What can you do when your motivation is low?

I imagine many writers will be familiar with the scenario. You have an idea for a story, or perhaps have already started to write one. You have some time set aside to work on it and have loads of ideas about what to write and where you want the story to go. You sit down to do it and then… you don’t do it.

I’m not talking about writers’ block, that frustrating predicament that sometimes creeps up on us from behind and leaves us staring dumbfounded at the computer screen with no idea what to write, but rather about a lack of motivation.

It’s something that can easily leave us annoyed with ourselves. After all, we want to write. There’s nothing that we want to do more, and yet somehow faffing around on Twitter suddenly seems like a much better use of our time. It’s not even a case of turning off the internet to help ourselves focus – when a lack of motivation strikes, any distraction will do.

So what can we do to combat it?

One option is self-bribery, which can be very effective. “If I write for half an hour, I can spend ten minutes doing whatever I want,” for example. As great as it can sometimes be to have all the time you want to write stretching out in front of you, it can also leave it hard to actually get down to business – giving yourself defined time periods of work followed by a break is well-known as an effective means of boosting productivity.

Another option is to re-read your favourite book. Reading something that you love and that reminds you just how great writing can be can help to give you the shove you need to get back into writing your own. You could also try doing things that are writing-related-but-not-actually-writing-the-thing-you’re-meant-to-be-writing. For instance, instead of writing your novel, write a blog post. Schedule some Tweets or Facebook posts, or read some respected writing blogs to look for tips. Channel your distraction into something that will be useful even if it won’t boost your word count in the short term.

Something else that can be good for getting around an attack of low motivation is to set yourself small goals. Really small goals. Goals that are so small that they can be measured in terms of just a handful of words. Tell yourself to write a sentence. That’s not too hard, is it? It doesn’t matter if you’re feeling no motivation to write whatsoever, surely you can still force yourself to write a sentence. Mission accomplished? Write another sentence. Then another and another. When you have a paragraph, challenge yourself to write another. Even if you only manage a couple of short paragraphs, it’s still progress. It proves you still want to write, and that you can write, no matter what else you feel like doing instead.

And eventually, sooner or later, your motivation will come back. Distractions will be easier to ignore and those paragraphs will be easier to write. So don’t give in to that lack of motivation – you’ve got a story to write.