Intro Welcome back to Tale Tips, where I use my
vast robot intellect to answer the questions you have about writing, storytelling, and
fiction!
Our question this time cuts... very deep.
It's something I myself continue to struggle with all the time.
Our lovely patreon supporter MasaCur asks: "What are some ways to rekindle inspiration
or motivation to start writing again?"
It doesn't sound like that hard of a question, does it?
But the fact that any of us should ever have to ask why we no longer feel like doing something
we're so passionate about?
Where that spark went?
That, to me, is pretty sad...
And... pretty relatable.
I ask myself this question far too often.
But there's one answer I always come back to.
A form of... kindling for the creative mind.
Maybe it'll warm you up as well, MasaCur...
- A big thanks to our sponsor Skillshare for
helping us... share our skills!
Body Topic #1: The Wrong Reason
There are a lot of good tips out there about writing motivation.
A lot of bad ones, too.
But for me, there's only one that's ever made a real difference.
It's the kind of thing that's so obvious once you hear it, you either feel stupid for having
never noticed, or dismiss it off hand because you don't want to face it.
I know.
I did that for years.
In the simplest possible language: you might just be writing for the wrong reason.[B1]
This is not the part of the video where I hold up a clay tablet and bestow upon you
the one correct reason to write.
Write for whatever reason you want.
If it puts pen to paper, it's perfectly legitimate.
But if you're feeling this way-if you feel as though you've lost your motivation... really,
your motivation probably hasn't gone anywhere at all.
It's probably just the wrong motivation for you, and it's finally stopped working.
So, what is this wrong motivation you've fallen victim to?
Well, there are a lot of possibilities here.
We could very easily get lost at sea talking through all the different reasons to write
and why each of them may or may not do the trick.
But after trawling books and websites for input on this topic, it seems there's actually
a pretty easy way to talk about it.
Most people tend to think of this, simply, as the difference between wanting to write
and wanting to have written.
Topic #2: Writing vs. Having Written When I first came across this...
I thought it was a pretty pointless distinction.
Like I said before, if it puts pen to paper, it's legitimate.
If it works, it works.
Several years later, having been through what I've been through...
I get it.
I see why this matters.
For a long time, I saw writing as the path to realizing my dreams.
I didn't just want to write, I wanted to do something with my writing.
To be recognized.
To do my ideas justice.
To share what I could make up with the world.[B2] Really, not bad desires at all[B3].
I still have them.
But back then, they were pretty much all that carried me.
And what I found was that, with every piece I wrote, I was getting more and more... fatigued[B4].
It was taxing, writing just to get to the end product.
It didn't really feel rewarding until the end, and even then, only if I got the response
I was hoping for.
But I was willing.
Even as it got harder and harder, as I began to resent the craft more and more, I would
grit my teeth and bear it if it meant fulfilling my ambitions[B5].
Flash forward to my work on the Tale Foundry original novella, Automata on Cue! and we
see the result of this thinking.
The six or so months I spent working on that story were some of the most miserable of my
writing career.
I would end every writing session depleted and exhausted.
Although I was doing what I love every day, I was doing it from a deeply dispassionate
place, and it felt that way.
The words were a necessary obstacle to the end result, so I was frustrated by each and
every one of the 19,000 of them.[B6] I'm... pretty happy with how it turned out,
all told.
I think it's a fine story.
Would I do it again?
No.
After that experience, I didn't want to write anything else for a very long time.
I was utterly burnt out on the craft.
I knew that if it was going to be like that every time, I might never want to do it again.
And no matter how good the end result is... the death of my passion is just not a worthwhile
side effect to me.[B7] Not everyone will go through this.
Some people can sustainably write just to finish the thing, and create great work that
way[B8].
But if you can't find the process itself rewarding... it's going to be a struggle, no matter who
you are.
And not all of us are built to endure it.
So if you feel your motivation is guttering out, I want you to ask yourself this: have
you been writing because you genuinely enjoy the act of writing, or have you been doing
it for another reason?
For the recognition of your peers?
To prove something to yourself?
To perfect your technique?
For money?
If so, that's the first thing I would remedy.
And luckily, learning to love writing is not actually very hard to do.
Really it's the mental olympics of getting over all the other stuff[B9] that's difficult.
Topic #3: Balance To be clear, you don't have to flat-out stop
wanting any of those things.
If you want them now, on some level, you'll probably never stop wanting them.
The trick is creating a baseline of enjoyment, so no matter how the project itself is going,
you're just happy[B10] to be tapping away in front of a keyboard, or scribbling into
your notebook.
If you can achieve that, I think the rest will come so much more naturally.
The problem with this... is that you're not a computer.
It's all well and good to know what should or shouldn't motivate you, but you can't just
re-program yourself to think or feel differently.
So... you're going have to use a pretty round-about approach.[B11]
My suggestion is that you make a habit out of writing... for no reason at all.
No purpose, no reward.
Promise yourself not to share it.
Carve out five minutes a night and just... write.
Speed-write.
Write about nothing.
Write about your day, your feelings, that time in grade school you broke out in hives
all over your body that you haven't thought about in years.
Write about your darkest secrets and how they weigh on you.
Write out your frustrations and fears.
Write the brightest moments of joy you've experienced, just to re-live them.
Write whatever feels good to write.
The goal here is to come away feeling replenished, restored, happy.
If you're revising and nit-picking your choice of words the whole time, you're doing this
exercise wrong.
Ironically, this will require discipline.
Not the discipline people who tell you that you don't need motivation are talking about-the
discipline to keep yourself from fretting.
Commit to this the same way you commit to spending time with friends even when you feel
like spending the night in, or the way you commit to going to bed at a reasonable hour,
or the way you commit to drinking enough water during the day.
Force yourself to do it, not because some pretense at the back of your mind is hounding
you about it, but because it's good for you and your relationship with the craft.
Over time, I think you'll find that the words change.
No longer will they be heavy stones you have to haul out of the quarry and cut down to
size-they'll be bricks on a palette, waiting to be laid as quickly as you can manage.
The act of finding and using them will become secondary to the act of creation.
And once that happens...
I think it'll be hard not to want to use them.
Your five minutes of writing time will turn into ten, and then twenty, and then suddenly
you'll find yourself using the activity just to relax.
And when it comes time to grind your way through the more dispassionate parts of your writing
projects... at least you're doing something you generally enjoy.
It will be easier.
Be wary, though.
If this is what works for you, as it has been for me, then you can't ever let your relationship
with the craft slip.
Just because you can write for projects and products more comfortably does not mean you
no longer need to spend time writing for its own sake.
If you lost the motivation doing it that way the first time, it will more than likely happen
again.
Be good to your craft, spend quality time with it, and it will be good to you.
//CLEAN AD BREAK// There are a lot of ways to do this, but one
of the best is just... writing honestly.
Removing all the limitations and putting down the most natural combination of words you
can find, fiction or not.
This can be a surprisingly daunting idea, especially to all you fiction writers out
there.
But don't worry.
Our sponsor, Skillshare, can help.
Skillshare is truly a beautiful thing.
I think the best way to describe it would be as a community of creatives and educators,
building one of the largest and most accessible learning platforms...
I've ever used.
They've got classes on every topic under the sun: creative writing, illustration, fine
art, graphic design, animation, film and video-just anything you could think of.
If you liked this video and you're eager to get started mending your relationship with
writing-getting some of that motivation back-Skillshare even has a class that is basically about this
topic specifically.
"Creative Personal Writing: Write the Real You", taught by Ashley C. Ford, walks you
through the process of getting acquainted with yourself through writing.
It's some of the most natural writing you'll ever do, comfortable to the point of being
therapeutic, and she helps you ease into the method with resources, examples, and new ways
of thinking that will absolutely make you want to pick up that pencil again.
My favorite exercise the one where she tells you to find some of the most popular music
from the year you were born, and you write out the memories it conjures.
So good; such an easy way to get started.
So, if you feel stuck and you think this video was helpful, definitely go give this class
a watch.
Skillshare is less than $10 a month with an annual subscription, and besides getting access
to this class, you'll also get access to the entire platform, as well as a steady stream
of new classes as well.
The first 1,000 of our subscribers to click the link in the description will get a whole
month of premium membership free!
//CLEAN AD BREAK// Before we wrap up, I'd like to give a quick
thanks to all the helpful humans who support the show on Patreon.
All those words you see scrolling in the background of these videos?
Those are actually the names of our Patreon maintenance crew, without whom this show would
be impossible.
And a special word to all of our top patrons: Lord_Gatte, RPGgrenade, Puzzling Shutterbug,
and TheAutumnWriter - thank you so much!
We'll be deciding on our next Tale Tips question soon, so be subscribe to the channel, turn
your notifications on, and leave your own questions below!
Who knows?
I may even end up answering it!
Until then, thanks for watching, and keep making stuff up!
I'll see you...
next time!
Bye!
[B1]Make it appear one word at a time, please [B2]Show these each one at a time
[B3]Show all the visuals from the past 3 visuals together in the same frame here
[B4]Connect these; they shouldn't be two completely separate and distinct visuals, they should
be part of the same sequence together, with the same figures, etc.
[B5]Same sequence, same figure(s) [B6]Same sequence; talebot instead of a taleoid;
I can give you reference images if you need them
[B7]Same sequence; talebot again instead of a taleoid
[B8]Same sequence [B9]Same sequence; "all the other stuff" refers
to everything listed in the last several sentences of the previous paragraph
[B10]Taleoid scribbling in notebook happily [B11]All one sequence; one taleoid doing different
things; the "not a computer" part should be an x-ray of that taleoid to show an actual
human brain in there (which is funny, cause they're robots); "round-about approach" could
be the taleoid thinking or something