Keep Motivated

Once we get our work area organized and ready, we need to find ways to keep ourselves motivated for writing. Make a regular schedule for writing. Try to write at the same time every day. Make a promise to stick to the schedule.

Some of us might write better when we have background music. Find music that works for you. If complete quiet is your thing, turn the phone off while you write so there are no distractions. We know that life is one major distraction. We need to priorities these distractions. We need to write as well.

The best advise I've heard is to just attack the project for 20 minutes. If, after 20 minutes, you honestly have no desire to continue, you may stop without guilt. Most of us will find that 20 minutes later we are smack, dab in the middle of something big and will keep going.

Getting started is the hardest part. Don't let the blank page intimidate you. A simple cure for that is to simply put words on the page. Once it is no longer blank, it is not so intimidating. I'll start you off...

Once upon a time...

not enough? Once upon a time there was a ...

You now have seven words on your page. It is no longer blank. Remember, this can always be changed later. We can always get started in this manner, though. We can always put words on a page so that the blankness is not staring back at us. Once we get started, it is up to us to make sure we keep going.

During the day when you're not writing, don't hesitate to write down that fleeting thought. Review any notes you've collected before you sit down to work. Try to spend your time allotted to writing in doing just that, writing.