Top 5 Ways to Destroy Writing Motivation

The perfect writing method: as of yet, no one has been able to find it, though the world would probably implode if an author ever found the key to churning out thousands upon thousands of words crafted from pure gold without any effort. Don’t let books like “Writing for Dummies” fool you – you can no more learn everything there is about the writing craft from reading one book than you can expect to become an expert in advanced physics by learning basic arithmetic.

But, on the other hand, do we know enough DON’Ts to help guide us towards a better collection of DOs? Sadly, yes. Any writer can give you a long list of things that they have tried and found to be failures. Writers are as varied as the techniques they employ, and yet the things we find ourselves doing to our detriment are usually similar across the board. Here are the top five that I have come across that do more damage to a writer’s motivation and confidence than any other.

A Few Items of Business

Happy summer, Far-Sighters!

This week’s post is going to be a little concise, since I intend to spend the next few days concentrating on my novel. The story has been marinating long enough – it’s high time to get some more words down on paper (screen? whatever)! However, I do have a few things to discuss before I delve back into the world of Andromeda and leave you hanging until next week.

First: “Agents & Editors: A Conversation with Four Literary Agents”

If you have not read this excellent interview from Poets and Writers’ Michael Szczerban, you should stop what you’re doing and read it now! I’ve put it up on Twitter and Facebook already, so you have no excuse. Seth Fishman, Claudia Ballard, Alia Hanna Habib, and Melissa Flashman represent some powerful voices in the publishing world, and their advice and inside look on the agent-writer relationship is golden.

Second:  Editing Services

Summer is a great time to kick off your submission strategy, but before you do, make sure that you’ve had a thorough critique of your work! Whether you’re looking for assistance with your query letter or you need a full read-through of your project, Far-Sight Fiction stands ready to provide editing services for all shapes and sizes of fiction in the genres of

            -Fantasy

            -Science Fiction

            -YA Fiction

Pop over to the Editing Services page and see what best fits your needs!

Third: What Can Far-Sight Do For You?

I’m interested in hearing what you would like to see covered on the site, whether that be the topic of a blog post or a full-time webpage. What would benefit you as a writer, a reader, or someone looking to enter the publishing industry? Drop me a comment or an email and let me know!

Here’s a special thank you to all my readers who are exploring the world of fiction and publishing with me. Please feel free to send me a line from time to time. If you wave, I promise to wave back! Also be sure to check out my spaces on Twitter and Facebook for more content throughout the week.

Keep reading! Keep writing!

Progress Report – Wading Through the Planning Stages

Alright then – it’s been about four months since I first announced my next attempt at writing a novel. Time to come clean and evaluate how far four months has gotten me.

Between the end of January and now, I have written twenty blog posts. I have updated, revised, and submitted a short story for publication. I have edited two full-length, young adult novels. I have attended a wedding and in a couple of weeks will be attending a funeral. I spent two months of the four working seven days a week. I have helped conceptualize, draft, and begin the research and compilation of material for an entirely new musical group. I adopted a cat.

In and amongst all of this nonsense, I have created a working document that is over forty pages long, only eight of which are part of the actual draft. The rest consists of notes, world building (which is not really a fair term to use, because technically I’m juggling eleven worlds), character development, a timeline, backstory doodles, a working soundtrack, an alien alphabet and number system, the vector image of one character’s personal crest, pre-planned formatting, and a half-finished story outline.

The planning stage of writing has always been both my strongest skill and the one area where I inevitably stumble. I love thinking up and putting together all the fine details of the setting, the characters, the history of the world that I have created and all of the inner implications that have to be dealt with. I adore closing my eyes and watching it bloom across my mind. It takes time, of course, but it’s all fun work, and I can complete it at a fairly casual pace. No pressure, right? After all, this is my domain.

Unfortunately, once I have these vivid people and places set up, I often struggle to decide what to do with them.

Plot. That’s the point that really tends to crunch me. You noticed that my previous list ended on the fact that my story outline is only half-finished. To be fair, the reason I am stuck right now has to do with an unclarified objective. The main antagonist is attempting to accomplish a massive and somewhat vague task, and I’m having trouble deciding what would be the most believable way to do it.

Until I can come up with what the hero will be fighting against (or for? ho-ho-ho!), I am for the moment stuck.

But we’re practicing being gracious to ourselves, remember. I am pulling these details out of the ether after all. While my subconscious chews on the problem, waiting for the right inspiration to come along and kickstart the creative juices, I am more than content to nibble away at all of the other bits that can still be worked on. The first chapter is about a third of the way done. But I hesitate to continue too quickly with the actual writing until I have all my ducks in a row. After all, how the antagonist chooses to fulfill its dastardly plans is a pretty crucial portion of anyone’s story.

So work is slow. But not dead. I feel I am very, very close to the point where the only excuse I will have for not writing is sheer laziness. I am saved at the moment by that empty half of my outline.

In the meantime, I have plenty of work to keep me occupied, in both the writing world and out. I continue to make little character connections, little revelations that strengthen my hold on the world that I am preparing to reveal. I can ward away discouragement when I sit down and really think how far I have come since this idea first burst into my mind at the beginning of the year.

I’m really hoping that I’ll think of a title soon too, other than the name of the main character. Character named stories have never really sat well with me for my own projects. All my favorite titles would easily double as Prague Rock albums.

So where are you in your current project? Comment below and let us know! Minion and I are all ears.

Don’t Stare at It Till You Hate It

I’ve been waiting a long time to write this particular blog post. Several topics of conversation this week have made it particularly apt. And since I am beginning to ‘recover’ from the revisions of my last story and am turning once again to my newest project, I need to hear these words more than ever.

There’s a popular joke about how we artists perpetually hate our work. Part of this is healthy – it drives us always to improve, to try new things, to be inspired by what other people are doing. But let’s be honest: most of it is simply self-loathing and perfectionism wrapped up in a cute, kitschy little bundle that we can all pretend to laugh at while secretly wishing it weren’t true.

Some people make art only for themselves. It’s a personal journey and something that they enjoy in the privacy of their own lives and never more than that. The rest of us make art for other people. Whether we’re looking for approval among other artists, or attempting to inspire or entertain someone – we’re agonizing through the act of creating so that ‘the masses’ can be changed by what we have brought into the world.

One problem is that we can become too obsessed with what ‘the masses’ think, and we link our success, our value, to the number of individuals who get to see our work. Why else would we pursue large publication houses? Why else would an artist try to get their work placed in a high-profile gallery? Why else would a director brave the waters of the big-film industry?

Because we want to be seen by as many people as possible. Don’t get me wrong, these goals are wonderful! Trying to get your art out there to be enjoyed it is a great thing to do. But it shouldn’t be the basis on which your worth is decided. And it shouldn’t be the whip that you flog yourself with in order to keep working harder and harder.

A wise friend (and fellow writer) told me this week about the idea of being gracious to ourselves. A very common urge among writers is to be hyper critical of the work we produce and, in turn, of our own personage. After all, the editors and publishers will be no less harsh, so we have to toughen up and make sure we catch all the things they will hate before we send it to them. Right?

Well…kind of. Think of it as if you were giving advice to a friend. If your writing partner brought you a piece of work and asked for your opinion, would you say half of the things that you say to yourself when you are critiquing your own work? I’m sure the answer to that is no. And why is that? Because we love them and we want to be honest without being cruel.

Why are we so content with being cruel to ourselves? Do the words hurt any less when we are speaking them as opposed to someone else? No, they don’t. We can pretend that it’s different, but it really isn’t. And if you insist on looking at this logically, there is no better way to destroy your own confidence and productivity than by continually beating yourself down.

There is an absolutely beautiful article by John C. Wright on writing “Your Book of Gold” that I hope all writers one day have the chance to read. He discusses how we should not write for the masses, who will 90% of the time absorb our works one day and forget about them the next, but rather how we should write for that one person in the world for whom our work is a lifeline. Even if a very tiny portion of the world’s population ever sees what you do, there will be someone out there who values your work above all others.  

So don’t hold on to the work until you hate it. Don’t stare at it day after day until you can no longer see the truth. Whether this happens before you start writing, in the midst of writing, or in the editing phase, be gracious to yourself. And remember:

“This book will be someone’s absolutely favorite book of all time, and it will come to him on some dark day and give him sunlight, and open his eyes and fill his heart and make him see things in life even you never suspected, and will be his most precious tale, and it will live in his heart like the Book of Gold.”

-John C. Wright