Ten Super Awesome Ideas to Reach Your Writing Goals
Having Trouble Getting Motivated to Write?
You’re not alone.
Many writers struggle with keeping up the motivation.
What you often need to keep up that motivation is keep a steady momentum with daily goals.
As a writer, and (recovering) procrastinator, I’ve tried lots of ways to keep going with writing – but still often let excuses get in the way.
I had to do something if I was ever going to be successful. I’ve found this list of ten ideas to be my go to writing tactics to keep me finishing my writing work and reach writing goals.
Following these tips will help you get more writing done, and maybe even spur a few writing motivation ideas of your own.
1. Set Manageable, Fun Goals – Choose your ideal word count – divide by how many days you want to be finished – and sit down every day and do it.
For example: 65,000 words – divide by 30 days = 2167 words per day. If you think about it, this really isn’t that much. Some days you may only get 300 words, but other days you may hit 8,000. As long as you write every day, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to hit such an easy goal.
2. Keep Track of Your Word Count – you can have a goal of 65,000 words, but really, you don’t know exactly how many words your book is going to be until you finish it. I keep a book note on my desk calendar—a sticky note page will do. What I do when I finish writing each day is make note of my word count in the side margin.
Then the next day I do the same thing below and cross it off. This helps me to see actual progress, whether I use a goal system, like in the first tip or not. This alone keeps me seriously motivated.
An added motivation with that is I’ll round up to the nearest 500 or thousand. So, one day it’ll say 41,500 and then the next day I’ll cross it out and write 45,000 underneath.
3. Edit Older Writing – For example, if you have a blog, you can go back through a few old blog posts and edit them – work on SEO, fine tune them, and spruce up any writing you have. This is one of my favorite tricks to get me going in any kind of writing. Sometimes it spurs me into a new series of blog posts, or it gets me back to the book. Either way, I’m writing—and it gives me momentum to keep writing.
I have found that going back to the first chapter of the book and doing a little proofreading helps too. But be careful here because sometimes this can cause setbacks— such as if you end up going off on a tangent where you decide to alter the entire plot.
Don’t do that. Finish the story before you do any major editing from the beginning.
But a little proofreading will get you back into the story and motivate you to continue.
4. Get Moving – after you’ve written for a couple of hours and your eyes are tired, or you find yourself stuck, or just every time you start a new chapter—there’s nothing better than a good 15-20 minutes of physical exercise.
Physical movement doesn’t just give your body an energy boost, but your brain as well.
This is also helpful before you start writing for the day.
Now, I don’t mean do a vigorous exercise routine, anything athletic, or some crazy workout—just a short few minutes to get your blood pumping.
Some ideas to get moving and take a break from writing:
- Go for a short walk—take the dog or kids around the block
- Run or walk fast on a treadmill for just 5-10 minutes
- Get up and clean something small
- Jumping jacks, jump rope, or run in place a few minutes
- Crank up your favorite music and dance
- Do a quick run outside—once around the house, up and down your sidewalk, or driveway
- Do just 20-30 squats, sit-ups, crunches, or leg-lifts
- Gardening—just a few minutes of pulling weeds, watering, clipping, or rake leaves
- Got snow instead? Shovel for a few minutes or build a snowman
- Run up and down some steps if you have them
- Play in the yard with your dog, kids, or at a park
- Treat yourself to a coffee, soda, or even lunch—but walk to get it
You don’t even need to break a sweat or set out to accomplish anything major—just do some brisk, physical exercise every time you reach a stopping point in your writing.
You may find that your house is cleaner, you have the most well kept garden around, happiest kids and/or dog, lose a little weight, and feel better—but mainly, your writing will be better because it’ll give your body—and brain—an energy boost.
And, if you have neighbors that ever question your behavior—you just say, “I’m a writer,” because that speaks for itself.
5. Write at the Same Time Every Day – this is often difficult for most people, especially if you have young children, or just trouble getting motivated. But if you take your writing seriously—you can get your household on a good routine and everyone knows your writing time.
Then it gets easier.
I have six kids—the youngest are twins and I’ve homeschooled them all. For over a decade I kept the youngest children on a fairly strict routine of taking a nap after lunch, every day between 12-3pm.
Something amazing came of that—even after all my kids were well-past napping age.
Every day after lunch the whole house grows quiet and everyone is busily occupied in an independent activity to where they don’t require my attention.
This is my writing time.
You have to start somewhere and adapt your life into a good routine of some kind if you want to be a writer.
6. Pray & Meditate – Sometimes I’m just staring at the screen and I’ve done a bit of running around, the house is quiet, and I still can’t seem to focus. Knowing that I’m a writer because it’s something inside of me that I should do—it’s easy enough to take a few minutes and ask for guidance with words and ideas. No matter what your belief, it makes a difference.
For me, it usually ends up being so amazing that words pour from my fingertips, seemingly without much thought. I just have to remember to stop and do it before writing—which gets easier with a routine.
7. Read – this may seem counterproductive, but really it’s not. Sometimes you just need to read something else and detach your mind from writing and read someone else’s writing.
I keep myself in a constant supply of old mystery stories, often from the library – and somewhat contrary to the genre in which I write.
Sometimes I’ll read a single chapter and come back with a fresh focus, sometimes I read more. I find this to be much more stimulating and enjoyable than, say, scanning through Facebook.
There’s nothing more pleasant and satisfying than your favorite stories to inspire you to write more—after all—isn’t that why you started writing?
I decided to ask two of my daughters, who do loads of writing, if they had any additional tips and this is what they had to say:
Elsa:
8. Do it Anyway – just sit down and write something, even when you don’t feel like it. After a little while you’ll get into it.
9. Think of All the Books You’ll Sell – sometimes a bit of daydreaming about your future is good enough motivation.
Abbi:
10. Read Through Previous Part – just reading through the last part of what you previously wrote is sometimes enough to get you right back into the story.
So there you have it, even a bit of youthful wisdom.
I hope these writer’s motivation tips help you keep up your momentum and reach your writing goals.
Spencer’s Post – Writer’s Block – Keep the Writing Momentum
Do you have any tips or ideas that work for you? Feel free to send an email for them to be included.
Have an awesome day of writing!
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