Stay Motivated: 2 Simple Ideas to Keep You Writing

Surely you've come across a great idea at least once in your life. An idea so powerful, so picturesque, that you feel that this idea will catapult you into writing success.

Just as sure, that idea faded as time went by. I should know, it happened to me many times already, over and over. So how do you seize that idea and keep it fresh? How do you keep that pen moving or that typewriter (what, we're not in the 90's?) typewriting?



Motivation- a word so simple yet very complicated to apply. What keeps a runner running? What keeps a painter painting?

Dante Alighieri's motivation for starting and completing The Divine Comedy was his hatred for the sneaky Pope Boniface VIII. Hemingway's motivation was looking at a mirror and seeing a badass writer.

So for us starting writers, how should we do it? How could we motivate ourselves to keep it going, so to speak?

1. Love Your Characters

Oh sure, when you have written thousands of words about your character, you're going to loathe them, you're going to want to bring them to their knees and make them go through hell. But before you get there, you have to love them first.

As I mentioned before, your character must have a goal. But apart from that, a character must also have a body. You have to make them real and believable. You have to believe them yourself,you have to be excited for them and root for them and want them to succeed.

Because you see, this is what's going to keep you writing: to see what happens next. It's like digging because you want to see just how deep the ant's underground lair goes. It's going to sting a lot, but you get to satisfy your curiousity.

2. Have Milestones

In my stories, I love creating mini-goals for my story. For example, if I want a big explosion at the end of the third chapter, I'll work towards it from the first chapter. If I want to make the reader cry by the end of the tenth chapter, you can bet that I'll work on that from the last milestone.

What I'm saying is try to write the story in small chunks. After a while, you'll be surprised that you're almost finished with the story.