Lou Paduano | Urban Fantasy Novels | Sci-Fi Crime Series

Finding Motivation for the Long Haul

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Writing is a marathon not a sprint. Much as we would all like to think differently, the notion of building story takes a tremendous amount of time and energy. So how do you stay motivated for the long haul? What keeps you going during the long hours of drafting, plotting, editing, promoting, and everything in-between?

Finding your motivation

Writing, the act of creating something – anything, really, can put some wear and tear on your spirits over time. Especially when caught in the midst of a massive project with no end seemingly in sight. To keep pushing ahead, to make the task a joy instead of a chore, take a moment every day to look outside your world for that little nudge of motivation.

Here are a few ideas to stimulate your creativity and get you back to work:

Follow another author’s journey.

Take a step back and realize there are thousands of others going through what you are at this very second. Trouble with a plot point? They’ve been there. Need that perfect piece of dialogue or the whole scene falls apart? Yep, same here.

Read blogs. Follow newsletters. Listen to podcasts. The creative energy you can find just by taking a few minutes of your day and living outside your own head can be reinvigorating to such a degree I guarantee you’ll be sitting in front of the word processor well into the night with fresh ideas and a positive attitude.

Read a good book.

Something completely out of your wheelhouse. Write urban fantasy? Take a peek at a biography or a hard-boiled detective story. See what exists outside your perspective and how it stacks up with your own writing. What works? Why does it work? Learn new rules and then take them back to your own writing.

Come back to your project with a stronger sense of self by visiting other authors’ playgrounds.

Skip ahead and reward yourself early.

This is a fun one. Okay, they’re all fun but this one can really bring it home and keep those words flowing on the page.

What sort of rewards am I talking about here? Well, they can take many forms. Maybe something as simple as a dinner out with a loved one. Possibly that bottle of wine you’ve been saving for the end of the first draft.

For me, because writing a long term project can seem so nebulous over a course of many months or possibly years, is to reward yourself by making your book “real” to you.

  1. Hire a cover designer early. You know your story. Why not get that cover made sooner rather than later. I did this for the last couple Greystone novels and looked at it every day as motivation to finish the project. It was fantastic.
  2. Commission artwork relating to your story. Before I set to work on the DSA I open a logo design I had drawn up months ago. It’s a simple badge that I hope to use on every cover for the series but it reminds me that this project is real, that it can happen and will happen. All I have to do is put in the time.
  3. Share your story. Some might feel nervous about this one and I totally understand it. Your narrative is precious to you. To share it might ruin it. But it also might save it. Talking out the story with someone who respects your work and the craft behind it can help clarify your own confusion and even bring out new details to add into the draft. Getting other people excited about your work brings it back to you, driving you to finish that project.

Find your motivation and keep writing. Every story deserves to be told and I can’t wait to see what you have in you.

Thanks for reading.

Great Motivators

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No one cares.

I come back to this story every once in awhile and I wish I didn’t. It’s upsetting but more than that – and why it always circles back in my mind – is that it is the greatest motivator in my arsenal.

In college I majored in creative writing but I was also a member of the Honor’s Program. Not a bad thing to be part of, it opened doors to new ideas, different philosophies. But it took over my workload and writing became a memory. So I dropped the program.

During my exit interview the head of the department asked for my reasons. I gave them easily enough. Writing is my passion. If I’m not doing it why bother being here? His response?

No one cares.

When asked for what he meant he replied earnestly:

No one cares about your writing.

I couldn’t believe it. This man, teaching about the greatest philosophers in history telling me no one cares about the written word? I had no response, other than to check to make sure my ears weren’t bleeding.

Then he repeated it.

No one cares.

It certainly made dropping the program that much easier.

It gave me doubts, that statement. Doubts about my self-worth, about my goals in life, about everything. It still does to some degree, every time a family member asks when I’m going to get a real job, people that have never bothered to crack open one of my books because of a Big Bang marathon on the tube. (Hey, it happens.) How could I not feel that this man, this oh so wise professor, was correct?

To some degree he was and still is. Some people won’t care. I’m not here to win over the world. I’m here to write and I’m not alone in that regard.

The power of the written word is in everything we do, in everything we take in, from books to television to film to theater. Our culture is dependent on it. On our need to express ourselves and our individuality. To find our own voice in the wilderness. It is why social media has such a hold on us. It is why people love to create. To put everything they have into some tangible product, some all encompassing message.

It is why EVERYONE cares.

Where this lovely little tale comes into play – and coming back full circle to the beginning of this rant. This man hurt me that day so long ago. He belittled the power of what I could do because I wasn’t doing what he wanted me to do. It made me angry and it drove me to keep writing. Not just to remain stagnant but to keep improving, to keep learning about my craft and how to create better and more interesting stories.

Anger, while sometimes leading to the dark side of the force, can be a great motivator but flip it around and it becomes hope. Hope that this man genuinely is wrong about the world – how it is today and how it can be an even better one with my voice in it.

Use what you have, use what you’ve experienced, not always in the tale you want to spin but to drive you to tell the one that is bursting inside you. Let it motivate you. Let it drive you. Because we need more voices in the world. Bigger and brighter and unceasing, no matter what you’re told.

Thanks for reading.

Some great writing books to motivate you:

Steven Pressfield – Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is and What You Can Do About It (how appropriate)

Jeff Goins – You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One)

And the gold standard on the subject –

Stephen King – On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft

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