In my YouTube series, 52 Weeks of Writing – The Writing Prompts, I’m sharing the fifty-two writing prompts that are included in the first volume of my 52 Weeks of Writing Author Journal and Planner.
In my YouTube series, 52 Weeks of Writing – The Writing Prompts, I’m sharing the fifty-two writing prompts that are included in the first volume of my 52 Weeks of Writing Author Journal and Planner.
The past two years have challenged us all and it can be hard to stay motivated when it feels like the world is coming undone. Below, I share five of the ways I’ve kept my coaching clients motivated during the pandemic.
Knowing the why behind your writing will keep you motivated when the going gets tough. It will also help you decide whether or not certain opportunities are aligned with you.
If you find yourself struggling to finish a writing project, think about the why behind your writing – it helps to write it down somewhere – and how the project you’re struggling with relates to that why. Being reminded of how exactly a project fits your dreams and desires is a great motivator.
If you can dream it, you can be it, but it’s difficult to reach your dreams without breaking down your goals.
The smaller the pieces you break your big goals up into, the more attainable they are. The more attainable – and realistic – your goals, the more often you get that dopamine hit that will help you tackle the next goal and move closer towards your dream.
It’s OK to take breaks from your writing projects, even if you don’t have much time for writing to begin with.
Just make sure you’re intentional about any breaks you’re taking. One of the prompts in Volume II of 52 Weeks of Writing suggests asking the following questions before you step away from your writing:
Whether big or small, celebrate all your achievements. Better yet, write down how you’re going to celebrate for each of the goals you’ve set for the year ahead.
Knowing what lies ahead of you, what is to come if you just keep going, is another great way to keep yourself moving forwards. Regular celebrating also stops us from getting stuck in negative, demotivating thought patterns that might ask us what we’re doing it all for and convince us we’re not doing nearly enough.
Find yourself a kindred spirit in the online or offline writing community you can share your goals and dreams with. Someone who gets what you’re dreaming of and understands how you might get in your own way.
It they’re on a similar enough path as you, even better. You can keep each other motivated and accountable as you share your struggles and wins with each other.
In my YouTube series, 52 Weeks of Writing – The Writing Prompts, I’m sharing the fifty-two writing prompts that are included in the first volume of my 52 Weeks of Writing Author Journal and Planner.
There are thousands of books out there on how to write your book, how to publish it, and how to market it. There are thousands of courses too, and webinars, and Facebook groups filled with writers more than willing to tell you what does and doesn’t work.
Which is great! Because none of these steps—writing your book and then finishing it, getting it published, and then figuring out how to sell it—are easy. Quite the contrary. So it’s wonderful that we have so many resources at our disposal.
There is, however, a reason we have so many resources to choose from, and that’s because there as many ways to writing, and to publishing and marketing, as there are writers. If there had been a one-size-fits-all recipe for being a writer, we wouldn’t have so many different books and courses on how to do it.
This doesn’t mean we should ignore this vast library of resources and figure out our own best practices from scratch. There’s a reason seasoned writers share their knowledge and experiences with the rest of us: their way of doing things has brought them success and it might very well inspire us when we read about them.
Some of these writers are highly aware that, just because certain things worked for them, it doesn’t mean they’ll work for others. They understand that each of us has to find our own way. Others do present whatever they’ve learned about writing as universally applicable, and that’s when we, as readers of their work, have to remind ourselves that these writers, too, are talking about their way, not everyone’s way. Because there is no ‘everyone’s way’.
That’s the main lesson I’ve learned since I started to take my writing seriously. Other writers are there to learn from but only insofar as they help us find our own way. If it resonates, we can, and should, follow their advice, we can test their habits for ourselves, we can try out new things, no matter how long we’ve been writing for. We can be entirely eclectic and pick up only those pieces of advice that make sense to us and feel right in that particular moment. Whatever else they’re saying about writing, we can leave it. It might not be for us, or it might not be for us right now.
If this is hard for you and you find yourself wanting to follow some writer’s advice merely because it sounds really good and not because it resonates with you, here are some critical questions you can ask about this resource before making any decisions:
Once you’ve answered these questions, it should be easier to step away from the advice you’ve been given and assess whether it’s the right kind of advice for you and where you are in your writing career. If no, let it go. If yes, test it, try it, and add it to your way of doing things, to your approach to writing.