Keeping motivated?

You don't write the sequel unless the first book sells. Unless you're just writing it for your own pleasure and for the experience.

You start something new as soon as you can and try to lose yourself in that, so that you don't lose your mind.

Isis said:

My question is: when the crickets start to drown out the 747s screaming toward the airport nearby, how do you find the will to go back to the sequel, the revision, or the Next Big Thing?

Click to expand...

Convince yourself it's a conspiracy and push on while you wear a neat tin-foil hat (which nowadays come in several fashionable colors). Alternatively, you might consider stocking up on insecticides. Crickets can be noisy bastards, indeed.

Buy bug spray, keep writing. The sound of your fingers tapping on the keys should drown out the sounds of the survivors.

You also remember that one book doesn't make you a writer, writing does. So if that book doesn't sell, you just go write the next and maybe that one will. It takes most authors several books before they sell that "first" novel. (Mine was my fourth).

It's up to you whether you revise or move on. If you think the book is close, and just needs some work to fix it, and feel inspired to revise, do that. If you get the bug to work on something new, do that.

Danthia said:

You also remember that one book doesn't make you a writer, writing does. So if that book doesn't sell, you just go write the next and maybe that one will. It takes most authors several books before they sell that "first" novel. (Mine was my fourth).

It's up to you whether you revise or move on. If you think the book is close, and just needs some work to fix it, and feel inspired to revise, do that. If you get the bug to work on something new, do that.

Click to expand...

This. You either keep writing or quit. For most of us, quitting is NOT an option, so you just keep writing and hope one of them will be the one that sells.

I'm in a similar situation, well, not with a sequel, just with getting back to writing. For a while, I was a mad woman, writing/submitting/rewritting/sending partials and fulls/reading "nice" rejections and then starting all over again. Then I just sort of lost my steam, lost my conifdence, and dove into my kids' and hubby's lives so deeply that I had no time for anything of my own. They didn't demand it, probably didn't want or need it, but it was easier pushing and cheering their hopes and dreams then watching mine fail time and time again. So now I want to get back to writing, back to really taking it seriously, and I feel like a newbie all over again, except a loser newbie, one who has failed and taken a looooong break and has to start all over again. It's so strange. Getting out of the habit of writing and submitting really takes it's toll. So keep writing! And keep submitting. My biggest mistake was getting one or two rejections on a full or partial, then shelving the book, thinking it must be crap. I have wasted so much time because of that flaw in my thinking. I don't care if you're rewriting/revising or writing a sequel or both, just keep at it.

I haven't started sending out queries and such yet. But when I do,the crickets will get stomped. I simply don't care. I believe in my writing and myself,so nothing will dissuade me from that. I enjoy writing too much to ever lose the will to write. It's my crack for all time.

Write for the sheer pleasure and joy it brings you,not because you want to get published and earn a million dollar advance. Wait,a mil buys a lot of Christian LaBoutin and Victorian Goth wardrobe.

Seriously,keep writing. Go onto the next book,short story. Writing is meant to be fun, not numbing and tiring. If you start to feel that way,take a short break. My friend once told me that if you are a true writer,no matter how you may feel,your fingers will start to itch and you'll find your way back to it. It's a mistress that never lets go.

Rejection is the name of the game and you cannot let it discourage you. Keep going and keep writing.

The urge to write is a stubborn bedfellow, and not one you can divorce no matter how unfaithful he has been. My one has deserted me at times, but pops back regularly; he woke me at five this morning and made sure I only switched on the processor, telling me that I needn’t know about the wars in the world and directed me to a piece of writing that is overdue.

And then the bastard left me there, all alone, in the dark, with a flickering screen, and the motivation drained away until I had to press the Connect button to find out why Obama won the peace prize.

When I couldn’t make sense of that, only thinking that those dastardly Norwegians wanted to stop him bombing Iran; I went back to that piece of writing.

It was daylight by now, and I did manage a small chunk of writing, better to be judged by others. But I was disrupted again when some unthinking idiot switched on the television, two rooms away. I just had to check to make sure that Iran was still safe, and then they started on about the Taliban taking over in Pakistan and getting their hands on the nuclear button.

Those distractions are not helping my writing motivation.

It's all about the Louboutins for me.

I just want to be rich enough to buy loads of stuff.

The idea of the house in Harwichport keeps me going. You all can divvy up the Louboutins amongst yourselves. I'll just need some flip-flops.