Hunting For Motivation

Lately, I've been struggling to find motivation for writing. Writing Magic & Murder in the Holler was challenging for me, as I'd never written a book before, but it was easy for me to find motivation to write. I was very excited about the story I wanted to tell, which meant I could, and often did, add a few thousand words to my manuscript, without even thinking about it. I wrote around 70k words for my first draft in about six weeks because I was so engaged with the story. My subsequent drafts took around the same time span, because finetuning the story and figuring out how to improve and expand on some ideas had me not only willing to sit down and work on it, but also excited to do so.

With that project currently with an editor, I'm struggling, as I said earlier, to start writing again. I have projects I'm unbelievably excited about. I've made some outlines and started doing the research I need to do, and yet, the idea of sitting down and writing feels daunting. I love writing, and I've always wanted to write, but finding the motivation to sit down, open a document, and begin a new novel started to wane in the new year.

So, I decided to tackle things differently for the moment. My initial plan was to begin the sequel to Magic & Murder in the Holler at this point, but my motivation issues led to me stopping and starting, writing and rewriting, the same first few chapters over and over. Rather than continue to do the same thing I've been doing, and expect different results (Einstein's definition of insanity), I'm taking a vacation from that series and from novel-writing, for the moment. Because I love the series, I love the world I've created and the plans I have for future installments, but I'm unable to give it the love and attention it deserves at the moment.

At time of writing, I'm working on a short story, and I've found the words are coming so easily to me while working on this new project, compared to trying to begin my second novel. In fact, I'm halfway through the first draft of the story. It might expand into something more later, it might remain a short story, but the important thing for me is that I'm finally getting the words flowing again. It's also had the benefit of prompting more ideas that I'm also excited about.

Now, what is the takeaway from this? Sometimes, you need to do something new and different. Sometime, a lack of motivation isn't due to laziness or procrastination, but the result of your brain wanting a different stimuli than you've been trying to give it. Some authors can write a full series, one book right after another, without a break, but I'm not one of those authors. I need some variety in my writing, and that's okay.

Take your time, switch things up when you need to, but keep writing.

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