A Month of Writing Motivation is the Operation Awesome theme for the 2020 A to Z Challenge. I'm giving examples of how five reference books offer writing motivation.
The Productive Writer: Strategies and Systems for Greater Productivity, Profit and Pleasure by Sage Cohen
This book aims to motivate the reader by focusing on ways to be productive. Areas it touches on include:
- Know what you want to do, why it makes you happy, and what your goals are.
- Desire maximizes productivity.
- Keep track of your time. (Chapter 6 has a biorhythms component that everyone on pandemic quarantine/lockdown should check out.)
- Creative activities to do when you aren't writing.
- Chatting with your muse/genius/whatever.
- Organize better to keep from getting stalled.
- Get fear out of your way.
The book ends with chapters on what to do after you've written to your target length. If you struggle to stay motivated long enough to finish, or if you need to focus more of your motivated energy, this is an excellent book for you. It's short, well-written, and the concepts are clear.
This book came out five years before Big Magic, but mentions Elizabeth Gilbert and one of the lessons she ends up using in her book. (Come back on April 14 to learn more about Big Magic.)
What goal do you feel you need to reach to consider yourself a "productive writer"?
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2 comments:
Great advices, it can apply to everyone with a creative goal, not only writing. Sounds like an interesting book!
I'll look into that book. I loved Big Magic. Sometimes, just the act of working on a WIP is the goal and that any bit of work is progress and being productive. If I set too many goals (or too high of goals) and don't achieve them, it's easy for me to feel as though I've failed, when I should really be celebrating that I worked on it at all.
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