Motivation and Inspiration

Most writers I know are not filled with, or struck by, inspiration every day, so where do they find the motivation to write? Someone much wiser than I once said that he sat down in front of a blank page every day, and if inspiration hadn't arrived by 9 a.m. he began without it! Writing is a little like exercise - one has to get into the habit of doing it often, or one doesn't do it at all. Like our physical muscles, the mind needs a warm-up routine; once our muscles are warm they are ready to work-out.

Motivation, for me, comes after I begin to work. When I first began writing, fear held me back. The words in my head were brilliant - I thought - but when I put them down on paper, once they became concrete, they were sadly lacking. But I stuck with it and in time the fear faded. To compare writing to exercising again, once you build up your muscles, the work-outs become easier. So it is with writing.

With any exercise routine, we begin small and increase the repetitions, or the speed, over time; so it is with writing if you find yourself without motivation and/or inspiration. Set goals for your writing; begin with a paragraph a day and gradually build this up until you are writing at least a page a day. Don't think too much about what you are writing, just do it. Soon it will be a habit and, like most habits, hard to break.

Keeping a journal also helps; a journal is for your eyes only and you will not be so critical. Record whatever you like in there: observations; snippets of overheard conversation; ideas; cuttings from magazines or newspapers; photographs ... and so on. If you prefer to look for inspiration, rather than wait for it to come to you, go through your journal on a regular basis; you might be surprised at the writing ideas your jottings will inspire.

Another way to get into the right frame of mind for writing is to read over what you wrote in your previous writing session. Don't worry too much about editing at this stage, just read to put yourself back into the world of your story, and then begin to write.

Try to write in the same place, and at the same time every day, or every week if that's all the time you can manage, and if possible don't use that space for any other activity. In time, just being 'there', in your writing space, will be all the motivation you will need.