Writer's Fallout Shelter

Hi, Louise,

When I doubt my ability to write, I just pick up Shakespeare and read a few pages. That quickly gets me to my low point, and from there the only possible direction to go is up. Just kidding!

Getting serious, I think that if the lack of motivation is associated with self-doubt, as in, "Oh, I don't feel like writing, because what's the use, it all comes out like crap anyway..." or something such, then the person needs to perform a critical self-analysis, as objectively and as honestly as possible. An understanding that one's work is not yet up to par can be a very healthy assessment, because it can cause one to focus and work on the very things that are causing the self-doubt. However, if the self-doubt and lack of motivation springs from not having something to write about, then that is a different problem altogether, which almost has nothing to do with writing itself, and is more associated with the issue of content, and the planning and organizing that goes into presenting it. Also, writing isn't only about sitting in front of the computer and typing sentences into the word processor. There are days, even weeks when I don't write even a sentence into a bonafide story. However, during that same period, I am constantly (and I mean constantly) thinking about writing, and doing things to improve it, such as reading widely and jotting down notes for future stories. I don't fret these "non-writing" periods, because in my mind I am writing. Admittedly, I'll start getting antsy after about a month or so, and then it's only a matter of time before I'll continue a story that is already in progress or start a new one. Everyone probably has their own personal threshold. A common solution you hear all the time is "write through the lack of motivation and self-doubt, force your way out of it." I can't recall ever going through that, though I might have and just don't remember it. However, I do very vividly remember being pissed off at the quality of my writing, to the point that I wrote the story like I hated it, like I wanted to kill the words. I can say from that experience that that type of "forcing" teaches me nothing. When it comes to the simple act of writing sentences, probably the best thing I ever did was take it upon myself to study grammar, to learn how to structure sentences in various ways, to understand what clauses and phrases are, and adverbials, adjectivals, expletives, and so on. But getting back to the main, the specific remedy depends on what exactly is causing the lack of motivation and self-doubt.

Ed