Or lack thereof…

    I have been having a wonderful writing month. With the help of the Challenges on the Wriye Forum coupled with the encouragement of so many fine writers, I’ve managed to write 60k already this month. This is an amazing feat given how few words I feel like I’ve been writing for almost a year now. Which makes me consider the fickle thing that is motivation…

    Ever since the end of the year when I realized that I’d somehow managed to capture the fickle thing that is my motivation I have been guarding and babying it like it was a tangible thing. There are certain projects that I SHOULD be working on given my goals of publication this year and then there are projects that I’m just enjoying at the moment. While I know which projects I should be working on, my motivation for said projects is a lot less than say, my zombie novel, Antibodies:Wanted.

    Given the fragile state of my newly found motivation, do I risk losing it by making myself write what I should be writing, or do I follow it where IT wants to go? Do I let it pick which path it wants while I cultivate it into a stronger and stronger motivation? In the back of my mind I can’t help but picture myself guarding this little flame through a wind storm in hopes that I can make it grow large enough that it will sustain me no matter what project I want to work on. When I think of this fragile thing, this motivation which can wane at a moments notice or the appearance of any real life stresses, I can only hope I can grow it into something else. I hope I can grow this tiny thing into ‘habit!’

    Habit feels like a completely different entity all together. It feels like a thing that can weather the storm of pushing through the tough spots on a project I really want to get done. It feels like I don’t have to follow habit’s every whim, working on new projects here and there as long as I keep it fed with what interests it.

    Does anyone else consider their motivation like this? Does anyone in a writing slump sit frowning at their empty document wishing they could capture that motivation, if only for a little while?