Motivated writing after skip day. We all delude ourselves that a day off will fix all our woes. So we skip a day of writing. Then the next day comes and we find that our self motivation is tough. The key to making the most of your vacation is the certainty that will outpace the low motivation we now feel. In fact the rewards are far better than almost everything else. Here are some of the best tools I have fund.
Habit and Ritual Magic
Keeping a regular writing time puts a routine factor into the writing process. We tend to get stuck in routines, so you can use that tendency to juice up your writing. When you view sitting down to write as just another part of your day, it provides a little motivational push to be there on time writing instead of skipping the day.
Mantras
Have a mantra and a goal for the good and the bad times. You will hit both. Having a mantra like “I got this” may sound offbeat to some, but it works. Even using a work like “peace” to promote a feeling when you sit down to work can have a great effect on your willingness to get the work done.
Praise Works
You can ward off the need for motivated writing after skip day if you remember to praise raise yourself when you show up. Don’t just kick your own ass when you don’t do well. If you show, you get credit. Showing is 90% of the game. Self-praise recognizes your work and we all love to be recognized. All too often we forget that we can do that all by ourselves. Praise yourself first, if you need a critique do it after the frustration of a bad day wears off.
See Work as a Game
Staying in the game means turning your head game on. Prizes come. Prizes go. The best thing about working like your writing is a game is that there is always another reward down the road. Treating your work like a game will allow you to provide yourself with all kinds of rewards for leveling up, improving skills, and scoring points.
Imagine you are Writing.
Strange as it may sound, the mind can be tricked. It can not tell imagination from reality. If you imagine yourself pounding the keys or scribbling along with the pen, the mind will believe it. The feeling you get from your imagination is a more powerful motivative boost than just telling your mind to get to work.
Write Now. Edit Later.
Trying for a perfect draft on the first go is a recipe for failure and frustration. Speed write your ideas. Get the rough done first, then you can go back for an edit and cleanup. Break away the perfection monster in your head. Getting started is one of the better ways get traction and some momentum. Once you have a draft feel free to let that edit monster to rampage like Godzilla.
Daily Minimums
Avoid taking on too much in one day on a project. Set your goals based on the size and scope. Set your daily minimums so low that you will have no excuse for avoiding the work. The interesting thing about minimums is that once you are rolling you will likely do more. Consider it a bonus. But, keep the starting jump small to motivate you and build both momentum and more confidence. Instant motivation, writing done, no skip day what so ever. What could be better?
Change the Process.
Self-sabotaging procrastination is what every writer faces. Even the big guys will do it. The first big chunk is to sit down. Do that first. Avoid thinking “I will write tomorrow.” You won’t do it. Write today. Gain motivation tomorrow. Avoid the skip day entirely.
Track it.
Put an initial for your project on the calendar for the day’s work, then add a check mark when you are done. You can use a scheduler too. Though, a Calendar is more impressive when you can see the entire month at a glance. You self motivate and reafirm when you can see weeks of checkmarks filling the pages in a streak. Bonus. You can hang that calendar beside where you can see it, so when you are writing you get that little pick me up to get going or keep going.
Writer’s block got your motivation?
Get up and move. Take a walk or a swim. Tap into other creatives with a book, podcast or TV for a short trip. Go to a coffee shop and people watch while you day dream. Sometimes what you need to trigger your own thinking is another idea, even if it is not your idea or even the right idea. Even no specific ideas at all should you choose to use the daydream approach. The point is to change your perspective, move some of the blood from your feet to your head and or just clear your mental decks to get the idea machine in your head moving.
Outside Support
Writing alone can be more than your motivation can handle. Take your motivation needs and your writing to a writing group. Getting outside feedback, encouragement and accountability are excellent pluses for writer’s groups. Far better solution than a skip day.
NaNoWriMo for the Win
A great writer’s group to try is NaNoWriMo–National November writing Month. Every November members write a 50,000 word book.
Sometimes motivation is partly about knowing you can do something with confidence. Everyone starts out in the same place on this. Using a writer’s group for a specific project, like writing a first book in a month, is a good way to use some training wheels to get that confidence and motivation for other projects.
Changeups
The project stalls in the middle. Change up time. Use a different writing style. Move to a different scale of project like moving from your book to a short story or blog post. Turn your work into a commercial or your ad into a drama. Change where you are writing. Take your show on the road. Bloggers can write guest posts or write for an entirely different blog. You can write a creative post for social media post, just don’t spend all day doing dozens of them.
Writing Prompts
Use writing prompts to break out a new idea. You can find them all over the web and books like Writing Down the Bones or Unjournaling. You can also use real life. Recal something that happened yesterday or from child hood. Newspapers and Magazines both are idea mines, just do a little digging.
Bribery.
It’s ok if you reward yourself a cup of coffee or some treat for some milestone you want to get to. There is also extortion. No desert at the restaurant Friday if the words are not met. The key here is to not be over indulgent or vindictive. You want to motivate yourself, not left wondering what Jenny Craig meal you want tonight or never tasting a cookie ever again.
Ask Yourself: “Why?”
Get back to your why. Take some time to remember why you are writing. Why did you take on this project? Knowing and using your why is a very big motivator. Take some time to recall and visualize the finished project too. Use your feelings as well. How does it feel to be done? Then get back to work.
Cut your Workload in two.
It’s easy to pile up a long list of things to do. Cutting down the things you have to do closes all kinds of mental folders and allows you to focus on the remainder with far less worry and far more focus. In general it’s best to have only three to five major things to be done on any given day as well.
Change your schedule around.
Instead of working first thing in the morning, try to write at night. Eat lunch late by a couple of hours. Skip swimming laps to hang out with friends.
Time and event changes stimulates excitement in your brain that gives you happy feelings and a need to put things to right again.
Toys, Uh I mean Tools
Use writing tools so that your work is better, faster, less frustrating and intimidating. Nothing kills a lack of motivation like the right tools for the job. Timers to take the guess work out of how long you have. Stimulate some idea generation with Quora, Writing programs like Grammarly and editing programs like Calmly, Trello and Evernote organizine your research and work. Readability tools like The Readability Test Tool Writer take out of much of the worry and stall factor from many writing hang-ups and fill in many of your writing gaps and needs. Here is a great list of 50 of them to look through for what you need. 50 Writing Tools
Other Writers
Talk to writers by joining a group of writers. One good one is The Writing Cooperative . Getting advice from other writers or making contact to get advice from with a writer you admire can be an incredible boost for your motivation.
Simple Self Motivation
The trick to making self-motivation work is found in consistency and variety. We all need motivation every day. If not for that day, to save up for those bad days that are going to rain down on us in the future. That’s why a little motivation every day will go a long way and your skip days will be few and far between.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash