Motivation

[J_Chemist]

Force. Once I force myself to start, I tend to not stop.

 

[StrongArm]

Do something completely different.

if your normal routine is to come home from work and write, then instead come home from work and go to the park for a walk, or your local pub for a beer (many of the greatest authors wrote their masterpieces in pubs).

Our brains get used to doing the same things over & over.

This is called Hedonic Adaptation. It basically means that the things that excited you, that gave you pleasure (such as writing a cool webnovel), no longer give you as much pleasure. Your brain becomes used to it.

you can learn more about it from this funny video:

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Enjoy what you write.

No. seriously. If it isn't fun, you won't do it. You have to look forward to writing to write well. I like my stories. I often will take time off to go back and re-read them, just because I like the story. If you like the story and look forward to where you are going with it, then you'll write.

Just remember this trick, "If you don't write it down, it didn't happen." So you can daydream all you want about your story, until you start typing, it didn't happen and you can't go back to read it again."

 

[StainedGlassThreads]

I obsessively repeat to myself 'it doesn't need to be good, it just needs to exist.' Doesn't matter if what ends up on the page is the most putrid word vomit to ever exist, that's why we have editing.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

I obsessively repeat to myself 'it doesn't need to be good, it just needs to exist.' Doesn't matter if what ends up on the page is the most putrid word vomit to ever exist, that's why we have editing.

EXACTLY.

Honestly, I do my best work on the second and third draft... usually.

I have to admit, it's not working with Flip the script. That's a problem as well. You sometimes reach a point where whatever you write.. sucks and you can't figure out how to make it good. When that happens...

STOP.

That's why I have three books on going. I can switch up among them so I don't get so burned out I come to 'hate' a story. I know what to do, MECHANICALLY with FTS, but I don't know how to write it WELL. I want it to be GOOD. Something I will come back and reread again and again and be happy with.

I find three books to be a good happy medium. DON'T FALL INTO THE TRAP OF JUST STARTING A NEW BOOK OVER AND OVER. It's fun to start a new book, but you got to get back to the original eventually. So, going round robin on three seems to work for me. And hey...

If You do what I do, which is they are actually three parallel stories in the same setting, you get to steal from one book to the other. Concepts in one fit the others. When I explain how magic works over here, it applies over there. When I explain a soul in that book, it's the same as this book. If I feel the need, I can steal ideas from one to the other so that I can... well... make filler, really, but sometimes you need to do filler. It's not a sin. It has its place. Some people won't read all three. For example, HKN really has so many chapters that help explain the mechanics of what is going on, but I only got about 12 readers on that one.

Then again, I sort of like making people hunt for easter eggs, so I don't do cross book idea theft that often.