5 Tips to Stay Motivated While Writing Your Novel

Writing a novel is a daunting task. There are so many things that you have to do to make sure that you're putting your best product out into the world. Research, character and world building, etc. As writers we often get frustrated when non-writers tell us "writing is easy." It really isn't. Yes, there are those select few who can write a book on the first try and then there are those of us who go through several drafts before we even feel like our baby is ready to great the world. But what happens when you lose the one thing you thought you always had?

Here are five tips for staying motivated!

1. Commit to Your Writing

In our own world we have all time to write. Nothing gets in the way. Laundry and chores do themselves, there's an easy button for everything, and we never have to worry about scheduling our time. Unfortunately, this is the real world. Working out how much time you can give to your writing and when can be tough. Schedule it in your bullet journal or day planner. Make it a part of your routine and keep at it until it becomes a habit. If it’s a book you need to be able to focus for months. For a shorter piece, like a blog post or an article, you need to focus for one or two hours. Now stay focused.

2. Remove Distractions

You know what they are. Turn off your phone and any electronics that will distract you during the time you're supposed to be writing. For myself I will put my phone in the other room, put on the playlist on my laptop just for writing and set a timer. Also break up your writing into sections. If your distraction is children try writing while they're away at school or when they're napping. Find a place where you can have as few distractions as possible.

3. Give Yourself Deadlines

Pretend you only have one hour to write today. That can be a good incentive to get on with it. Or ask yourself what you’d start or finish writing if you only had a month to live. I motivated myself to write a 150,000 word manuscript for NaNoWriMo in 2016 by telling myself that if I didn’t write it that month I never would. These scare tactics do work and best of all no one has to die in the process. Unless it's your characters.

4. Try Co-motivation

Sounds too simple, right? That's because it is! A good way to stay motivated it to join writing sprints with other writers. Whether it be on Twitter through a challenge group, maybe on Facebook in writing groups, or like I did last night following a live stream on YouTube. I find when I do writing sprints I get more writing done. Having other writers to write with definitely boosts the motivation!

and finally, 5. GET MOTIVATED!

Accept responsibility for you own actions. Acknowledge that you’re the only person who can do this. That if you don’t glue your backside to the chair and first start, then finish writing your book it will never get finished. Remember, no one else is going to do it for you. It's all you.

Final word on finding the motivation to write

We mark our progress in what's been written. Don’t worry that most of them will probably be removed in the end. We pay ourselves a favor each time we put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and practice our craft. We wage a war against writer’s block on a daily basis and we win.

We sit down to write no matter how hard it is, because no one else can write it like us.

How do you start writing and stick to it even though it’s easier not to? Please share your tips in the comments below. If you need more motivation, check out this video below!