how to stay motivated to write | writing tips & tricks

[Music] Hello everybody welcome back to my channel I am back with another writing tips video today I'm going to be giving my tips and tricks on how to stay motivated while writing hopefully making this video will help me take my own advice because I too need some help in the motivation Department finishing writing projects is always really difficult because when you work on something for so long you will inevitably get kind of bored of it or lose the passion for it um that doesn't mean that you know you don't love that project anymore it just is it just can get a little repetitive to be working on the same idea for so long and I don't know about you but I definitely struggle with um continuing or finishing a project when that initial spark is gone because it will it believe leave that first new idea excitement will always go away when the idea is not so new anymore um but we all want to finish our writing projects or get further along so we all just kind of need some some tips some motivation sometimes to finish projects while I am struggling to write my current project I will say I have finished a full 990,000 word for first draft in 5 months using some of these tips so that's my qualifications but that doesn't mean I don't still struggle so that kind of leads me into my first point this is more advice than an actual tip that you can apply but something that I heard once was you can't always rely on passion to finish your writing projects because as I was saying earlier it gets a bit repetitive always thinking about and writing the same book for months and months at a time so you can't always rely on that that that passion I mean every writer knows that moment when you are working on a new story idea and you're like it always happens when you're in the middle of a chapter and you're writing and you just feel the excitement die it's Soul crushing but if we only rely on that excitement like it nothing would ever get done so something that I always try to remember is that you can't rely on passion and you know I love writing it's my favorite thing in the whole world so there will always be a love there but I'm talking about that excitement of finally getting to start the new idea that's going to go away and I have to stay motivated so once the passion goes away you really have to lean into just motivation and determination to finish obviously if you just want to write for fun and you just want to follow that spark that is 100% fine but you know for main for main projects that I want to be get published you know you kind of have to hunker down you know and and really finish so let's move into the actual tips that we can apply to finish and I'm saying we because my motivation to finish my main project is not great right now I should be filming this video in front of a mirror or something so I like talk to myself anyways let's get into the first tip the first tip that I have is to romanticize your writing and that's honestly just advice on how to be motivated for anything you have to make it seem really special and like fun in your mind with studying you can put on some like aesthetic background music or go to a cute Cafe and study like that applies to writing too make it feel less of a chore like something that you have to do and make it feel really exciting cuz if that project's not exciting you can make the whole Act of writing exciting some ways that I do this is I will go outside and write like put out a blanket sit in the grass and write cuz it just feels like you're doing something special special so going other places and writing you could go to a cafe there's not a lot of cafes near me but you go to a cafe you go to a park just take it somewhere else honestly you could go to another room in your house like that's something that I tried um for my last writing project and it really helps you just move to a different room and you're like this is so fun just switch things up and that will bring back some of the excitement some smaller ways of romanticizing it or making your writing seem really like Fantastical in your mind or something I don't know what the word is but some smaller ways are to make a playlist for your book make a Pinterest board featuring The aesthetic of your book or um just some pins that remind you of your character you could also like do little sketches or Doodles of your characters I just find that making things about my book that's like outside of the actual document like making a playlist is super fun cuz you can kind of explore the vibe I don't like to say that I don't like that word but you know what I mean you can explore the kind of feel of your book in music Pinterest is the same thing just make a little mood board and you can really see the big picture and it kind of reminds you why you loved this project so much when you romanticize it in that way something else that I do that's kind of along these same lines is I will just put my headphones on and listen to music and just imagine scenarios for my book I'll either imagine scenes and let them kind of play out in my mind or I'll use that as kind of like a brainstorming technique and that really to respark that the imagination and the fun that was initially there at the beginning yeah essentially this whole tip is just make your writing fun again put that on a red hat yeah and do that in any way that works for you make the activity fun and make the idea fun again by kind of expanding um your imagination another way to romanticize your writing is to fill out writing worksheets or writing templates um those can be really fun because it's like an activity that you get to put your energy in but it's about your book and it's about writing and so in the end it's helpful but it's different from just sitting there staring at your document it's a little bit more fun to do like a little writing worksheet um you can find a ton of different ones online for free there's also some options on Etsy if you wanted to buy a nicer one like you could buy some plotting templates and just kind of fill them out and for me it really helps just make you appreciate that idea again when you get to put it on a cute worksheet I got some super cute templat sent to me by A really lovely viewer so I'm going to to me filling those out and I'm just going to show you how fun it is so first of all these templates were super easy to download and print out and they are stunning I put mine in a binder for more organized access just writing my name on the front here this is kind of like a plotting planner for people that don't love to plot but I love to plot and this was still super fun so it's for everybody let's see the inside I love this design it's so simple and easy to use but it's really pretty it's super easy to start very well explained and well thought out just diving right in putting my title and other info for my book this planner would be perfect for my pantser viewers who just want some help with how to get a brief outline I love this worksheet because it's not too intense with like a ton of plotting which I know a lot of people don't enjoy but it's very thorough and it has everything that you'll need to make a good outline with all the information that you need there are so many helpful worksheets in here um we've got some examples of themes and character arcs which is such a great idea I am obsessed with this planner and you can get one for yourself at the lovely pancer pen Etsy shop I will link her shop in the description um she has so many different templates to choose from here's the one that I showed she also got a website I just wanted to say thank you for sending me these templates again I love them they're super helpful I hope everyone watching gives him a try as well um help elevate your story tip number two is to reward yourself do you remember back in school when you were in elementary school and you would do really good on a project and you'd get like a sicker we're all little kids at heart so you need to reward yourself for work you know there are days where the only thing getting me through my writing session is knowing that I'm going to have a cookie afterwards like sometimes that's what you got to do some ways that I reward myself is with food just be like okay after I do this I can get a little treat maybe you could say um if I write a th words I'll go out and get a fun little coffee drink I don't drink coffee but again you do you if I'm really into like a show at the moment I'll say okay if I sit down and finish this chapter I can binge watch this show later give yourself something that will help you get through the writing session something else that I do to reward myself and make it fun to reach the goals is and I've talked about this before I have little stickers on my wall for the number of chapters that I need to write in total and every time I finish one I get to rip one of the little stickers off you know it sounds dumb but it's really fun tip number three is to make small goals kind of goes with the reward yourself one if you give yourself massive goals like if you're like today I want to write five chapters in one sitting that's going to feel a lot harder when you give yourself smaller goals you get rewarded more often and then it like it's the brain connection of getting something fun when you hit the goal but if you give yourself a goal that's really hard to attain you'll never be rewarded so give yourself smaller goals so then you hit them more often if that makes sense my fourth tip is read reading helps motivate me in so many ways first of all reading is just fun because reading is essentially studying for writing it helps kind of introduce new words new phrases into your vocabulary so it it's very inspiring in that way but also whenever I go into like a book store or a library or even when I just hold a book in my hand I just am like I want to hold my book in my hand and that thought in itself is really motivating to grit my teeth and finish because I'm just imagining how rewarding that would feel to hold the finished thing in your hands how great will that feel don't you want to feel that feeling that's something that I try to think about a lot is how incredible will it feel to finish like sometimes it's tedious it's annoying it's boring to work on the same project but how will you feel when it's done and you get to hold it and you get to see it and you get to read it exciting my fifth tip is a tip that people might not like but that is outlining I know a lot of people are um pancers I know that because the last video I posted was an outlining video and a lot of people in the comments were like yeah I'm a pancer so I know that there are people who are not going to like this advised but when you have even just a rough outline you know what's you're doing next so it kind of helps with writer's block because you already know what's happening next I I mean I love plotting so maybe I'm not the person to speak on this but I feel like when I know what's coming next and I like know what scenes I'm going to write next like it's really exciting cuz I I'm excited to write those parts instead of just being like a paner not knowing what's coming next like or knowing a like a a tiny little idea and just like reading through your outline or something it's really exciting cuz you're like oh I can't wait to write that I can't wait to write that like sometimes there's like a scene that is kind of filler and you're like I don't want to write this but the next scene is really exciting and I think when you have an outline and you know that excitement is coming it helps you get through the maybe harder ones to write so consider outlining okay just consider it you don't have to do it as intense as me you could fill out one of the little writer's worksheets again they're in the description that helps a little bit with just knowing where the story is going okay just try it maybe my sixth tip is to hold yourself accountable in some way how I do that is I will tell a close friend about the book or I'll post online about it and so that there are people out there in the world besides you that are excited about this book and they're kind of like I want to read it when it's done I want to see this and that's very motivating um to know that there's somebody out there that is excited about your book very motivating and if that's not motivating to you like to have kind of pressure sometimes we need pressure just saying I told my best friend about the book I'm currently writing and every time she comes over she's like is it done and I'm like no and it's like you have you have to watch them be like disappointed every time and so in that in itself motivates you because again think about how fun it would be for them to read the book and to get that feedback from them and for them to finally see it like how fun so I find that really motivating to tell other people and hold yourself accountable also posting about your book online is another way of romanticizing it you could make little edits little montages of your book and that's just really fun to give your book another life if that makes any sense tip number seven is to try writing Sprints you can find tons of writing Sprints um just on YouTube for free and essentially if you don't know what a writing Sprint is it is a timer and you're going to write for that timer and then you get a certain amount of time as a break and you can find Renn Sprint videos um right here on YouTube and they'll have a really cute background maybe some background music like if you're writing a fantasy you could find um fantasy timers and they'll play like classical orchestra music and the background of the video will be like the inside of a castle and they'll have a timer and you have to write until that timer runs out and then you get a break and then another timer starts and you write for another however many minutes you can find them for all different links I actually have a right writing Sprints video on my channel um it's a little winter themed one um the little backgrounds I chose were like the inside of a winter cabin and there's like um the sound of a fireplace crackling in the background I know it's like summer now so I don't know if anyone wants that but there is that I'll put it in the description also you could just do your own writing Sprint I mean just set a timer and then take a break I find these really motivating because it's fun with a little fun video and and background um for the the amb beon you know and and then it's fun because it's just like I just have to write till this timer ends and honestly a lot of the time when I do a writing Sprint I will pause the video and just want to keep writing cuz I found the kind of motivation that I needed but then there are days where it's like GH this is hard you know kind of trudging through the writing and you're looking forward to the break but writing Sprints are definitely helpful and my my last tip is you have to just write I mean it's so annoying to hear and I know that but you really do like yesterday I was not feeling I was not feeling it but I sat down and I think I wrote like 500 Words which is not a lot but you just have to write like every every single word that you write is closer to finishing you just have to do it for me a lot of the challenge with motivation is just like I don't I'm not feeling inspired or I'm not feeling excited to write but I love writing and and I mean I don't want to you know toot my own horn but I'm not bad at writing so like when you sit down and just start like you just you just have to sit down and start you don't have to write only when you feel excited and only when you feel inspired because you're a writer and that's what you do like you don't have to only write when you're in the mood something that I deal with a lot is the thought that like I'm not in the writing Groove so that what I whatever I write is not going to be good enough and what I have found from applying just like determination to my writing projects is that that's not true whether I'm feeling like inspired or not my writing voice always comes through my I I always get the point across and you can always edit with first drafts you just have to put something on the paper and that is just the truth so honestly my biggest motivation tip for myself is just open the damn laptop open the document type a few type letters like that's that's the best motivation tip I can give is you just have to do it anyways um that's all the tips I have for today I hope that this video was helpful I hope I gave at least one tip that you're going to use maybe even just this video itself motivated you watching writing videos and writing content is another way to find motivation watching other people talk about their writing is really really motivational and really fun but anyways good luck on finishing your projects thank you so much for watching if this was helpful give this video a like um comment down below your favorite tip that I gave or any of your own tips and we can kind of share tips in the comment section you could also subscribe if you want to I post bookish content in general I post a lot of reading and a lot about writing um and I will definitely do more writing tips like this in the future and I have done them in the past so if you want to check out my other writing tip videos I have an entire playlist about it on my channel if you just want to check that out but yeah thank you again for watching and I hope you have a really great day bye [Music]

Channel: basically katie

Views: 365

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Id: WVBWr31p754

Length: 20min 48sec (1248 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2024