On Motivation
If there’s one question I get more than any other question, it’s “how do you stay motivated?” And there’s a very simple answer to that. I don’t.
I mean, I’ve put out a lot of work in this genre within the last five years: fourteen novels (fifteen if you count the one coming out in March), one novella, and three short stories. That doesn’t mean I stay motivated. Sometimes, in fact, I convince myself that I’m sick to death of the whole lot – it’s a lot of work, there is very little reward, and there is way too much infighting and sabotage done both out in the open, as well as behind people’s back. It’s not just authors feeling this either, but reviewers, site hosts, publishers, editors… readers.
Some days I would love nothing more than to climb under the dark cloaks of mainstream corporate North America and let an agent, a publicist, and a handful of editors make all the decisions after I’ve written, “the End,” including what colour tie I should wear at wherever they think I should be.
It’s a nice dream, until I remember the stories. My stories, I mean – the ones I’m trying to tell with the novels that I write. We have flexibility in this genre that allows for romance stories that aren’t just about muscled, aggressive, cocky men having battles of wit with buxom, beautiful, sharp-tongued women that ultimately end in sessions of throbbing intensity. Not that there’s anything wrong with those stories, because I absolutely don’t believe that. Obviously there isn’t, as they sell far better than yours, mine, or the next guy’s within our niche-genre, and whatever way you experience love and connection as long as you aren’t being an asshole to someone or something, you’re golden. However, if a cis-het traditional romance isn’t the story you want to tell… well, here we are, aren’t we?
So, stay motivated? Nope. 
The thing is, I don’t have it in me to keep going when the story isn’t enough to inspire me. I stop. I reassess. I tell myself that “this is it,” and I spend a lot of time on Tumblr and Netflix. I quietly grumble about the people in the industry to my close-personals and I make up long speeches that I’ll never recite about who, why, and what they did, when. And you know what? I’m okay with that.
Because the question shouldn’t be, “how do I stay motivated?” It’s, “how do I restart?” Nobody’s going to be “on” all the time, but if we want to work in this environment there needs to be enough faith in the story, enough craving in the heart, that it’s impossible not to get back to it. These stories are important—no, vital—examples of love. Be the OC a wolf shifter, a sorcerer, or just a guy at the gym, every one of these stories is way for our people to tell the world that this love is real, sustainable, functional, and normal. In the murky, questionable situations we’re facing these days, it is more important than ever to ensure that everybody knows that no matter how far we’ve come, it’s still not far enough if there is even a moment of discrimination or exclusion – and that we will not let these hard-won freedoms slip back into obscurity, either.
We’re not just authors, we’re prophets. Our culture is shaped by the stories we read, the movies we watch, and the ads we digest. With this information we can divine a future where inclusion and respect can’t be “taken back,” where love is the most revered gift of all, regardless of the basis of gender or sexuality. And we can make it happen because there is no greater weapon than the pen.
How does one not restart one’s self for that?
So, what do you think? Are you a self-restarter, or do you have your own special tricks that manage to keep you motivated all the time? I’d love to hear from you…
Until next time,
AF Henley <3
About the Author
Henley was born with a full-blown passion for run-on sentences, a zealous indulgence in all words descriptive, and the endearing tendency to overuse punctuation.
A self-professed Google genius, Henley lives for the hours spent digging through the Internet for ‘research purposes’ which, more often than not, lead seven thousand miles away from first intentions but bring Henley to new discoveries and ideas that, once seeded, tend to flourish.
Henley has been proudly publishing with Less Than Three Press since 2012.
For more information, please stop by for a visit at afhenley.com.
I had a teacher that always told us “You’re never, not motivated, you’re just motivated to do something else.” Which I don’t know, the more I repeat it the more I don’t like it. I mean it’s true, but it’s a phrasing meant to take you away from the negative “un-motivated” to “motivated, just in a different direction.” Which sounds like a denial of the fact that you’re not motivated to do what you want to be motivated to do.
But you’re absolutely right, after acknowledgement of the lack of motivation where you want it, the question isn’t remaining motivated it’s restarting. Getting back into it.
When you think about it, no one is constantly motivated to do one task. They can keep the task at the backs of their minds, they can be so anxious to continue that they can’t think of anything else, but eventually their focus shifts and so does their motivation. When you come back into it the motivation is either easy to pick back up, or it’s difficult. As to how to restart, that really depends on problem or task you’re trying to approach.
My most recent example revolves around programming. I’ve come back to this one problem several times over the past three years. But only recently have I made any head-way. And that’s because I found someone who did all of the work for me. All I have to do is convert and map to my current project. It’s a lot easier when i’m not trying to wrap my head around things I don’t understand.
Of course I don’t always give up until someone else gives me my answers. xD Though it definitely helps. I do enjoy figuring it out for myself. Especially when it stretches me (I swear that’s not an innuendo).
I think it all comes down to ZPD, if ti’s too hard you’ll lose motivation quickly. But if it challenges you, you’ll be more tempted to push through. And if it’s too easy, you’ll lose motivation quickly.
When it comes to writing, If it’s a story I’m not truly interested, it becomes too hard to force it to fit, or it’s just a silly story that really won’t hold my interest. Like you said and North told me, you’ve got to write the story you want to write or have to write. On the other side of that, if it’s not a story you’re truly interested in but have to do, you can figure out the challenge in the story and regain your interest.
And never forget the very important “break” from your story. Sometimes motivation can be lost by being a little too close to your story to see the problems for what they are. Taking time away isn’t always a lack of motivation, it’s sometimes a tactic.
*highfives* Well said. Thank you very much for sharing! <3
“Stay motivated” is just the non-tyrant way of saying “forcing yourself to keep going” in my book. In the many years of being away from home for schooling (living as a responsible adult) and finding the time to write despite of lacking time, I’ve come to realize that one can’t “stay motivated” all the time.
Down time is just as precious and valuable as motivation. One has to have both.
For me personally, “staying motivated” brews more problems than relinquishing the motivation and allowing myself some down time. Always. Especially when I’m writing. If the motivation isn’t there to keep writing, that usually also means something is wrong with the writing, and taking a break to refresh my eyes is always a good idea.
However, I do give myself a “limit” on downtime. Let’s say I just finished the last day of NaNoWriMo (which I did do last year), it’s tempting to take a whole month off to recover (because ouch!). If I didn’t set for myself a time period, I might do just that and end up losing all the momentum I gained.
So I’ll set it for 1 week with the maximum of 2 weeks (because I did put my responsibilities on hold for about a month and will need time to catch up) and come back with fresh eyes.
And just like the down time, coming back is also a hard limit. That means, unless the emergency is a Tier 1, I will sit down for 2 hours after my coffee to get back to writing.
And the story could mean starting all over. From the very beginning. And that’s perfectly fine too.
Thank you for sharing! <3
Great plan, and some good thoughts here too. 😀
Thank YOU for sharing back! <3
Wow, that is a tough one to reply to.
First of all, I am not an author, so this does apply only in a limited way.
But in my humble opinion, we have to differentiate here. Staying motivated to write a story that really works for you and just having times when you do not feel like writing which (to me) is a very natural thing. And you continue later.
Please let me throw something in here. In English you say ”I do not feel like doing this or that.” Which could mean that you just do not want to and rather do something else or that something deeper, internal prevents you from writing. In German we say ”Ich habe heute keine Lust”. Which just means that. That today I want to do something else. No deeper feelings involved.
But back to my original thought. The other thing is not feeling like continue with a story because somehow it does not work for you the way you hoped. You spoke of reassessing. Is that not a very natural thing to do as well? I mean, why continue a story that does not turn out the way you want to? In painting it almost is the same. If the piece of art does not work out, I have to revaluate it.
It does not make sense to continue with something that does not work.
The third thing is to question one’s writing in general. The genre one is writing, the topics inside that genre. Or why writing at all.
With the last one it all comes down to this? Do I want to keep writing in this genre? Yes or no? Do I want to write in another genre? Yes or no? Would it make me happier? Do I want to give up writing at all? Would that make me happier? Yes or… well you guess it.
You mentioned in an earlier post and somewhat repeated here: you put in a hell of a lot more work into it than what you get in return. And this is not just the problem of one single author it is the nature of things with a niche genre.
My believe is that it is not only a matter of motivation but more like what do I want?
Maybe it is about accepting or not that in this niche it is unlikely to become the next Stephen King or Joanne K. Rowling.
As long as this internal battle rages it is not about motivation but about either accepting that writing in this genre leans more toward a hobby that if it works well leads to publication and some extra bucks (and a lot of work). Or it leads to a path of frustration (hopefully not depression) and an ongoing fight with oneself that leads to nothing.
If I may be so bold? Only when the decision is made that writing in this genre is like an ambitious ”hobby” (VERY IMPORTANT, I do not want to use the word hobby to belittle the work as m/m author but I lack another one), one can turn his/her attention towards the daily motivation.
Being your beta reader, I know so well how crazy hard you have worked the last five years, my friend. Your energy and dedication was mindblowing! Is it not only natural to turn your attention towards Netflix now and again? 😃
Thank you very much for this deeply thoughtful and honest post, buddy!
❤️
Thank you, my friend. That is a very insightful and thought provoking reply. I appreciate it very much. <3
”Ich habe heute keine Lust” … I love this. 😀
I’m with you with you’re simple answer that “You’re not.” If shaking my hands & body off & trying to cleanse the ideas of procrastination & negativities off my head can be considered as a restart, then yes, I do reset my thinking towards something that I do to keep moving forward. I change my attitude towards it. I reassess myself. I center myself with the help of music or movies. Things like that help me focus back on what I am about to achieve & what my goals are.
Well said, James! And I love how you do your restarts. 😀
Thanks so much for sharing! <3