NILTOY Articles
Get Motivated and Stay Motivated!
By Ish
1 February, 2006
Motivation is a difficult thing. You can't buy or rent it. Nobody can give it to you. It doesn't come down from the Heavens in a glorious burst of light, nor does it come up from the pits of Hell bathed in darkness and gore. You can't hold it, or see it; neither can you taste, smell or hear it. It is as ethereal as smoke, and just as difficult to grasp.
However, when you have it, you know it. It becomes a palpable thing, almost a living entity that feeds your efforts, driving you with its energy. You merge with it, and all your obstacles fall to nothingness.
And when you don't have it, you know that, as well. Rather than feeling energized, you feel lethargic. You avoid your task; procrastination takes its place, and drives you away from your goal. You suddenly find a multitude of other activities that require your immediate and undivided attention. Everything except your goal takes precedence over the one thing you need to do.
Different people are motivated in different ways. What motivates you? Is it a promise you make to yourself? A committment to others? A deadline set by yourself or someone else? Money? Power? Prestige? Contractual obligations?
Who sets your goals? How do you go about achieving those goals?
In the workaday world, someone else usually sets the deadlines: usually the boss or the customer. For a writer, that would translate to a publisher or editor. But here at NILTOY, the "deadlines" are somewhat more flexible, allowing for some wiggle room for the writer. I've seen some opinions that our kind of "motivation" doesn't work for certain people; that merely the satisfaction of completing a 100,000-word draft manuscript is not enough to motivate some writers. Yet, on further investigation, I have also found other writers who not only finished NaNoWriMo (50K words in only 30 days), but eventually published the work that grew out of that effort.
The difference between the two types is, to me, fairly easy to see. Some people are not motivated enough within themselves to make the journey of writing a novel, while others simply are that self-motivated. No external deadlines; nobody reminding them how much time is left to complete the requirement; maybe nobody else even knows they are writing a novel. Even without a contract to publish, they write. Perhaps it is only their personal Muse who gives them the kick in the seat to get them going. Whatever the reason, they write. It is like breathing; they write because they must.
So, how do the rest of us become like them? Desire is only a part of the process. I can "desire" to lose 50 pounds, but if I do nothing towards that end, the weight won't come off. The answer is this: we must work at it. We must treat it like a job. We must give ourselves ironclad goals. Unless we could produce a sick note, we must write. Every day. Without fail. If you have a job, you show up every day, and on time, right? Same with this. If you want to be a writer, you must write, every day. Keep to a schedule. Get in your word counts. Don't miss a day. Let it become a habit, part of your daily routine. Make it such an important part of your day that you work other stuff in around it. Soon enough, you'll come to miss it if something comes up and prevents you from writing. That's when you'll know.
Need more help? Come on over to the forum. Let someone else impose a deadline, or chide you for not getting in your counts. Get mad enough to write, just to shut us up. Then smile and brag about how well you're doing when you get back on track. And when someone else starts to whine about needing motivation, it will be your turn to get tough on them.
There are all sorts of motivational tools and sites you can use to help. But ultimately, you are the only one in control of your writing. Only you can decide whether you will write today or not.