Short of duct-taping yourself to your chair and asking someone to change the wifi password on you, how do you face the dreaded blinking cursor? Of course, to some people, this is a silly question. “What do you mean, force myself to write? I can hardly stop writing.”
But for me, it’s never been easy.
Even now, part of me is scolding myself for saying that because “if I say it’s hard, then it will be.” But another part wants to be completely honest. Writing has been a difficult journey.
It’s produced some of the best and worst feelings of my life.
Sometimes I do have to pry my eyes open—when I want nothing more than to crawl into bed—and painstakingly type one word after another until I reach my goal. Other times—when I get the words to express what resides in my brain—I live on cloud nine for days.
The question, for me, has always been: how do I do the work, even when I don’t really want to? Because, ultimately, I do want to. My brain just also happens to set off panic alarms warning me that doing so could potentially kill me as well.
And when you’re up against potential death, you have to be sneaky on how you get yourself to do The Work.
Doing The Work using external pressure
For me, the best way to motivate myself is through external pressure.
I know this because I was an over-achiever in school. It didn’t matter what the homework assignment was, you could count on me to go above and beyond and to complete it a week before it was due. (This, of course, wasn’t sustainable when I stopped caring about school, but it worked for a good long while, at least.)
As an adult, external pressure is harder to come by. No one seems to care whether or not your writing gets done for the day.
I’ve found a way around that using the NYC Midnight contests, which you pay for in advance. Then, you have to write a short story or screenplay in a specific timeframe using assigned constraints. They aren’t usually much longer than 1,000 words or 5 pages, but they have taught me more about my writing process than anything else. And, some of the ideas get worked into other stories.
That doesn’t exactly work for longer pieces, but we can at least learn from the experience.
What can you do about it?
Are you motivated by external pressure? Can you set a daily word count and get yourself to stick to it? Would it be helpful to hire an editor for a future date to hold yourself accountable? What can forcing yourself to finish a story teach you about what you need in order to keep writing?
Maybe an accountability partner, a sprinting group, or a coach will help? Maybe you need to look at your calendar and how you spend your money to see where your priorities lie and compare that to your goals?
The more you analyze yourself, your process, and your habits, the better you’ll be at getting yourself to do The Work. So, re-evaluate your choices. Try something new. Get out the duct tape. Whatever it takes.
(# Of words I wrote for my manuscript today: 333)