Unmotivated writing

[Coldboots]

... Shows so strongly that even I notice when I'm not motivated to write what I'm writing, and not in any way inspired. However, when I'm on, I'm on like a lightning bolt. I used to love writing and feel I was quite good at it a few years ago when I was writing everyday, but after revisiting the hobby I've found that my writing just plain sucks. Just take my word for it. It's average at best. I'd call it mediocre, if it wasn't riddled with errors and bad judgement.

However, back on topic. I know depression and anxiety (which are conditions I suffer from, among a litany of mental issues that I don't want to divulge.) are major factors in not being able to work up the will to write. What in your experience can also contribute to this creative fog? Is it just the jitters before writing a peice?

More important, what can be done to combat the lagging inspiration in our writing? I'll admit I haven't tried a whole lot before writing this here. It tends to be that I look online for for answers. It takes roughly half an hour deciding that I need my own answers. Because I'm self-absorbed like that.

Either way, I'm trying to get back into writing, but what I lack is interest in what I'm writing. One suggestion I might give myself and others who suffer from either lack of energy or time or whatever else, is to reward myself with something I enjoy after writing. But this seems shallow, because writing used to be its own reward for me, and sharing it with people was something that enhanced my enjoyment of it even more.

Thanks for reading all of this. I know it's annoying when people get down on themselves a lot and hope I didn't come across too strongly in that way. I really just want to get back to where I was once upon a time, and use that enthusiasm toward something that will bring me satisfaction and possibly a bit of profit.

 

[Peat]

That sucks.

For me, writing is a routine. Anything that disrupts my routine disrupts my writing. Normally I form a new routine after the disruption but it always knocks me off course for a little.

As for looking back and not rating what you've written...

First off, read this blog post - This book is broken, and other things I tell myself while writing. Even the seasoned veterans feel this way. This is why we all draft and draft and draft. No matter how talented you are, producing average work that needs polishing is the norm.

Frankly, I think we would-be writers get way too hard on ourselves. Writing to a professional standard is really sodding difficult. That we can't do it first time, even fourth or fifth time is... unsurprising. It doesn't mean we're not untalented. It just means there is a gigantic amount to learn. William Gibson rewrote the intro to Neuromancer 12 times. Sanderson wrote 12 books before he got his break.

In a way this might be the worst motivational speech in history. I'm like some medieval guy standing in front of a bunch of peasants and telling them just how flipping awesome those Mongols over the horizon are. YOU'RE ALL GUNNA DIE. But this is like Edge of Tomorrow and, if we're willing, everytime we go down fighting we can start again the next day - just a big wiser, a bit better.

So don't worry about what you wrote yesterday. If you thought you had talent, you're probably right, and if you keep at it, your talent and hard work will shine through.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

What contributed to the fog for me is tiredness. But the only thing that I know of that works is writing through the fog as best you can. That way writing will come more frequently. The thing to remember is that bad writing can always be fixed in post.

 

[SaltyDog]

I would say, when I'm not in the mood, and can't seem to even put anything worth the name of a story onto paper, I just free write about the subject, one long misspelled, missing word messy mess, lol. I write for a good time, then once I feel my inspiration return, I go back and edit my clutter, turning it into work that is ready to be typed.

Another thing, like Peat said, don't let doubt cloud your mine. Your are a great writer, but all people who are great at something experience a slump.

Take archery for instance, I shoot competitive, and am very good at it. Went to Nationals last spring and sucked. Got third when I should of easily won first. I had won state, gotten second in sectionals, and fell apart when I needed it most. I shot my worst ever in competition. Ever. Ugh. Slapped on the face.

So you know what I did? Went home and practiced on my form, got better, improved and went back to my old self. I'll probably experience something like that again, and if I do I'll just practice harder and come back next time and smoke the house.



Lol don't know if that helped at all.

 

[WooHooMan]

I think I'm pretty fortunate to have the luxury to write. So, I never think of it as something that I need to do or need to force myself to do.
And whatever personal issues I have don't really damper that process. I mean, there are times when I don't feel up to getting-out of bed or going to work but I still do it. Regardless of how I may feel at the moment, I know being going outside is pretty great and I should consider myself lucky I have a job in this economy.

So, you can say "oh, it's depression" or "oh, it's writer's block" or whatever but at the end of the day, it's that you aren't writing. So, I'm generally of the opinion that if you want to write but don't feel like it, you should force yourself to write. What you come-up with might be bad but hey, something is better than nothing.

 

[Penpilot]

What I've found is that the more I learned about writing and was able to lean on writing theory/structure, the less I needed inspiration to hit in order for me to write effectively. With few exceptions, I can't tell what I wrote while "inspired" and what I wrote while "uninspired" anymore because there's no correlation to quality. I can be inspired and write total crap and uninspired and write something I think is brilliant when I come back and read it later.

Here's a realisation that came to me about seven years ago a bit after I finished my first novel and was into my second. I originally posted this in a different forum and I've put this a few times here, and to this day I think it still holds true, at least for me.

The muse is a big fat lazy witch that wants to do nothing but eat bon-bons and watch Oprah all day long. That right I said it.

After finishing my first novel and doing rewrites to it, I found that I achieved so much more if I didn’t wait around for her, my muse, to get up off the crumb riddled couch. Sometimes you just have to write whether you’re feeling it or not. You put on the greased stained, wife-beater, tank top, grab that witch by the hair, drag her to the computer, and pound her into submission with each key stroke. (Please note this is in no way advocating violence against anyone)

This isn’t to say that the muse and inspiration doesn’t have its place, but I’ve come to the realization that those things alone will only take you so far before you hit a wall, and you’re left with two choices in my opinion: start something else that you’re “inspired” about or roll up the sleeves and go to work.

As I’m going through the rewrites to my novel, I find myself remembering things said by my college writing teacher. He told the class that one of the purposes of writing for the course was to empty ourselves. I wasn’t sure what he meant back then, but I think I have an idea now. You see, as you write, the more you write, you purge yourself of all the pent up ideas, all the preconceptions and expectations that get built up over time about what you want to write and how you want to write it. This allows you to just write and let the words come instead of forcing them to be this or that instead of what they should be. In some ways, I think this means that you’re purging yourself of the dependence on the muse to get you to write, or to make your writing “good”.

The more writing I do in the “uninspired” state the more I realize that the “uninspired” writing can be equal if not better than the “inspired” writing. I find that things that I wrote while “uninspired,” which I thought were complete trash, turn out, when looking at them from an objective eye, to be rather good. I’ve also found that the reverse is true too. Things I wrote while inspired, which I thought were brilliant, turn out to be trash. This brings me to the thought/theory that I have, maybe, this is one of the things that separates a “successful” writer from a “struggling” one. The “struggler” can only write when they are inspired and passionate, while the “successful” one can write no matter the mental state. They can just do it. Just a thought.

Does anyone have an opinion on this? Am I just blowing hot air?

 

[skip.knox]

I'm with Penpilot on this one. Inspiration is not only overrated, it's downright inimical. We artists coddle ourselves far too much. How much patience would we have for the athlete who would run only when "inspired" to do so? Is my doctor "inspired?"

And also, how come none of us ever claim we have to be "inspired" in order to edit? It's always about this cloudy, romantic notion of the muse speaking to us. Where is she when I have to re-architect Chapter 6? She can't be found, won't pick up the phone, and never answers her mail.

Fiddlesticks. Writing is work. As the under-sized wise man once said: do, or do not. There is no try.

 

[Chessie]

I really just want to get back to where I was once upon a time, and use that enthusiasm toward something that will bring me satisfaction and possibly a bit of profit.

Aye. As my tattoo artist once said, "there's no getting through it except getting through it." There's this romantic idea of writers having an easy-peasy time churning out stories. We all know that's far from reality. Sometimes you just don't want to do it. Sometimes the words aren't there and your DGAF is majorly broken. But if you want to create, if this is something you love, then just sit (at the very least) and try to write a sentence, a paragraph, 350 words.

If it's hard right now, try a bit at a time. Take a looksie at your schedule and what is feasible for you to do atm. If it's 15 mins per day, or an hour 3x a week, take what you can get and be protective about that time. Write in small chunks for now and see if that helps.

Since writing for profit is in your horizon, then creating a writing habit will benefit you in the long run because it's a ton of effing hard work. Not impossible though.

 

[Heliotrope]

Nothing new, but:


“If you only write when you’re inspired you may be a fairly decent poet, but you’ll never be a novelist because you’re going to have to make your word count today and those words aren’t going to wait for you whether you’re inspired or not.

You have to write when you’re not inspired. And you have to write the scenes that don’t inspire you. And the weird thing is that six months later, a year later, you’ll look back at them and you can’t remember which scenes you wrote when you were inspired and which scenes you just wrote because they had to be written next.

The process of writing can be magical. …Mostly it’s a process of putting one word after anther.”

- Neil Gaiman

 

[Nimue]

“And the weird thing is that six months later, a year later, you’ll look back at them and you can’t remember which scenes you wrote when you were inspired and which scenes you just wrote because they had to be written next.”

I was going to respond with this sentiment, almost exactly. Never read the Gaiman quote before, but it's something I've noticed, to a tee. And this is coming from somebody who used to be very muse-dependent and still totally thinks that way, deep down. We're working on it.

I want to also acknowledge that it feels like your writing is in dire need of inspiration, and it feels bad and impossible and all those things. That's okay, but it means you need to cope with those feelings and not misattribute them to being a terrible writer, or having peaked, or other negative sweeping statements that serve no purpose but to enable you to give up.

And I think it is possible to get rusty; to literally not be able to think of the next word, to try to put down that first sentence and come up with something that looks like you translated it badly from another language. However, that rust doesn't last very long--it really doesn't. Length of a scene, maybe, until you put yourself in there and hit your stride. Which, if you just let yourself write whatever comes, will happen. Rustiness isn't the end of your skill, it's just a lack of practice. Reading also helps shake off rust and prick you with ideas, if you really can't get past those first few sentences. (Been there, for sure.)

Finally, as a mild counterargument to the "just get in there and write" sentiment, which is valid 95% of the time, if you're deeply stuck and have been for months/years... Consider whether you're writing the best story/plot/characters that you could be right now. Speaking for myself, I know I'm more likely to blame my own skill than I am to examine a beloved story for flaws. Maybe give yourself time to come up with something new, to develop a new world, to plot/plan/brainstorm as much as you need to--without feeling bad for not getting these ideas onto paper immediately. Yes, keep writing as much as you can, small things: chase the rust away. But inspiration is in some part confidence in what you're writing. Confidence can come from muscling in there and showing your brain that you can, in fact, write and create images and emotion--or confidence can come from pure joy in an idea, and the reassurance of solid plotting or sparkling concepts.

I've got a lot of sympathy for those feelings. But ultimately, they're not going to be helped by wishing after something intangible and uncontrollable; they can be driven off by action, whether that's putting words down or sketching out ideas. Anything that makes the creative sap flow.

 

[Chessie]

Nothing new, but:


“If you only write when you’re inspired you may be a fairly decent poet, but you’ll never be a novelist because you’re going to have to make your word count today and those words aren’t going to wait for you whether you’re inspired or not.

You have to write when you’re not inspired. And you have to write the scenes that don’t inspire you. And the weird thing is that six months later, a year later, you’ll look back at them and you can’t remember which scenes you wrote when you were inspired and which scenes you just wrote because they had to be written next.

The process of writing can be magical. …Mostly it’s a process of putting one word after another.”

- Neil Gaiman

YES. He's so, so right. Sometimes when I read a really good book, I wonder how long it took the writer to go from idea to final draft. I'd say editing is more of a chore than first drafting though...then again it depends on the writer. But yeah...nothing beautiful about writing on most days, which reminds me, I read the funniest quote the other day:

I love deadlines. I love the wooshing noise they make as they go by. --Douglas Adams

 

[Penpilot]

And I think it is possible to get rusty; to literally not be able to think of the next word, to try to put down that first sentence and come up with something that looks like you translated it badly from another language. However, that rust doesn't last very long--it really doesn't. Length of a scene, maybe, until you put yourself in there and hit your stride. Which, if you just let yourself write whatever comes, will happen. Rustiness isn't the end of your skill, it's just a lack of practice. Reading also helps shake off rust and prick you with ideas, if you really can't get past those first few sentences. (Been there, for sure.)

Yeah, I found rust can be a big hurdle. A while back because of health issues, I couldn't really write for like six months. This was after writing pretty much every day for like three years straight. Writing a 6k short story in a one night wasn't uncommon for me at that time. But yeah, shaking that rust off was pretty difficult for me. It took me a couple of months, but part of that might have been due to what you say bellow.

Finally, as a mild counterargument to the "just get in there and write" sentiment, which is valid 95% of the time, if you're deeply stuck and have been for months/years... Consider whether you're writing the best story/plot/characters that you could be right now. Speaking for myself, I know I'm more likely to blame my own skill than I am to examine a beloved story for flaws. Maybe give yourself time to come up with something new, to develop a new world, to plot/plan/brainstorm as much as you need to--without feeling bad for not getting these ideas onto paper immediately.

I jumped into a new novel after that six months and maybe it wasn't the best idea because some key elements in the story hadn't been thoroughly thought out. Usually, that doesn't matter too too much. I can usually come up with something on the fly based on the feel of how things should logically work. But my brain wasn't ready for that. Any way I pushed through and that story turned out to be my third novel.

 

[Caged Maiden]

As for how to get over it. stop writing that novel that has you frustrated, and work on something else. Anything else. Take it one day at a time, if you need to. Today, write a great description of the weather. Pretend to be a person who really cares about the weather. Tomorrow, pretend to be someone who really loves their child, or who lost a grandparent. The next day, combine those two things into one scene, where a person is watching their child play in the rain, or a person who is upset that at their grandmother's funeral, it was so damn sunny and beautiful, it ruined the somber occasion.

Neil Gaiman also said (paraphrased) that if you aren't particularly wise, pretend to be a wise person and then just do what they would do.

If you don't think you are right now a particularly inspired writer, pretend to be a really inspired writer, and then do what they would do. Fake it. Fake it and love it, and soon you will be doing it for real, and loving it for real. Write short passages, scenes, and short stories. Write anything that will get you over this hurdle and give you a chance to calm down and decompress.

I've been writing a long time. For the first ten years, I didn't worry about a thing. I just wrote to entertain myself. IN the last five, though, I've been really concerned with "doing it right" and for a while there, it was really devastating and disheartening. I worked very hard to get mediocre results. All the feedback was lukewarm. No one loved it. Not even me.

But my short stories were getting good responses and feedback.

I realized the only difference between the work that got good responses, and the ones that got bad or ho-hum responses, was how much I cared. I cared so damn much for the novels (taking my time to make sure everything was perfect, being as dramatic as possible, or as clever as I could be), that I tampered with them until they were godawful. But the shorts...well, I just wrote them down and didn't care a bit. They were just me messing around. And folks seem to appreciate that. I'm not totally sure why, but I've gotten a lot of positive responses now, and all I can say, is that when I work on novels, I still feel bogged down, terribly anxious that i'm going to suck, and afraid it'll all come crashing down upon me again.

You aren't alone. Take a break from the thing that's harming you and do something else to build your momentum back up.

 

[Addison]

Most times when I'm in a place where I can't write isn't that I'm not inspired or facing writer's block, at least that's not the case in my current writing status. Times like this I can't get anything down because I've been working on the story for so long I'm getting sick of it. Seriously sick of it. I still love the idea and the characters but the story itself?

I've been trying to write about being sick of it and had to take a break 'cause it was making me even more sick. I'm hoping it's the storm before the calm. I made a goal to finish my story before October. That will be improbable if I can't so much as write dialogue between characters. I remember an article that said even J.K Rowling got sick of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban so I feel a little better knowing it happens even to the most experienced writer. But if anyone has their own special method of being re-invigorated and all hugs for their story, please share. So far I have done the following: Taken A Break, Read New Books (as in actual new books or old books I haven't gotten around to reading), Gone On A Vacation, Tried Writing Something New, and Taken Up A New Hobby. Is there anything I haven't tried? Before anyone says "Let Someone Read the Story" it's kinda hard and rude to give someone an incomplete story to read.

 

[SaltyDog]

Most times when I'm in a place where I can't write isn't that I'm not inspired or facing writer's block, at least that's not the case in my current writing status. Times like this I can't get anything down because I've been working on the story for so long I'm getting sick of it. Seriously sick of it. I still love the idea and the characters but the story itself?

I've been trying to write about being sick of it and had to take a break 'cause it was making me even more sick. I'm hoping it's the storm before the calm. I made a goal to finish my story before October. That will be improbable if I can't so much as write dialogue between characters. I remember an article that said even J.K Rowling got sick of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban so I feel a little better knowing it happens even to the most experienced writer. But if anyone has their own special method of being re-invigorated and all hugs for their story, please share. So far I have done the following: Taken A Break, Read New Books (as in actual new books or old books I haven't gotten around to reading), Gone On A Vacation, Tried Writing Something New, and Taken Up A New Hobby. Is there anything I haven't tried? Before anyone says "Let Someone Read the Story" it's kinda hard and rude to give someone an incomplete story to read.

Well for me, I have yet to experience what is happening to you. That's probably due to my extremely busy schedule, I'm lucky if I get to write at all during the weekend, let alone the week. I suggest take a break (Old advice, I know) and write a little short story, to get your mind on something else for a while. Probably no help with that actually.

Um.... lets see...

I really don't know... sorry. Kinda hard to offer when this has yet to happen for me. Maybe try writing less, like only three times a week? Gives you more of a break from the story.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Most times when I'm in a place where I can't write isn't that I'm not inspired or facing writer's block, at least that's not the case in my current writing status. Times like this I can't get anything down because I've been working on the story for so long I'm getting sick of it. Seriously sick of it. I still love the idea and the characters but the story itself?

I've been trying to write about being sick of it and had to take a break 'cause it was making me even more sick. I'm hoping it's the storm before the calm. I made a goal to finish my story before October. That will be improbable if I can't so much as write dialogue between characters. I remember an article that said even J.K Rowling got sick of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban so I feel a little better knowing it happens even to the most experienced writer. But if anyone has their own special method of being re-invigorated and all hugs for their story, please share. So far I have done the following: Taken A Break, Read New Books (as in actual new books or old books I haven't gotten around to reading), Gone On A Vacation, Tried Writing Something New, and Taken Up A New Hobby. Is there anything I haven't tried? Before anyone says "Let Someone Read the Story" it's kinda hard and rude to give someone an incomplete story to read.

Unlike SaltyDog, I am currently experiencing this! Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a solution. But, I have decided on a course of action that I hope might work: Reexamine Everything and Start Over.

Basically, I'm going to figure out all the things I truly love about the story, the things that made me fall in love with it, all the things that never fail to be inspiring...the things that get me excited about the story even though I'm sick of it...and sweeping away everything else, rebuilding from the essentials. Getting rid of all the things that have me tangled up.

I seriously hope it works...

 

[SaltyDog]

Unlike SaltyDog, I am currently experiencing this! Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a solution. But, I have decided on a course of action that I hope might work: Reexamine Everything and Start Over.

Basically, I'm going to figure out all the things I truly love about the story, the things that made me fall in love with it, all the things that never fail to be inspiring...the things that get me excited about the story even though I'm sick of it...and sweeping away everything else, rebuilding from the essentials. Getting rid of all the things that have me tangled up.

I seriously hope it works...

I guess I'm special, lol. If it hits me, I'll tell y'all, but I don't expect it to. I enjoy it (Writing) too much to have writers block. (Lol that's when it strikes.)

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I guess I'm special, lol. If it hits me, I'll tell y'all, but I don't expect it to. I enjoy it (Writing) too much to have writers block. (Lol that's when it strikes.)

You're very lucky. Or else, you haven't yet cared about a particular story way too much...or tackled a project much too big...

 

[SaltyDog]

You're very lucky. Or else, you haven't yet cared about a particular story way too much...or tackled a project much too big...

Who knows? We'll see at the end though, won't we? lol.

 

[Penpilot]

But if anyone has their own special method of being re-invigorated and all hugs for their story, please share. So far I have done the following: Taken A Break, Read New Books (as in actual new books or old books I haven't gotten around to reading), Gone On A Vacation, Tried Writing Something New, and Taken Up A New Hobby. Is there anything I haven't tried? Before anyone says "Let Someone Read the Story" it's kinda hard and rude to give someone an incomplete story to read.

Every story I've written I come to a point in editing where I absolutely hate it. After the thousanth pass over the story fixing this or that and getting it as close to how I want it as I can, I just want to move on. I love you baby story but you're driving me nuts. But for me, I power through then take a break before the last pass.

The way I figure it, when you're not in love with something the more willing you are to make changes. When I hate my story, it means I'm deeply familiar with it and it's flaws.