Life gets busy.
Kids need to be fed. Floors need to be swept. Child forgets lunch for school. A mountain of laundry is forming in front of your eyes. Oh, and the kids need to be fed again.
End of day, tired, no writing done.
Or the motivation to write anything is just gone, but you want it back.
Here are a few ways that I have used to help pull me back into the writer's chair.
1. Enter a critique giveaway. I entered Marcia's January critique and won. I was forced to edit my first 1000 words of the novel I had shelved to submit to her. It was exactly what I needed. If you are interested she seems to have them every few months. Next week Amy will be giving away one to celebrate her birthday, so if you are needing a nudge here is a great way to start.
2. Enter a critique blog fest. I entered Sharon's blog fest last week. It led me to pull out an old PB manuscript that I had been working on. Now I'm polishing that up. This was just the first 100 words, so how hard was that? I've seen these around in the blog world, so keep your eyes open. It was my first one and so much fun.
3. Enter a writing contest. Find a writing contest that interests you and polish something up or create something totally new to enter.
4. Journal. Go back to write your own personal story. I find that writing is therapeutic for me. It just helps me to shut down and reflect on the situation(s).
5. And when all else fails - Block time and sit bottom in chair and start typing. That is what I just did to finish up the PB manuscript for critiquing and to write this post.
What do you do to motivate you to get back in the writer's chair?
*Photo by xlibber on flickr
6 comments:
WTG! It is hard putting yourself out there. Marcia really helped me. I won a critique on her blog about a year ago. She read part of a chapter book for me and taught me about talking heads...You can't just have people talking without having them in a setting doing things...
Thanks Sharon for having that "fest", and for looking at the PB for me.
I had Marcia look at chapter book and gave some great suggestions and encouragement as well. btw, your "talking heads" made me visualize those bobble heads bobbing back and forth at each other.
Gosh! I certainly didn't expect to poo in here and see my name! These are excellent tips, MaDonna. Anything that makes you dig out old work can be a real boost, because you've had enough time away from the stuff to read it fresh. So glad you're finding your inspiration again. :)
Ummm, that's POP in here. POP!!
+Blushes and hides under chair.+
I'm so late commenting, MaDonna -- it's that feeding kids thing -- but thanks for the shout out about the contest! :) Those are great tips. And I'm still laughing about Marcia's comment above. What a great typo!! :)
Marcia, I'm so glad I am just now reading this...I needed a good deep laugh. Thanks!
Amy, I get the feeding the kids thing. Sometimes I think it would be great if they self-fed, but then I'd worry about what they ate...HA!
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