Staying Motivated When You’re Skint, Pissed Off and Your Protagonists are Stalking Your Nightmares

You’re skint! You’ve been working on the same soul-hungry, ink-draining, end-dodging novel/screenplay/collection for so long that its characters have started to lurk around the corners of your nightmares and jump out at you with their demonic hair and crazy weapons of doom. When you wake up they’re still there, demanding your attention even though it’s a sunny day and you’ve been told there are actually real people in the world. You’ve starting to compare yourself to people your age, from your best mate to J.K. Rowling, both of whom have achievements that far outweigh your own. You’ve started to hide from your laptop because it’s looking at you all the time and you’re sure you can hear it calling you. Why aren’t you writing? You can’t run from me forever! You walk into the library and your heart sinks at the sheer volume of books confronting you. What could you possibly have to say that hasn’t already been said? And no one’s reading them anyway. You’re battling to produce a masterpiece that will end up in this large-print, pensioner-fingered graveyard before it’s even lived a life. All is lost!

But you know deep down that this is what you signed up for. You know that you can make a killing but not a living with a pen, so you drag yourself through the lean years. You know that there will be days when your characters salute you when the sun goes down and you can snuggle under your duvet as a hero of the craft, so you tolerate the struggle. You know that the majority of writers find success later in life and you’re in no hurry, but how can you keep your sanity in the meantime, when your self-confidence has buggered off in a taxi with your talent and you’re sitting on the floor thinking the unthinkable – of getting a proper job? Maybe this will help …

Read Something Awesome

This could be the book that you’ve been waiting to hit the shelves, a biography by an author who has been through what you’re going through, or your favourite book, which you’ve already read one hundred times. There is a danger of falling out of love with books when your own has had you in a headlock for so long, so be good to yourself and get into bed with a classic.

Do something Awesome
I waste a lot of time when I should be writing and I end up doing nothing. I think I’m fooling myself, but I’ve got my number. Watching ‘just one episode’ on Netflix, cleaning the house from top to bottom, alphabetising my shoes; this is not writing and I am fooling nobody. If writing just isn’t going to happen then better to be honest about it and go out into the world than spend a day wracked with guilt and zero productivity. Go have a good time and feel good. Go and do something awesome and inspiring and your creative world will reap the benefits anyway.

Make Contact with Awesome People

Write a letter (yes, a letter) to your favourite author. Why? Because they might actually write back to you with words of encouragement. Because it will make you feel good to reach out. Join writing forums and get Tweeting, join a real-life writing group to meet other writers who have pulled half their hair out over questions of point of view and characterisation. Get support.

Try an Awesome New Medium

If you’re a novelist, have a go at writing a screenplay; if you’re a screenwriter, try your hand at poetry; if you’re a poet, see what it feels like to develop a play; if you write comedy, get serious; if you are a literary author, lighten up; if you tend to write long, sprawling sentences, see what short bursts are like. Go further still; if you usually tell a story with words, try doing it with music or art, film or dance. There are many ways to tell a story and so many creative spaces in which to park your beautiful mind.

Write to Your Awesome Self

I read this tip in a book many years ago and it’s such a charming idea. Quite simply, write an emergency letter to be opened in times of deep dejection and distress. Write it when you’re feeling great. You’re the best writer ever. George Orwell and Virginia Woolf had a love affair and you were the result. There has never been a writer quite like you. Write it all down and go into specifics, remind yourself of what inspired you to write in the first place and what you would like to achieve with this project. Be kind to yourself.

Need help? Hayley Sherman has been supporting independent writers for nearly ten years as an editor, creative consultant and ghost-writer. Visit www.whoosh-editing.com for more details.

A Love Letter to Anyone Writing a First Novel

Dear *Insert your name, you brave and crazy adventurer*,

I just wanted to write you a quick note to express my love for you and everything you’re doing at the moment.

You know when you’re stuck in a waiting room for hours and all there is to read is a copy of last week’s Daily Mirror? Well, that would be what my whole life would be like without you and your kind, plunging headfirst into your wondrous and mangled minds and bringing back the bounty.

You may think me insincere, and I apologise for being forward (I hardly know you). It’s just that for every book by Kurt Vonnegut, Donna Tartt, Charles Dickens, Stephen King, Jane Austen and *insert your favourite author* there are hundreds of thousands of half-finished, abandoned, unloved manuscripts sitting, embarrassed and cold, in boxes in attics around the world, and I don’t want this to happen to yours. Imagine just how much great fiction has been swallowed up by the great self-doubt epidemic of our times. It may be brash and forward of me to write to you in this way, but I don’t want you to give up. The world needs to hear your voice, taste your truths and play with the stickle bricks of your creation.

If you’re flying high, writing lots and pushing forward then I hope that you will still appreciate my message of love (I salute you), but if you're struggling to make it to the page on yet another cold November morning, when there are bills to be paid and a hundred nothings out of the window to distract you, there may be a few ideas I can offer to help.

First of all, get in first; kick your doubts in the balls before they can drag you into the dark alley. You can meditate, try some self-hypnosis or write a letter to yourself to be opened at times of ‘Why am I doing this? I’m crap’. Don’t be alone; join a group or take a course. And then of course there’s the internet, keeper of a relentless haul of porn, skateboarding kittens and writing forums, groups, Twitter, etc. Just make sure that your doubt doesn’t become procrastination in the hands of social-media addiction.

Sometimes it’s not just doubt though; it could be that personal pressure is causing you to freeze at the sight of a biro. It could also be that your idea isn’t quite developed enough to plunge into the writing stages and more planning or research is needed. Try some writing exercises. No amount of staring at a blank piece of paper is going to turn a creative void into a bestselling masterpiece. Another problem could be the strength of your idea. Writing a mega slab of fiction could take years and is daunting even to the most experienced practitioner, but if you’ve chosen to write something that you only have lukewarm feeling for, you’re going to struggle.

And then there’s comfort. Take regular screen breaks, stretch, go for a walk, go and find inspiration. If you find that none of the above is affecting you, it could simply be that you've been overdoing it, or that you’re not comfortable in your environment. Setting up a writing space that is just for you – maybe even the kitchen table when the kids are at school – is essential to the wellbeing of you and your work.

Remember that there is no right or wrong way to be a writer. If writing at night works for you, then great. If starting at the end of your novel and working backwards is for you then do it. Maybe you find that working on more than one project and alternating your attention between the two will keep you interested. Writing is one of the few professions where you can suit yourself and that is something to be celebrated. If you have personal problems in your life that you think may be clashing with your ability to immerse yourself in the creative process then it may be that some life evaluation is necessary before you begin. I don’t want to pry into your life, but if there's an elephant in the room that you’ve been trying to pretend is not there, it’s not going to be any less visible when you're trying to get down to some writing.

Finally, if all else fails, it's discipline that will see you through. Plan working times and deadlines and stick to them. You chose to write for a reason; remember that reason as often as you can and just write.

I hope that this letter has helped.

Lots of Love

Hayley xx

 

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