Are you self-motivated?

I had to work hard to learn to self-motivate. I'm still not quite an expert at it.

I'd have to say very much so! I've always been this way -- usually results in my taking on too many projects and trying to accomplish one too many things at any given time. I love the escape of writing --- after a hard day of work there's nothing I'd rather do than write or read a good book and escape from reality, even if just for an hour or two. It's the one place where you can be in control and that means a lot in this crazy world.

I'm okay with self-motivation. If I know the story is good, and that people will like it, I'll be more motivated. But, for me, motivation is a flow thing; if I quit for any length of time, then the flow slows... and my will and determination to write starts to ebb.

I've always been self motivated, but I started cooking with gas after college.

I was homeschooled and have always worked for myself since, so I've never known any way of getting things done other than self-motivation. Because of that, I do things in my own way on my own time and don't take well to anyone else telling me how and when to do things.

I suppose, but I don't know if it's motivation or pigheadedness. Right now I want to write novels. I suspect if I didn't want to write novels, there wouldn't be anything or anyone who could force me to get on with the next page.

I've finally gotten some self-motivation. Now writing is so natural to me that I don't have to bitch and moan about doing it anymore when I don't want to. I just naturally gravitate towards the computer and type until I've met my word count goal for the day.

Self-motivation and self-discipline are closely related. You might try making yourself a schedule, setting aside a certain amount of time a day that you will write, or a certain word-count goal. You could start with just one week and try to train yourself to meet your goals/stick to your schedule. After all, it's just one week (that's what you can tell yourself when you don't feel like it, or when you'd rather do something else.) Offer yourself a reward for sticking to it.

There is no such thing as a career, hobby, sport, etc. that you will always feel like doing. Athletes don't always feel like going to practice. But they have the self-disciple to do it anyway.

That said, it's OK to take breaks, and it's normal to have lapses in discipline and slack off. I certainly do, too often.

My point is that there are things in your life that you do as a matter of course (like brush your teeth, get up and go wherever you're supposed to go in the morning, etc.) and writing needs to become one of those things. Even if you choose to have a once-a-week writing marathon instead of writing every day, it needs to be something you're trained to do at certain times.

No, I'm not.

I work better with a deadline, so I need someone to hold me accountable. I work best when I have one to three critique partners. Any more than that, and critiquing their work gets in the way of my own work.

I'm trying to get myself into a regular routine, because even with the critique partners, I tend to procrastinate.

So, anyway, it's definitely something I struggle with. You're not alone.

ToddWBush said:

I'm okay with self-motivation. If I know the story is good, and that people will like it, I'll be more motivated.

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How do you know either of those things, in advance?

That's a serious question.

caw

I'm not. I'm a lazy bitch. Always have been, always will be. But writing is fun, so in the end I will reach my goals.

I generally think I'm fairly self-motivated, but NaNo is really helping me! So maybe I'm not? *is not being very scientific about this*

CocoCat said:

If so, where you always that way or did you have to work on it? Or, do you have to find motivation elsewhere?

I write web content for a living so after I'm done spending my day trying to talk clients around to pulling their fingers out and twiddling whatever info I did manage to get from them into something compelling and relatively well-written, I am bored with words and my battery is low. It's so good to get that feeling of having invested some effort in myself every time I finish an edit on another chapter. I just wish I could bring myself to work on it more than I actually do. The document is open, I don't know why I'm writing on here not there.

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I sympathise. It must be extremely difficult to motivate yourself to write on your own project, after spending all day finding appropriate words for others’ follies.

Apart from sympathising, I haven’t got much to offer, apart from suggesting that you find a way of separating the ‘finding words for others’, to ‘finding words for me’. Or, when you write in the evenings and at weekends, don’t worry so much about the appropriateness of your words, worry about that during the editing.

I also have a document open two clicks away, but I’m here, ain’t I? Feeling guilty.

Straka said:

I've always been self motivated, but I started cooking with gas after college.

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My sympathy for your lost brain cells.

Yes and...no. I write whenever I feel like it and I may go a week or two of nothing and then have a sudden burst of interest. I usually get inspired to write after critiquing for someone else; something about editing just stirs those creative thoughts.

I use to be. I would put on music and instantly go to work... now school has to come first (sigh). I rarely end up with time to just sit down and sleep. (5 hours of sleep all last week!) I tryed self motivating myself but it wasnt working with how busy i was so i started writing while i sat in physics class... (yes i know i'm a horrible student, but my teacher doesnt teach and even if i pay attention i'm not learning anything!) I force myself to write the whole class so at least i can say i'm doing something... good luck finding your motivation.

I'm self-motivated in achieving my goals. It's what goals I have that changes. I wanted to be a musician. I tried. I sucked. So I didn't want to do that anymore.

Then I wanted to write a novel. I already had fond memories of writing (blogs, school projects) so I sat down 3 times a week and wrote and wrote, and after about 5 months I had a completed novel.

Then I got a job, and was self-motivated to actually have money for a change. So I lasted 6 months at a job where 90% of people last about 4 weeks. But then I was fired (bad month - sales ) and so I started writing again.

Got 2/3rds through second book and lost my way. Put off writing for about 2 months. This was when I was more interested in thinking "I'm never going to be published," rather than acknowledging that I enjoyed writing.

Now I've signed up for NaNoWriMo (search it - it's still early days yet) and I'm back in the groove. I've set myself a personal challenge of doing 100k this month (instead of the 50k NaNo recommends) and you know what? I reckon I'll achieve that too.

All that said, I'm not terribly disciplined, but my motivation comes from having goals. I never would've dreamed of doing 100k in a month when I wrote my first book. But I've got some experience now, and thanks to this fabulous peer group of AW, I've set myself a goal and I intend to achieve it.

So, set yourself a dead-set goal! You will finish a chapter every 2 days (reasonable, I think, unless you have long chapters - I go for 2 chapters a day now) - and hopefully that will serve as your external motivation. Spend an hour fantasising about how good it'd be to finish a chapter every 2 days for, say, a fortnight. Then get cracking.

Wow, I should be a motivational speaker, except I'd recommend cigarettes to people wanting to lose weight .

Mmm...not really.

I like to work when I know that my efforts will be fruitful.

I'm self-motivated. Because I write for fun. Even when I'm getting paid to write, I write for fun. Fun is my motivation.

At the moment, I'm NaNo motivated.
Usually I love to write, but sometimes my brain gears get rusty. what I find works is to set a time limit. Either that, or get a writing prompt from somewhere. Or make a bet with someone (A real bet, with money) that you're going to have written 2000 words by the end of the day. NOthing motivates like the idea of losing face and money!

I agree with the self-motivation is very similar to self-discipline concept. I am very self-motivated and very patient. I learned a long time ago that sometimes you have to just do something whether you want to or not, and that the only way to get things done is to sit down and do them. I do it with school, work, basically anything that needs doing. In a few minutes it's going to be forcing myself to get up on my owie leg and clean house.

Anyway, writing is much the same. I enjoy writing and most of the time that is enough to make me do it. However, sometimes I get stuck on something, or I have a particular goal that I want to meet, and that's when I have to really make myself sit down and do it.

I don't really mind, though. There is also a lot of gratification in accomplishing something that needs to be done.

blacbird said:

How do you know either of those things, in advance?

That's a serious question.

caw

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No one else has addressed this one, so I'll try.

My own answer is that you don't know. Most of us -- probably all of us -- believe that our work tells a good story that people will like. We wouldn't write it otherwise.

Crit readers can help, but they still can't tell you how your story will fare in the wider world. Or with agents. Or with publishers.

All we can do is write the best story we can.

Yes, I would say so. Mainly because I'm quite an anxious person and I get The Fear bigtime if I don't keep accomplishing stuff week to week.

I am self motivated. Always have been, but my problem is procrastination. I really had to work on it. Finally, I am almost there. However, I do slip up from time to time.

I'm not.