TanjanTarinat
TanjanTarinat asked Lisa See:

Hey Lisa! Thank you for great reading experiments. I used to write stories but I have been on a longer pause. I have asked you a question in past and your answer inspired me so I'm gonna try my luck and ask for your tip this time since I respect you. How do you keep up the motivation, how do you avoid letting the inspiration die? Do you have to encourage yourself to continue writing? Thank you for reading my message.

Lisa See I think the single most important thing for writers and other artists is passion. We have to have passion. That’s what sustains us through what we can euphemistically call those “bumps in the road.” You have to have passion to decide to write a book. You have to have passion to edit a book. You have to have passion to go out on the road and promote it – sometimes for a week or so, sometimes for years. I’m still invited to talk solely about On Gold Mountain, and that book came out almost twenty years ago! So I’d better be passionate about it. I look at this passion kind of like I look at the difference between marriage and a one-night stand. Are you in it for the long haul – through thick and thin, illness and in health, and all that stuff? Or is this something you’re doing for momentary pleasure so that when the going gets rough, you’re out of there? When you’re in it for the long haul, you’re always motivated.

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