Five Ways I’m Motivating Myself to Finish My Novel
I’ve been working on the same novel for nearly six years. It’s a shapeshifting, slippery, siren song. A monster. My son has a library book about mythological beasts, and my novel WIP would fit right in; a finished draft I’m actually happy with seems so mythical these days. I’ve recently started over (again), but this time with some major problems solved. These problems were holding me back for years. Wayde Compton taught a class I was in once and discussed what he calls The Rupture: a period in any drafting phase of writing in which you get blocked and want to give up. I have had so many ruptures… And my journey back from them is a topic for another post.
Now things are flowing again. This new version makes sense to me, feels doable, and is happening, my friends. At least, for now. But given my intermittent (and invisible) disabilities (a real beast that might rise up and incapacitate me at any time), how am I not going to get derailed again? How am I keeping myself going and staying motivated? I am currently using five techniques simultaneously.
Writing Dates: I’ve been working with L for a few years. We try to meet with each other on Google Meet once per week to write together. I find writing dates with writer friends really helpful in ensuring I get some words down or related tasks done. Sometimes, I still can’t do it, but usually, sitting with someone who is also writing helps me get it done. This is a concept called Body Doubling, which can work for just about any task. For example, cleaning your home is easier when you are doing it with someone else. For me, it works in person or virtually.
Me getting ready for a Google Meet writing session. Please forgive my currently messy background!
2. An Accountability Buddy: I’m in a worldwide writerly community which communicates on Slack. Recently, I’ve found a fellow writer who is also writing a novel after years of novel-writing frustrations. We’ve decided to be accountability buddies. We live in different time zones and have busy lives, so we check in asynchronously, when we can, about how our work is going. I wrote to her recently saying I passed 9000 words of my novel draft. This is a low-pressure external motivator. Checking in with a friend, even if they aren’t writing, setting goals and then letting them know how it went, can be helpful.
A wee snapshot of what I can show you of my writing community’s Slack.
3. A Physical Word Tracker: Years ago, I wrote a full draft of a novel that was over 111,000 words long. It’s long been living in the metaphorical bottom drawer, but I did draw up a progress bar for it. This time around, I’ve made one in Canva. I colour in each square, which represents 1000 words completed. Tracking my progress in a visual way allows me to feel proud of how far I’ve come. I want to fill in more squares and complete the whole grid. Only writing will do that.
My original progress bar from my long-buried novel draft. This is about twelve years ago…
My current novel’s progress tracker. Notes: Yes, I’ve changed the title and, yes, this photo was taken before I crossed 9000 words.
4. A Digital Word Tracker: In some software, you can set a word target and track your progress. Scrivener has a simple one you can set up. I’m writing this novel (and this post) in Notion. I’ve set up some formulas and a gallery view of a database to produce my own word count tracker and digital progress bar. This helps me the same way the physical word tracker does, however, it sits at the top of my writing page in Notion, so I can see my progress in near real time.
Another 12 year-old photo, this time of the Scrivener progress tracker from my dead novel draft.
My current progress tracker in Notion. For the math astute, yes, my actual target is 99,000 words. The novel is currently designed to have eleven chapters at 9000 words each.
5. Milestone Gifts to Myself: I saw this idea online years ago, but I can’t find the original source. Basically, you set up a meaningful reward for yourself for goals achieved. Maybe you eat some chocolate after every writing session. I ordered a bag of Jelly Belly jelly beans to munch on while I’m writing, so my brain associates that sweet hit of dopamine with writing. I just need to remove the licorice, coffee, and tutti frutti ones first so I don’t get distracted by yuck (I’m a tea person, not a coffee person). Another way to reward yourself is milestone gifts. Maybe it’s a nice bath bomb or pedicure for every 5,000 words. Maybe you give a friend some cash and get them to purchase and wrap up a present for every 20,000 words. What I’ve chosen to do is buy myself an inexpensive plant for every 10,000 words I write in this novel beast. I live close to a plant store, so the walk solo to pick out and buy a plant will be a lovely reward for me in these spring and summer (and likely autumn and, sure, yeah, winter) days. I’ve pre-bought some cheap white plastic pots and written each milestone goal on the pots. I put up some wall shelves I already had for the pots and installed a grow light. Let’s hope that I can keep the 10,000 words plant alive until I buy the 100,000 words plant! Yes, although novels tend to be around 80,000 words, I’m aiming for 99,000 to 100,000 in this draft to get it all down. I can then “kill my darlings” in revision and rewrites.
My pots, each with their respective word count goal, waiting for their plants. As I’m at 9000 words now, I hope to be buying my first plant soon for that 10,000 word milestone.
Not all five motivation techniques are necessary at any one time. Maybe think about choosing one to start. Which one would you choose and what would it look like for you? If you’re interested in any of these methods, feel free to get in touch!