Motivate Your Writing

Using Motivational Psychology to Energize Your Writing Life

Stephen P. Kelner, Jr., PhD

• Publisher: JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781625674876
• Topic: Desarrollo personal
• Subtopic: Creatividad

Energize and organize your writing life by tapping into your fundamental motivators. Note: This second edition has been substantially revised and updated, including 10% more content than the first edition. Aspiring and professional writers alike struggle to stay motivated; in the face of distractions, obligations, and procrastination, the desire to write often fails to become the act of writing. Motivated writers, notes the author, are those who have learned to identify their fundamental emotional drives and who have established a writing routine that satisfies those drives. Kelner draws on the research and insights of motivational psychology to show writers how to harness the energy of these fundamental motivators. With a degree in motivational psychology, Kelner applies not only his training in the field but also his own original research into the motivational patterns typical of writers. Depending on their motivational profile, different writers will respond best to different kinds of feedback and rewards and will function best in different kinds of environments. Kelner explains the basic drives of power, affiliation, and achievement; he shows how these drives are manifested in a wide variety of behaviors; and he provides self-assessment tools to construct your own motivational profile. In clear and accessible terms, and with numerous examples and anecdotes, Kelner shows writers how they can identify their own primary motivations and use that knowledge to arrange their work habits and energize their writing lives.

SECTION VII

DEVELOPMENT--MANAGING AND CHANGING YOURSELF (AND YOUR WRITING)

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”

—Emile Zola

Chapter 23: Demotivators

“Another damned thick book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh, Mr. Gibbon?”

—The Duke of Gloucester

graciously accepting Volume II of

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

from the kneeling author

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I hesitated to write this section. Why? Because while awareness of obstacles and inhibitors is useful, getting frightened of the wide range of them is not. Realistically, there are many things that can demotivate you—and just as many that can remotivate you. One of the critical factors is your optimistic perspective of your writing practices; that is, do you believe you can solve the problems and move on?

Nevertheless, it is useful, if only to manage your circumstances to avoid their occurrence. Below I list a few obvious (and perhaps some not so obvious) demotivating factors. And remember they are within your control. Don’t use these as excuses not to write, just as warnings to plan how to write around them.

The Environment In Which You Write

This can be a myth (“I have to have a quiet office with no interruptions”) if overemphasized, but it is fair to note that your writing place occupies a great deal of your time. You should feel comfortable in it. As Kelly Tate told me, it had to be “a place I can enjoy spending some time in.” She realized that she did not like her writing room, so she bought some pictures, some plants, some curtains and set it up in a way she found pleasant. If it gets in your way, deal with it. Ellen Kushner was an editor in New York and wrote constantly on the subway, which for some reason was inspirational to her, perhaps because it was pretty much the only time she had, and the pressure propelled her. When she went to writing full time (or nearly full time) the lack of pressure and the large amounts of time daunted her. She started finding ways to take up her time, paradoxically in order to write more. I think this is actually a good example of applying the Yerkes-Dodson Law: restricting the available time raised the target higher, and generated energy.

Creativity expert Mihalyi Chiksamahalyi has studied the phenomenon of “flow experience,” when people are functioning at their peak, and for this to occur in a creative effort such as writing typically requires at least twenty minutes of uninterrupted time. I think it is safe to assume that there are exceptions to this, and one probably does not need to be in a flow state to edit or even write decently, but it is worth remembering.

There are more basic and obvious issues, however. Noise, temperature, smells—all basic senses—can distract you. Key here is not to give up, but to try and manage your environment. So for example: you are in a noisy area and you find it difficult to concentrate. Put on some music (add some “signal” to cover up the “noise”) or put on some headphones. At worst, put in some earplugs. One writer with whom I am closely associated has hearing aids, which she sometimes turns into the world’s most expensive earplugs by turning down the volume so she can’t hear anything, or at least enough to screen out most minor nuisances.

If temperature is your bugaboo, deal with that. Too cold? Put on a sweater. Too hot? Write in your skivvies. Way too hot? Go someplace air-conditioned and write there—a library, for example.

Environment is an issue, but it is a manageable one, if you use a little of your creativity on it.

Other People

I’ve referred to this on several occasions. People can be the worst problem you have, especially those who don’t believe in your dream. In some cases their opposition isn’t even malicious, merely insensitive. A person may feel they have done you a favor by saving you from failure, disappointment, and low pay. It is hard to tell someone who genuinely cares about you that they have done you wrong. But they have.

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Remember: It isn’t their place to say.

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Loved ones, I’m sorry to say, have the worst impact, because you are most open and sensitive to their criticism and influence.

It may be as little a thing as “writing? What do you do that for?” That’s what writers generally do, you know. Or the classic “I know if I had time, I could write one of those bestsellers.” Yeah, right. Like Stephen King just has more time than you do. To the dedicated craftsperson, this is incredibly insulting. Try substituting their job for “write one of those bestsellers,” and see what they say. An artist friend of mine made the mistake of saying “I could write a book, if I only had the time” to my wife, who promptly shot back “And if I only had the time, I could paint a picture.” (To his credit, he said “touché.”)

Not everyone will agree with me here. James Blish, the noted SF writer, literary critic, music critic and expert on James Joyce, claimed that a thin-skinned writer is not worth having, that there are plenty of other talented people out there. He was a critic in order to improve the quality of writing, and to some extent if you the writer are not willing to try to improve, then you shouldn’t try to write at all. However, Blish once said that a certain young writer was never going to get good, and that writer went on to become Harlan Ellison, multiple award winner. Blish, I note, apologized handsomely in print and became a friend of Ellison, who credited Blish with teaching him about the English language.

My point here is that developing a thick skin may be helpful, but also that ignoring the critics and practicing may be just as helpful.

Let’s test out a few phrases, and some snappy answers you can give to them, at least until you develop your own.

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“What Do You Want To Do That [i.e., Write] For?”

Have you noticed that for some reason everyone feels comfortable asking someone with an artistic job this incredibly rude question? Here are some possible answers to this question:

• “I love reading, so I always wanted to write.”
• “I can’t help it.”
• “It’s a disease.”
• “I’m a writer.”
• “What do you eat for?”
• “What do you do what you do for?”

“Don’t Make Much Money at That, Do You?”

• “That’s not why I do it.”
• “So?”
• “How much do you make at what you do?”
• “Stephen King does all right.”

“What Makes You Think You Can Write/Publish, Anyway?”

• “Effort, study, and practice.”
• “Experience.”
• “What makes you qualified to judge?”
• “Just look at what else gets published!”

Chapter 24: Superstitions

“I’m no more superstitious than most writers—which means that if I lost my lucky coffee mug, I’d be looking for another job.”

—Joe Haldeman

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Above I described a myth or two that had to do with the magical nature of creativity and when it takes place. Cross those with your view of yourself and your role, and you may get superstitions. Since most people consider creativity a mysterious and magical happening, who knows what could affect it? Anything may influence the unpredictable. Some people write at night, others in the morning. Some insist on a quiet room, others can write in bedlam. Most of them occur around inspiration, and have been mentioned above. Generally how I am distinguishing a superstition from beliefs and myths is that they often require some sort of ritual behavior, designed to invoke the magic. I have carefully considered the evidence, and my comment on this may surprise you:

Go ahead!

If it helps you write, who am I to tell you otherwise? The placebo effect has its own power and legitimacy. And who knows? Maybe wearing a crystal does help, at least for you. Rudyard Kipling required extremely black ink (never blue-black, which he described as “an abomination to my Dæmon”); Truman Capote and Alexandre Dumas pére required specific colors of paper—yellow for Capote, and rose, blue, and yellow for nonfiction, novels, and poetry, respectively, for Dumas, who was so adamant about this scheme that he had his ghostwriter/assistants use the same colors. Mystery writer Tony Fennelly, who has studied under astrology masters, arranges much of her writing and marketing by the stars. She once sent off a package to her agent at exactly 6:50 in the morning in order to get the proper ben...