Motivation Hack: Start Early

Have you ever had days where you’ve planned your writing time out perfect around work. You’re going to utilize those evening hours to punch out some words. You’ve scheduled your day, cleared the time, found your favourite drink/soundtrack/blanket. Your novel is open on screen. And…nothing. No words, no inspiration, no motivation. Nothing. And all of a sudden there’s this intense urge to watch TV, take a nap, vacuum the house, or done of the other one hundred and one things that are not writing. If you’re anything like me, that’s probably happened a few too many times.

But I’ve found a little trick that really helps me: Start early.

By ‘start early’ I don’t mean you have to get up at four to write. (Unless that is when you get your writing done, in which case I salute you. You are a stronger writer than I.) I don’t even mean that you have to try and get everything written before midday to get it done at all. For most of us, that is never going to happen. Life is just too busy with work, school, and other obligations to give up precious daytime hours.

It’s not about getting it finished early. It’s about getting started.

One thing I’ve noticed about my motivation is that it’s easier to find it earlier in the day. No matter what kind of day I’m having, it’s easier to push myself to write in the morning, whether I feel like it or not. So use that. Getting something, anything written first thing in your day sets you up for a much better writing day all-round. Getting started for the day is the hardest part of anything, so it only makes sense to start at the time it’s easiest.

You don’t have to write much. Maybe just 100 words. Maybe edit 50. Maybe add 3 lines of dialogue. Even if you only have a moment, you can easily add a sentence to your novel. But you can’t just write a note for what you want to write later. You have to actually add something to your novel. Put some words in that document, no matter how few, and then go back to the rest of your day.

You’ve done the hard part. You’ve put your first words down for the day. Your brain is thinking about your book. All of a sudden that’s an important thing in your life again. It’ll hang in your subconscious while you’re working in the rest of your day, and when you come back in the evening, your book will be fresher in your mind. Maybe you’ve have some more ideas about where to go with your story. For me, I often find that as long as I’ve done something earlier in the day, it’s so much easier to engage with my book again in the evening when I’m tired and uninspired.

Alternatively, maybe you don’t feel inspired to write. Maybe those words still won’t come. However you did get a couple of sentences done earlier in the day. You’ve touched base with your novel. You’ve thought about it. You added to it. And in the end, whether you wrote a lot or a little, the fact that you wrote at all is what really counts.