're happy or humdrum, creativity is good for us in lots of different ways.
ReplyDeleteI tend to fall into periods of dis-motivation (Is that a word?!) Sometimes I'm just not in the mood to write.
ReplyDeleteEstablishing a same-time-of-day routine worked wonders for me when I wrote my last novella. I really need to get back to that. First, I need to narrow down what idea to start working on.
I'm sure you'll soon decide which idea to work on, Debra, and then you'll be raring to go. I need to write each day to keep up the impetus.
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