Beginner Writer Motivation Issues
A lot of people think that writing blocks and lack of writing progress is a motivation issue. It’s not. It’s a lack of sitting down and writing that’s the issue.
In this article, I will address once and for all the issue of writer motivation. I’ll give you the tools to move forward and I’ll give you a framework for giving yourself checkpoints until you reach real-world writing success.
Let’s get to it.
For Writers Motivation Is NOT As Important As They Think It Is
Motivation for writers is not a big deal. Writers merely think it is.
I feel like I’ve written this to people millions of times.
You don’t need to be motivated to write, and if you think you do, then you’ve just given yourself an unnecessary mental block. Writing is simply putting words down on paper or typing them onto a screen.
There’s nothing mystical or magical about it.
If you think you need to feel magical motivation to write, then try this exercise:
Open up your word processor of choice. (This can be a pen and notepad if you want.)
Write a word and then another word. Keep going until you either run out of words or you enjoy yourself.
Back before I became a professional writer, I decided I wanted to become proficient at writing. The above is how I did it.
One day, I said to myself, “I can write ten thousand words a day every day for a month.” I sat for multiple hours a day typing words into the Wordpad application and then every so often copying them into a “Wordcount” website. I didn’t even have Word at the time.
The only goal I had was to hit 300,000 words in a month. I figured that it didn’t matter if all of them were good – or even if any of them were good – as long as I developed the habit.
Now, I didn’t write 300,000 words that month. I wrote 200,000+ though.
As a frame of reference, that’s four full-length books. Most authors don’t publish four books in their writing careers, let alone write them all in a month.
Most of those words were rubbish… but among other things I wrote a book that I would later publish (that was 40,000+) words, a year’s worth of blog posts (50,000 words) and four short stories that were later published by other people. In a month.
How did I start?
By sitting in front of Wordpad and typing, “I don’t know what to write but I’m going to write anyway. So on and so forth. I’m not leaving until the end of the hour at the earliest…” etc.
Motivation For Writers Who Are Just Beginning – How Do You Know What You’re Writing Is Valuable?
A lot of writer’s motivation issues come from the fact that they don’t know the value of their work. Whether due to internal feelings of inadequacy or external social pressure, e.g. “Get a real job!” people tend to think that writing isn’t worth anything until it is.
So a new blogger thinks, “Is my blog worth anything?” and a novelist thinks, “Will anyone ever read this?”
My answer to them is I don’t know. But you can stack the odds in your favour. Once again, this has nothing to do with writer motivation tips or “You can believe in yourself!” messages.
It’s got to do with two things:
1. Audience Research
Let’s say you’re a would-be novelist. Before you plan your novel, you should probably make sure it’s something people want. The quickest way to do this is to head on over to Amazon and read the reviews of books that you see yourself writing in the style or genre of.
If you are a budding horror writer and you read a review that says, “This book is great but I really wish it had more evil clowns in it…” then you know what to do and you know you can add value to the world of horror writers. Wherever there’s a need and you are able to fill it, you know you’re adding value.
2. Picking your projects wisely
For the second point which is on picking projects. Let’s say you’re a would be blogger and you think, “Gee… does the world really need another blog about how some political stuff is ruining the world? How can I add value?”
You’re right, it doesn’t. You’ll never be sure if your hot take on politics adds value until it either makes money or doesn’t. But you want to solve problems and know your work has value, so here’s what you should do:
Find a solution to a problem. Write out how to solve that problem. This demonstrates value. It’s as simple as that.
Your first blog post could be, “How to change a tyre on a Vauxhall Astra and where you can buy good tyres online.”
If a mechanic charges £100 for a new tyre and £20 to replace it but you find a way for people to do it themselves for £80, then it’s a dead cert that there’s value to your writing.
Writer Motivation: How Do You Get Positive Feedback When You Have No Audience?
Another big problem with writer motivation is that it’s hardest at the start. You get better. You get a bigger audience over time. Eventually, you’ll get real world feedback in the form of analytics (something will get viewed more than another thing) or actual feedback. “I hate your story about clowns. Vampires are hot!”
At the beginning, you have no audience. So your writing motivation comes from something else. Also, a lot of writers fear getting that first bad review.
It happens to all of us and its pretty rubbish, but life goes on.
Here’s what you do for writer motivation before you get an audience:
Write as much as you can and get your exposure up through volume. Race towards your first bad review.
Eventually, someone is going to tell you that you’re a scam, fraud or untalented hack. This doesn’t mean you are. Some people are just dicks. I looked up one of my friends on Amazon today. He released a new novel a couple of months back and he’d gotten a one-star review. Some writers would want to quit if they woke up to that.
You know what the review said?
“I didn’t even read this. I am giving it one star because I can’t believe people buy this romance crap!”
Do you think that should make my friend quit writing? It’s the same with whoever gives you bad feedback.
Eventually the world gives you feedback. It’s a race to the point where that happens. Keep writing and your views, reads and sales will go up with time. Until someone tells you, “This is bad!” there’s no such thing as a bad piece of writing or a bad idea.
Take motivation and inspiration from the amount of work you can create.
Final Thoughts On Writer Motivation
Alright, so those are my thoughts on writer motivation. Let’s summarise:
- Writer motivation doesn’t matter. You sit and write and keep going. Motivation will come afterwards.
- You’ll know you’re producing valuable work if you specifically pick projects that create value for people
- Your future feedback will shape what you write and how you write it. Until then, take motivation from the amount of words you put down and the hours you put in.
If you start now, you can probably write a thousand words in the next hour or so. Get to it.