Jul 5, 2011

Wannabe Writers #56 (Lost Motivation)

Wannabe Writers is my Internet writing group. Anyone is welcome to join. It's a place to meet other writers, ask questions, and get feedback. Basically, my posts are about my current writing progress, my problems, and any questions I need help answering. If you've created a similar post of your own lately, feel free to link in the comments.

I'm posting early this week b/c I missed last Thursday's post while working and I need advice!


Where I am in the writing process: Unpublished! For the month of May and June I was speed-writing through the first draft of the novel I'm calling ELIXIR. I reached about 50K and then two weekends ago I moved.  (To Florida, yay!)
My current problem(s): I haven't written in two weeks.  I haven't even opened a word document in two weeks.  I haven't done anything writing related.  And now--finially I have some free time--and I'm blogging and avoiding writing.  It's just, I can't decide if I want to keep speed-writing my way through ELIXIR or go back to my other novel (the one I started summer 2009!) GLITCH and keep pressing through with that one.  Either way, it all seems so overwhelming.  I don't know what to do.

My question(s) this week: How do I get back my motivation?

5 comments:

Miranda Hardy said...

I wish I had the answer for you, but I think finding the right motivation is different for everyone. When I felt unmotivated, I attended a writers group meeting and kept going until the momentum started again.

I also read a lot more when I'm not writing and that helps, too. I hope you find your motivation soon.

Elizabeth Briggs said...

I vote for powering through Elixir. Get it done! You can't do anything with an unfinished novel.

Christina Reads YA said...

Ah, I struggle with this constantly. Sometimes I have my protag's voice with me when I'm writing and sometimes not so I have to stop, and once I stop, it's hard to go back. I'd say go write GLITCH if you're itching to do that. Taking some time off of ELIXIR may remind you of why you loved it in the first place--you'll come back to it eventually.

amber d* said...

I find myself in this situation all the time. Sometimes the break is what you need. I'd say whatever story is hitting you the day you sit down to write is the story you work on.

Maggie said...

Reading helps. Taking long walks helps. And showering helps--don't ask!

Sometimes it also helps to just not write if I don't feel like it. I hate forcing it. When I force it, it usually sucks anyway, so what's the point?

Good luck!