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Motivation to write

Started by Dannyhood91, March 21, 2019, 12:53:12 PM

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Dannyhood91

How do you regain motivation? Recently lost a sizeable chunk of a novel I've been working on and it's absolutely wounded me. I want/need to keep writing it but I've had the wind completely taken out of my sails.

Jerzy Bondov

This might not sound very comforting right now, but every time I've lost work and had to rewrite, it's come out better than it did the first time. I think there's almost something to be said for finishing a novel, then immediately deleting it and starting again from scratch.

At university I was writing a sort of Interactive Fiction thing, a hypertext, where you could click pretty much any word in the text and it would take you off to a different part of the story. Sooner or later you'd stumble onto a track that would take you to the end, but the middle section could be totally different. I wrote it all from scratch in HTML and CSS. I'm sure there was a better way to do it, but I knew how to do it that way so that's what I did. It was a massive amount of work. All the actual writing was done in a big Word document, and I was copying it across into the site I'd made. I was working on it at uni and at home, so I had it all on a memory stick - a cheap as fuck, shit memory stick. I was working away, just a few days before I had to hand this thing in, and of course the memory stick packed up. I lost just about everything. I was devastated. I thought I wouldn't be able to hand anything in, thought I'd fail the course. I'd totally fucked it by being a cheapskate.

But I started again. I simplified the idea a bit, cut back on the number of words you could click on, which meant I spent more time writing than making HTML pages. The writing improved, and the overall experience improved, because more readers would make it to the end without getting trapped in a loop of links and giving up. Without the memory stick fuck up, I wouldn't have had that rethink, and it wouldn't have been as good. It also taught me to back up my work. I failed the course anyway as it was a degree in Medicine.

That last sentence was a joke, it was actually Creative Writing and I didn't fail.

I did okay.

It seems like a disaster now, but you'll be alright. The only solution (as with almost any writing problem) is to keep writing.

kittens

I Will Kill You If You Don't Write A Novel

bgmnts

Quote from: kittens on March 21, 2019, 08:05:22 PM
I Will Kill You If You Don't Write A Novel

It worked for James Caan.

Spoon of Ploff

Quote from: kittens on March 21, 2019, 08:05:22 PM
I Will Kill You If You Don't Write A Novel

Do some more radio kittens or I will poison your Campbell's soup when you're not looking.

marquis_de_sad

Quote from: Dannyhood91 on March 21, 2019, 12:53:12 PM
How do you regain motivation? Recently lost a sizeable chunk of a novel I've been working on and it's absolutely wounded me. I want/need to keep writing it but I've had the wind completely taken out of my sails.

Do you have a routine? The best thing to do is to build regular habits, then you'll write every day almost naturally. I think the best thing to do is to try to get an early night and wake up early, then put an hour in the morning. If that's too hard, just start with 15 minutes every day. Do that for a few weeks then gradually extend the time until you get to an hour.

Also think about installing some sort of productivity programme that can make it impossible for you to go online for a certain period of time.

rasta-spouse

If it's creative spirit you need try this: a 30 minute run, one strong cup of coffee and a joint. From a Rogan interview with a neuroscientist. Simulates creative peak state.

Also, as said above, disconnect from the internet. 

Gregory Torso

Quote from: Dannyhood91 on March 21, 2019, 12:53:12 PM
How do you regain motivation? Recently lost a sizeable chunk of a novel I've been working on and it's absolutely wounded me. I want/need to keep writing it but I've had the wind completely taken out of my sails.

I feel for you, I've had the same thing happen - months of writing gone in a laptop crash that I stupidly hadn't backed up - and all I can say is, as others have, start again and again, even scrap it and do something new. If it was meant to come out, it'll come out, it'll come back. You can't force motivation. I mean, this is just my persepctive, but I think writing should be enojyable, and if it feels like you're trying to work or fight something out of you, then maybe "let it be" (as the Bee Gees said).

It's tough too, if you're like me, and there's no publisher or deadline involved, and it's just something I'm trying to do for myself because I need it, or I want to create or produce something that might go somewhere else. Too many distractions. People. Work. I'd go the route of isolation - just you and your computer - or whatever helps (I like to have music on when I'm writing personally) - no phones, no internet, no alarms and no ugh surprises sorry.

Walk. I get great ideas walking around, record them on my phone, and it gets you into different environments, inspirations.

I don't know if drugs and alcohol work for you. It's a double edged karate chop. If I'm semi-pissed, little bit drunk, I'm at my best, I can sit and write and not bother with other things, but if I tip over into full blown blargh (which to be honest WILL happen) I end up with six or seven pages of drunkshit gibberish that I'll have to delete in the morning.

I hope you get back into it. Creating, finishing, something that you are happy with is one of the best feelings in the world.

On non-work days, I do two hours at the start of each morning at the local Sainsburys cafe, with a nice fllter coffee.  If working, I usually do an hour to two hours in the evening, but have Friday evening off.  It works for me, as I've now nearly finished my novel.

Bennett Brauer

Quote from: Phoenix Lazarus on March 24, 2019, 08:08:33 AM
On non-work days, I do two hours at the start of each morning at the local Sainsburys cafe, with a nice fllter coffee.  If working, I usually do an hour to two hours in the evening, but have Friday evening off.  It works for me, as I've now nearly finished my novel.

It would be helpful if you could tell us what you drink in the evening.

Quote from: Bennett Brauer on March 24, 2019, 10:27:03 AM
It would be helpful if you could tell us what you drink in the evening.

What I drink at any point in the day: coffee.

QDRPHNC

Quote from: rasta-spouse on March 23, 2019, 09:24:50 PM
If it's creative spirit you need try this: a 30 minute run, one strong cup of coffee and a joint. From a Rogan interview with a neuroscientist. Simulates creative peak state.

Never heard this before, but I agree with it.

popcorn

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on March 21, 2019, 03:19:01 PM
This might not sound very comforting right now, but every time I've lost work and had to rewrite, it's come out better than it did the first time. I think there's almost something to be said for finishing a novel, then immediately deleting it and starting again from scratch.

My old writing tutor in Canada did this with everything he ever wrote. Created a draft, got it where he was more or less happy with it, then put it in a drawer and rewrote it from memory. Then compared and contrasted. Said the new version produced better results in most cases.

Twit 2

The older I get, the more appalled I am of the writing/creative process. I agonise over every word. All the best things I've written have been a sort of abberation or accident. The person who wrote them might as well be an alien. I don't know how anyone creates anything casually or at least wilfully. More and more I'm convinced the only true writing is that which acknowledges the ridiculousness and futility of both the act of writing, and of everything in general.

There's absolutely no point in writing because who the fuck can be bothered reading it? Today's bog roll, tomorrow's recycled bog roll. I always hear about these cunts writing and writing, takes ages and literally nobody is reading the stuff. Getting stuff out your system? You get more from one solid shoulder rattling punch in someone's fuckin face than an entire novel's worth of pissant prose. Just bottle all your shit ideas up and punch someone in the middle of the fuckin face.

Twit 2

Next time I go to write a poem I'm going to poke someone in the eye with a pen lid instead.

QDRPHNC

Quote from: Twit 2 on March 29, 2019, 08:55:17 PM
The older I get, the more appalled I am of the writing/creative process. I agonise over every word. All the best things I've written have been a sort of abberation or accident. The person who wrote them might as well be an alien. I don't know how anyone creates anything casually or at least wilfully. More and more I'm convinced the only true writing is that which acknowledges the ridiculousness and futility of both the act of writing, and of everything in general.

I know what you mean. I'm of the "write an absolute ton of shite then whittle it down to the few good bits" school of writing. Or at least, that's how every first draft has to go. I find the more shite I write, the more connections and structure start to reveal themselves, unintentionally.

ZoyzaSorris

I have the opposite problem - I have written a sizable chunk of a novel that I wish I'd lost. Finding it a bit of a millstone. Can't go anywhere with it, can't get the motivation to start anything else until its done. My plan was to just get on and finish a first draft no matter how shit but Im finding it hard to motivate myself when it just doesnt make enough sense or tie up in a way Id like. Maybe you could tell me your idea and you can take mine?