EYES ON THE PRIZE: DON’T GIVE UP, WRITER
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I love New Years. I welcome any and from all world calendars: our traditional January 1st ones, the Chinese and Tibetan New Years, the Jewish New Years (of which there are four!), and even my ancestors’ Ukrainian New Year on January 14th.
New Years are an official opportunity to start again. To plan goals with a renewed sense of hope and achievements.
And certainly, a few weeks after a New Year (usually around 4-6 weeks later), no matter how well we started out, how much we actually took steps for the goals, and how very enthusiastic we were in the beginning, by then our plans have stagnated, flattened, and disappeared.
We gave up.
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Photo: RyanMcGuire
And then we feel guilty. We promise ourselves we’ll try again. And again, and yet we keep failing at it.
This is common for the usual New Year’s resolutions we set for ourselves: I will lose weight, I will exercise more, I will be more productive, I will…
Write?
How many of us have tried to write because we have that intense yearning to do so, and try as we might, we start, but give up too soon.
Why is it so hard to stay motivated? Why is it so difficult to keep at it?
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Photo: nhattienle94
Writing, like the other goals we have, needs constant and consistent motivation—that visceral, gut-churning desire to do it otherwise things are not right with us.
Without motivation, we will then toss it aside in hopes of starting another time. Later maybe. Next weekend. The first vacation time we have. When the muse visits someday…
But what actually happens is that we feel unhappy, depressed, along with a sense of failure. Our emotions may be masked, but they will come out in other ways.
We snap at loved ones or co-workers. We become cynical and pessimistic.
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And it becomes harder and harder to sit at our desks with our ideas and stories-in-progress because it is hard to overcome those negative emotions.
How do we stay motivated then? And if lost, how can we become motivated again?
I was listening to a TED talk by psychologist Emily Balcetis whose speech wasn’t about writing, but rather why some people find it harder to exercise over others.
And yet, it was highly relatable to writing.
In her talk, Balcetis said the main difference is that people who are able to start and continue a goal like exercising do so because they keep their eyes on the prize—meaning they envision how they will look if they keep up their routines.
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Photo: StockSnap
They focused on the finish line!
This can work for writing as well.
First, define for yourself what is your goal. To begin a story? To continue with one you put away? To finish that story? Or is it to revise, edit, polish and/or send out the story to a publication?
The story itself could be a short story or novel, but whatever it is, take small steps and envision the endgame goal you have for those small first steps.
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It can be starting a story for one weekend. Then, writing it for one hour every Saturday. And then finishing it by (name a date).
Keep your eyes on the prize which could be simply writing every weekend.
You’re taking small steps but once you make these steps habitual and they are now easy to do, then progress to bigger goals: writing another story. Writing a collection of stories. Writing a novel.
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Graphic: manfredsteger
One way to visualize your prize is to take a clean sheet of paper, write the title and your name and post it where you can see it every day.
Or take the first page of your story. Title it and your byline, and then at the end of that first page type in: THE END.
Hang it up where you see it every day.
If you are in the midst of a novel, design a cover for it. Go to canva.com (it’s a free and very easy to use software designing tool ) and print out the wonderful cover you envision for your novel. Hang it somewhere—maybe over your computer screen.
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Keep envisioning the end game. The prize. The goal to be achieved. And it will get you there faster than simply hoping, wishing, and then alas, abandoning.
To stay motivated, you have to remind yourself what you are working on and working for.
For more motivation, here is Emily Balcetis’ TED talk for more motivation: https://www.npr.org/2017/06/16/532839626/emily-balcetis-if-you-focus-on-the-finish-line-will-you-get-there-faster
Writing Wisdom:
“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.”— H.G. Wells, English Fiction and Non-fiction Writer.
Cheers, Irene
P.S. Need help and inspiration in writing GREAT fiction?
Find both in my writing guidebook: THE FICTION PRESCRIPTION: HOW TO WRITE AND IMPROVE YOUR FICTION LIKE THE GREAT LITERARY MASTERS.
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