Writers Café discussion

So guys, I'm attempting to get back into my writing after a few years off, but I'm struggling to stay motivated. Life just seems to put things in my way (work, family and all that stuff).

What tips/tricks or steps do you take to keep yourself motivated and writing when life tries to get in the way?

I know your situation. I myself have work and university always coming in the way, so it can be really hard to find time. Obviously, you can't just take a day off at work to write, so what I do is that I write whenever I have the time. When I am home and not studying for class, I usually just sit at the Internet, and then I tell myself: Why be online when you can write?
The important thing when you have a lot to do, is that writing don't become something you have to do. Did that make sense? As in, work and school is something you need to do, but writing should be something you want to do, so that writing can be used as a thing you do to be relaxed between all your duties.

Felicia wrote: "I know your situation. I myself have work and university always coming in the way, so it can be really hard to find time. Obviously, you can't just take a day off at work to write, so what I do is ..."

Thanks Felicia, that makes sense. I do have a bit of trouble dividing my time between the few things I do for relaxation (reading, sewing, cooking etc) I just need to re-evaluate how much time I give to my writing I suppose :D

I normally get my ideas to write at night. I'm not allowed on the internet at night, so I have to write it in the morning. While I wait for the bus after morning practice, I write, as I am now. just have a scheduled time to write, it may not be long, but you can get a lot of work in if you have the ideas.

I get my ideas usually about 10pm and am writing until 11.30. On a school night? Bad, bad idea. But somehow I always do.

I would love to write when I'm bored, but I don't because...well, I'm bored. Ideas never come when I'm bored.

:D

By "wicked" to you mean cool, or truly disturbing/evil? Or both? :P

I think I need to start carrying around a book with me so I can write stuff down when inspiration hits.

I tried sitting down in front of the computer last night to put some more words on my January writing challenege for my Paranormal group... but I got about 2 lines. I feel a bit like I'm forcing it.

Lauren has read the first and partial second chapters... it's slow going though.

If anyone's interested:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/list/6...

Ok so the book is now making it's way around with me in my handbag... so far, no bursts of inspiration, but we can't rush these things :D

What works for me (Usually) is setting a goal for myself. Right now I have a goal set to write a thousand words a day, whether I feel like it or not. That way I am in the habit of writing.
I don't write the same thing each time, or anything at all sometimes. Like I'll start a new short story or poem, or write down ideas, or whatever. Just so long as I spend a decent amount of time at the computer writing.
Sometimes I don't make it to a thousand, and sometimes I don't write at all, but that's what helps keep me writing. :)

ah writing is easy for me at the moment what are your problems

I have decided that I am getting stuck about 1/2 way through chapter 1 for most of my work... I just don't seem to be able to push past that... Grr

Lynxie wrote: "I have decided that I am getting stuck about 1/2 way through chapter 1 for most of my work... I just don't seem to be able to push past that... Grr"

whats going on so far though?

Well the story is here:

http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...

Really, not much has happened, there's the main character who's stuck in a room, then a scream, and they wake up in a huge open area of grass, naked and having been attacked with no memory of what happened.

Lynxie wrote: "Well the story is here:

http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...

Really, not much has happened, there's the main character who's stuck in a room, then a scream, and they wake up in a..."
well a lot had happened, I think anyway
so when you got the idea to write this did you ever think what would happen next, like what are your inspirations for this piece of writing?
I mean it could be anything - aliens, FBI, kidnap, dream, scientific experiments?

I have some ideas, but I sort of get to this point and then I lose insipriation... I have a number of stories that are at about this point.

When I got the inspiration for this one, it wasn't really inspiration so much as the desire to enter the competition one of my other groups is having.

I'll see how I go writing some more tonight. I don't want to give away where I'd like it to go... coz I think I have it all written out in my head, it's just getting it out of my head and onto the computer.

Well so much for staying motivated...

I think it was bottling up ready to burst out of my head just the other morning! Woke up with a fairly complex, yet complete (bare bones only) outline for a story or even perhaps series of stories!! WOOT!

To Self-Published Authors

I have met people who are energized by their own genuine enthusiasms here on Goodreads, as well as in other online communities. I have a deep sense of gratitude and thankfulness for the correspondence that has been established between us, and still continues. But in terms of Goodreads, a community now having reached ten million members if I have read correctly, there is an even larger confusion of purpose.

Being an indie author is not cute. Nor is it clever or respectable. It is not enough to think an idea followed through to a bound book makes one a serious writer. In reality, to be an indie author is to be prepared to wallow in not only the malaise and self-doubt that comes with authorship, but the general belief in your uselessness and irrelevance from the publishing world, which includes readers. Ever hear the phrase “If you can’t do, coach?” It’s unfair but no different. Ever hear “No one wanted to publish your work, so you published it yourself?”

I am an indie author, but I wish to rescind the label. And I know, above all and before anything else, I am looked down on because I put money and effort into producing my debut novel. Perhaps I’ve earned a modicum of respect for the financial and temporal sacrifice, which is in its own right a generosity of spirit from people as frustrated as myself, people who could easily have not offered that. And I knew this ahead of time. I knew it would be a gamble, of perception, reception and reward. But I did it because of my understanding of two things:

1. I believe in the relevance and importance of my novel.
2. With the evolution of the publishing industry, I recognized the level of difficulty in convincing an agent or editor to consider a debut novelist who can not guarantee a return on initial investment, as well as a marketing plan that is to be handled mostly by the author. Most good books...hell...most amazing books, spend their time in slush piles before seeing the light of day. I understand established writers and their contention when it comes to self-published authors perverting the system. (And it should not be a system. But because it’s become a system, a tacky machine of superfluous words, the indie authors’ negative reactions to being shoved off in to the margins as not being “true writers” are NOT valid. So prove yourself!)

But just don’t try to prove yourself by engaging in some factory of Likes, Tags and Reviews being exchanged for those who don’t even read your writing. Recently, I commented on a thread here in Goodreads about kindness, humility and gratitude. Someone responded, adding to the end of his/her comment that he/she wasn’t promoting his/her own work before doing it a few hours later in the same thread. And what has pushed me toward this conversation is that today, when corresponding with a show host for books and authors in Canada, the host told me he’d be interested in my book, but mostly he feels self-publishing is a hustle. A hustle. And he isn’t wrong, especially when I see something like what I saw last night on Goodreads: a “writer” was actually asking for help with plot lines for the book. And people were lining up to share their two cents.

Pathetic.

And so, we are not writers here. We are salespersons. And I see fully, now, what is wrong with self-publishing. I am proud of my book, inside and out, and pleased with the company I’ve paid to produce it with me. Not for me. But I am also completely satisfied with one person a month falling in love with my story, indefinitely, rather than one hundred thousand readers “liking” it temporarily just so I will follow their blog.

Wrong.