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How to Stay Motivated & Finish What You Start


How do you stay motivated to finish that project you've started, once begun?

That is the question. For 2 years now I haven't finished any manuscript I've started. The most I've written was half a novel. Like 20,000 words then just abandoned it. The last manuscript I abandoned was 3000 words long, but usually my projects get tossed aside after a few hundred words.

Maybe if I blog about it I can brainstorm my way into finishing what I start.

Let's figure out why I get unenthusiastic at what point in my writing. Oh I know the answer already. It's when I think about my book when I'm not writing. When I mind-plot I sometimes come up with the entire outline, all the way to the end of the story. So then that's it for my burgeoning imagination. It was exciting for me to brainstorm that outline, but then I have to write all that plotting up and I get super bored with the thought of doing that.

The entire point of writing fiction is to entertain myself while I'm writing. If I'm not using my fresh imagination while the characters are being driven to do what they do, then there's simply no point in sitting at my computer writing what they think and feel and how they act as a result.

By writing in the moment I create twists and turns that don't have to conform to a boring outline. And if I've written it without knowing what happens next in the story, whoever reads it next won't know what's coming either. And that's interesting to discover and exciting to carry on reading the gripping scenarios.

When I'm clacking out character scenes, feelings, and thoughts on my keyboard I'm in the zone. My imagination flies faster than my fingers can type. I want to know what my mind will think up next, even though I have no idea which direction they might or might not take. 

So how do I stop myself from mind-plotting when I'm not actually writing? Whack myself upside the head? No, that's going to hurt and cause lasting damage.


Hopefully I can get to my computer if I start to feel inspired. And if I've come away from the manuscript due to feeling stuck, the moment I go away and some inkling of inspiration pops into my head, I need to go with that and start typing it out fresh straight away. If I let my thoughts and imagination carry on without getting them down onto "paper" then that's where my characters and all the action is going to stay. Inside my head. Because it won't motivate me to write what I've already thought up in my mind. And so nothing mind-plotted will be entered into my manuscript in an exciting way, like when I thought it up in the first place.

Yay! I knew blogging my conundrum would help. So in theory you won't see me back here until I've finished an entire project that I start. Next question is, what should I start writing about? Or rather, who? Time to read my character creation post again. After all, plot stems from characters and not the other way around.

Image credit Alexas_Fotos at pixabay.com
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