MOTIVATION!

[Siana Blackwood]

Whatever you're doing right now, take a couple of minutes to go and read the first NaNoWriMo pep talk of the year, by Daniel José Older. Doesn't matter of you're doing NaNo or not because it's just about writing in general.

Then when you've done that, also read this other post by the same author: Writing Begins With Forgiveness: Why One of the Most Common Pieces of Writing Advice Is Wrong

[Jᴀy A. Rᴀᴍᴀ 💀🐍]

If you haven't already read today's NaNo pep talk, go read it! Fun stuff. :-)

[Siana Blackwood]

Write a novel in November, or write a novel in six months, or write it in six years. But write. Stare into the messiness and the loneliness and hold on to that part of you that will not stop demanding expression.

The latest NaNoWriMo pep talk, from Alaya Dawn Johnson.

[Siana Blackwood]

[Siana Blackwood]

Writer Resolution, 2017: Write Despite.

Chuck Wendig said:

...no matter what happens, keep writing. No matter how exciting or terrifying the news becomes, write anyway. Force the time. Look away. Focus up. Eyes on your paper. Demand of yourself the creation of stories. Carve out the mental and emotional territory, and the temporal and physical landscape, in order to keep doing what you’re doing. In times like this, the distractions are endless. It’s easy to stop. It’s all too simple to feel overwhelmed by what’s going on and to stare at the Eye of Mordor as it fixes its gaze upon you. And yet, no matter what, you gotta do the thing. You gotta tell the stories. You gotta write it all down.

[Siana Blackwood]

Apparently I haven't tried to motivate anyone since January, so this is sort of ironic, but...

[Siana Blackwood]

Continuing my token efforts at motivation...

[Siana Blackwood]

Some very good advice on coping with life in general, particularly relevant to US-based Stevians: Ways To Stay Motivated In This Sh*t-Shellacked Era Of Epic Stupid. (Terribleminds, language warning. Also, I guess the political leanings are obvious just from the title so YMMV?)

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Also one for the Camp NaNo participants: Writer's Survival Kit NaNoWriMo Tips to Success - a list of 11 hints and tips for keeping yourself on track for July.

[Siana Blackwood]

So, You’re Having A Bad Writing Day by Chuck Wendig.

It happens.

I get a crap writing day at least once a week. Maybe twice. Once in a while, I get a whole bad run of writing days, like I’ve got some kind of creative food poisoning and every day is just the urgent regurgitation of narrative fluids without aim or purpose. It’ll be five heinous days in the word mines, where I’m sweating and raging and kicking dirt....

(As usual, language/NSFW warning.)

[Siana Blackwood]

[Siana Blackwood]

[Jᴀy A. Rᴀᴍᴀ 💀🐍]

I saw this quote from the Dean Koontz pep talk for NaNo today, and I think it's a rather important thing to remember...

One of the hardest things a writer needs to do is learn to tell the difference between worthwhile criticism and mere naysaying. Here are a few ways to tell the difference.

1. Worthwhile criticism will be highly specific; naysaying will be a broad kind of negativism.
2. Worthwhile criticism of specific detail will be delivered in a helpful tone; naysaying will have a snarky edge to it.
3. Worthwhile criticism comes from people who have a deep experience of fiction—writing it, editing it, marketing it; naysaying comes from people who have done none of that.

Sound familiar? I'd say this applies equally well to anything your shit brain says. It usually tends to get really active right about now, as the Week 2 Blues set in, and you start to question yourself. It also opens up the mental gates to allow others' negativity to warp your perception of yourself as a writer.

I think it's a very useful thing to remember that constructive criticism, wherever it comes from, is useful when it applies to specific things, when it comes from a qualified source, and when it it is polite and balanced rather than snarky and shitty.

Just now, I was going through the old impostor syndrome - I'm not a real writer, I don't deserve to put a pen to the page, my story is shit, I'm breaking all the rules, I'll never get it to amount to anything, nobody wants to buy another fantasy epic, and I should just burn the whole thing down and give up.

Now, I won't say that this entirely went away, but I did need to be reminded that the voice saying this is spouting the type of negativity that I don't need. Who cares about any of it? I'm not writing this for anyone but myself right now. Nobody - not even I - have the right to take away the joy of creating.

So go forth and create, and don't overthink it. Now's not the time for thinking - but just writing.

I would highly recommend reading the whole thing here.

[Ohaeri]

I found this helpful:

[Jᴀy A. Rᴀᴍᴀ 💀🐍]

Writing Tips to Fortify Your Writing Resolutions by Grant Faulkner

[Jᴀy A. Rᴀᴍᴀ 💀🐍]

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