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Hellooo, everybody! I was gonna answer some questions about love stories for this week's vlog,
but I've been getting a ton of questions lately about another topic. So we're gonna talk about that instead.
Today we're looking at focus and motivation. And before I get into individual questions,
I wanna touch on the most popular question I get in general from aspiring writers.
Jenna, why are you so perfect? Because I'm part woman, and part machine. But the second most popular
question I get is: How do I stay motivated to write, outline, research, edit, excetera,
excetera. And people expect me to have a simple answer for them. Oh, motivation is super easy to
find. You can get it at Target, it’s usually right in between the tampons and deodorant,
and sometimes they even have a coupon so you can get two motivations for the price of one! No, that
doesn't happen. There is no easy answer. In fact, the answer is probably something you don't want to
hear. Motivation is totally on you. If you're not motivated to write, it's your own damn fault. You
really got to sit back and think about why you're writing a book. Are you doing it because you want
to be famous? If so, you've made a terrible decision. There are much easier paths to
fame. Might I suggest a sex tape. Are you doing it because you love The Hunger Games or Twilight, and
wanna duplicate it? Okay, well, that's certainly been done before to some fairly good success,
but it’s still not a recommended course of action. Or are you writing a book, because you love to
write? Are you writing a book, because writing is your favorite thing to do? These are good reasons
to pursue writing. Ask yourself, how badly do you wanna be a writer? If you wanna be a writer
really, really badly, then write the fucking book, no excuses. Look, I’ve wanted to be a writer since
I was six years old. It is my lifelong dream. So I don't have trouble finding motivation because
this is literally all I want. And yeah, I have days when it gets totally frustrating,
but I power through it, because I wanna be a writer so fucking badly. So really, just take
a minute to reassess your situation. Think about what it is that you actually want. If you really
don't want to be a writer, that's totally okay. But don't waste your time pursuing a goal if it's
not the right one for you. Because writing a book is hard and exhausting and miserable at times.
And if you're not passionate about it, why, just why? So hey, where do I find my motivation? I find
motivation in myself, in the fact that this is something I've wanted to do since I was six,
sorry. Onto the individual questions. Spirit of A Writer asks: I was hoping to request a
topic for next week because it's going to be my birthday. Happy Birthday! How do you manage
to keep focus and get large word counts, and or many chapters done? I'm having trouble with the
focus part. Alright, right Writer Spirit, three things. One, I'm really fucking hard on myself.
I am constantly trying to make myself better, smarter, more efficient. And there are a lot of
people who are hard on themselves, but it actually kinda fucks them up. Most people who are hard on
themselves compare themselves to other people. “Oh, she's such a better writer than I am. Oh,
he has a way bigger audience than I do.” That will get you nowhere, except in the fetal position,
crying, hating your life. The key is to compare yourself to yourself. You should always be trying
to make yourself better than you were the day before. If I wrote 1,000 words yesterday,
awesome, congratulations. Now today, I'm gonna write 1,500 words. If I do that, guess what?
I just outdid myself. The second thing I do is create specific writing goals for each day. I tell
myself ‘Alright, today I have to write ten pages. No exceptions. It's happening, bottom line.’ A few
days ago, I was working on a super difficult scene and I told myself I wasn't going to bed until that
scene was done. So I ended up going to bed at 6:30 in the morning. The sun was literally up in the
fucking sky, but the scene was done. And that's what counts. You gotta make yourself daily goals,
and you got to stick to ‘em. Care about yourself enough not to let yourself down. The last thing I
do is I set myself up for success. As a writer you need to learn which environments are best for you
in order to stay focused. What sort of things make you lose your train of thought or motivation? For
me, if I'm physically uncomfortable, I won't get any writing done. So I write in bed, in my PJs,
doesn't get more comfortable than that. I also can't concentrate in complete and utter stillness
or silence. So I keep Facebook up while I write, and every few pages I chit-chat with my friends,
or answer your questions, and I also play music while I write. Will these things work
for everyone? Probably not. But you should learn what works for you. Create the ideal environment
that helps you stay focused, Gail asks: When you're writing, how do you deal with another idea
forming and crashing the idea you're currently writing? This happens to me all the time,
but I do have a method for handling this. Say I'm writing a book and suddenly a wild idea appears.
Anytime I get an idea for a book, I immediately start thought-dumping it. I don't wanna forget the
idea because I can probably use it in the future. And once I start thought dumping, it usually turns
into an avalanche of thoughts to dump. That's the moment when I think ‘Oh shit, I'm in too deep.’ In
these situations I usually give myself a week-long pass for my current project. In one week I gotta
get all this crap out of my system, not literally. So I'll just purge my brain of all possible ideas
for the story, get a nice little outline going for it, and by the time the week is over, I've usually
gotten the excitement for the new story out of my system. And I can go back to writing the book I
was already working on. Think of it like being in an open relationship with your manuscript. You're
like, “Hey, you're my main boo, but every once in a while, I’m gonna explore, I’m gonna dabble. But
baby, I’ll always come back to you.” Shelly Cruz asks: Currently I'm in the outlining phase for my
book, but my trouble is narrowing my ideas down to one. My question is, have you ever had more than
one story you wanted to write at the same time, and how do you prioritize these writing projects?
Have I ever had more than one story I wanted to write at the same time? Yes! I’m a big old story
whore, and I wanna write all the stories. How do I prioritize them? I pay attention to three things.
One, which story am my most passionate about? Your stories are kinda like your kids. You love ‘em
all, but there's always one you love a little bit more. Wait, that's not how parenting works? That's
actually a form of emotional abuse? Didn't know that. But anyway, figure out which story you're
most invested in. It’s probably the one you think about most, so it shouldn't be hard to determine.
Second thing, which story is the most developed? I have about ten stories prepared, and some of them
are completely outlined, and others have got about a quarter ready, and the rest is a mystery. So I'm
gonna work on the ones that kinda sorta have their shit together already. Last thing, which story is
better suited for your audience? If you got one story that'll hit a broad range of readers, and
another story that will maybe only appeal to boys ages fifteen to sixteen and a half, with asthma,
and blue eyes…maybe write the first story instead. Once you've gone through these three things, you
should have a pretty clear idea of which story you should write first. And use all those other ideas
as motivation to write quickly. Get the book done so you can move on to the next. Scott Moses asks:
Lately. I've been in a rut of thinking everything I write sucks, I'm having some trouble moving
forward. Got any advice? Of course I've got advice. No matter how shitty you feel about
your writing, you absolutely have to keep going. If you stop every time you feel like crap, you
will literally never finish. Because us writers feel like crap about our writing quite a lot. The
only thing I ever feel confident in on the first draft is dialogue. Everything else, all forms of
narrative, I always feel fairly certain that it's complete and utter garbage while I'm writing it.
I'll literally be tapping at my keyboard cringing. “Uh-oh-oh it hurts. It hurts to suck this much.”
So here's what you do. You just keep going, no matter how horrible it is, just keep writing.
And do not, under any circumstances, read any of it. I know it's tempting, but don't do it. Don't
you dare, don't you fucking dare. If you read it, it will sound awful, guaranteed, and you will hate
yourself. So just write the words and don't look back. At first, doing this will feel like torture.
But after you've done it a few times, you'll get used to the pain. Then the following day,
go ahead and read it. For some unknown reason, it always reads better the next day. Sure there will
be some shitty sentences in the mix, but that's what editing’s for. So read what you wrote, fix
anything that needs to be fixed, and then continue writing your shitty ass writing. This method won't
get the negative voice out of your head, the one that's always telling you your writing
sucks, I hate that guy. But it will get you to stop trusting that voice. Now when I'm writing,
I still feel like I'm producing the worst crap in the history of crap, but I know it isn't
true. So that's all I got for you today. Thanks so much for the awesome questions. Stay focused,
stay motivated and write some books, people. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I post
new videos on Wednesdays. And I’m the best. And as always, if you have any questions or something
you'd like me to talk about in my next video, leave me a comment or tweet me @JennaMoreci! Bye!