What motivates you?

 

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

What motivates you to write? What makes you get out your pen and pencil or open your laptop to write? Sometimes we go through spells of unproductiveness. I've tried to work out what causes this. Often when I finish something, I step away from writing for a bit and then can't seem to settle to any other project. I feel unsettled and I cannot work out why, and I've come to the conclusion that I am actually missing writing.

It's the starting that is the difficult bit. Like staring at the blank page, but as soon as I begin putting words on the page, I'm drawn in and I feel happier. Things like editing...I feel I can't get going. Maybe because it seems such an overwhelming task. Yet again, once I start, everything becomes easier.

New tasks or projects come in strange ways. I might read a book or a poem, a sentence, something I see or something that makes me stop, something that needs researching and then I am in writing. Those are my motivation drivers. I love it when that happens because the idea and writing are often instantaneous and the writing process isn't a slog, which it can be at other times when things aren't working. Then it's time for a walk. Leave the work for a while and do something else until the problem has been worked through.

But it doesn't end there. I am motivated by other writers when I meet them at open mic nights, a workshop or writing friends when we get together. Poetry readings, writing conferences, anywhere writers gather and work is read fires me up. I don't feel so alone and I want to go away and get stuck in.

It may be different for you and I'd love to hear about it, because we can all learn from one another. I have now (I hope) solved the problem of leaving comments. It was me 😏 and not Blogger, something that needed to be embedded. Give it a go. I won't know if it works until someone leaves a comment.