Why even listen to advice on writing from a person who doesn’t like writing? Well because getting motivation advice from a person who likes writing is like getting budgeting advice from a billionaire.
Getting motivated to write for me is hard:
This is because writing does not come easy to me. Words don’t just magically appear on the ceiling, rearranging in perfect, coherent sentences – this is what I image happens in a mind of a person who likes writing.
So how do I motivate myself?
- I write about things I like. These blogs are much easier to write for me than an introduction of a paper. But I still like my research so it does come easier than when I was forced to write assignments on things I didn’t fully understand or like.
- Planning. I plan a good portion of the writing in my head way before I start. I start thinking about the blog post, or paper paragraph for a good few days before I actually write it out. I take a lot of walks/runs and really just think about what I want to write. I may also write down good sentences/thoughts in my phone as soon as they come. I’ve got several notepads on my phone of just thoughts and sentences.
- I force it. I try to write at least for 30 minutes a day. Sometimes I will write for 30 minutes and I will be relieved when the 30 minutes is up; or I continue past the 30 minutes because I’ve just hit a hill that I can’t stop rolling down and my fingers are trying to catch up to my thoughts.
- Edit later. Seriously. Stop editing as you go. I used to do that and after hours of writing and editing I’d end up with a blank page. Just write it out, and edit when it’s all done.
So you’ve sat down to start writing for your 30 minutes. Now what? Here’s my formula for writing.
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