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I really love writing, mainly screenwriting. I can also come up with ideas and start writing. But there is one problem, I just start writing them and never take up the work again. What do you do to keep youself motivated and get back into writing a certain story? Are there any tricks?

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I cannot recommend The War of Art by Steven Pressfield highly enough for this very struggle. The whole book is about finding the motivation to finish the creative projects you start. It's marketed to all creative types but written by a novelist, so many of the examples and insights are specifically catered to writers. You can very likely get it at your local library. I got an ebook.

Outside the scope of that book, one thing I find really helpful personally is to immerse myself in a bunch of different creative works. Novels (expand your genres!), poetry, good movies, songs, etc. Also, getting outside and being in nature really helps get my creative juices flowing. The more beauty you find in the world the more you will be inspired to make something beautiful.

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  • Thank you really much for that answer! I will read that book as it really sounds like something worth reading for me. May 26, 2016 at 19:19
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    "I cannot recommend The War of Art by Steven Pressfield..." I stopped reading right there and obtained an entirely different perspective. :)
    – raddevus
    May 29, 2016 at 15:05
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Probably Indicates Belief of How Good It Is

Your own mind may be trying to tell you something -- though it may be a lie. Your own mind may be trying to tell you that it doesn't believe that the story is "good enough".

Malarkey and Bunk, You Say You might believe that viewpoint is not correct. Here's a little test to determine if that is true for yourself. For the test to work you have to take a moment and imagine this really happening. Okay, ready...let's go.

Publisher Read Your Draft, Wants Entire Story

Imagine that you posted a partial draft of chapter 1 of your fiction on a blog. The acquisitions editor of SuperBig Publishing stumbled upon it and loves it. You receive the following email:

Dear Writer:

My name is Jon Jonsmith of SuperBig Publishing and I love your fantastic writing (squee).

However, there isn't enough of it. I need the entire book.

Would you please consider finishing the book in the next 3 months. If you will sign an agreement to finish the book, I'll forward you a check for $10,000 advance immediately so you can start writing. Don't worry about it being great, because your author's voice is fantastic so you have no worries there. Just write 300 pages and I'm happy.

Love always, SuperBig Acquisitions editor, Jon Jonsmith

Really consider that.
Could you now write 300 pages of the story that you stopped writing before?

The Motivations Are Obvious Now

Now, your mind has obvious motivations:

  1. someone loves your writing
  2. $10,000

Can You Tell Why Your Mind Believes It Isn't Good Enough

So, now we're back to the original thing. If you could write the story with the two aforementioned motivations, then why can't you write the story without those two motivations?

Is Your Mind Trying To Save You?

Is it because you yourself don't even believe in the project? If the answer is yes, then it is best that you do stop writing that story because if you don't like it then there is no chance of anyone else ever liking it.

If that is true, your mind has saved you from working on a bad project.

If It Isn't True?

If it is a great project then why aren't you writing your project right now? That is a much deeper thing, isn't it? It may be that you just don't like sitting alone writing.
Here's a book that can really help with that: Amazon link to Becoming A Writer by Dorothea Brande

Technical Skills?

However, if your not writing simply because you fear you won't write the story well, then you are in a great place. Learn to write well, by writing this story as best you can and editing it. This is how you become a writer: hard work.

The most instructive book I ever read on writing skills is: amazon link to Make Your Words Work by Gary Provost

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    Thank you really much for the time you took to write this all down you really got some points here. And in fact I really think that trying to find something to Motivate myself is really important (that might not be what you tried to tell me but it is what I read from it ;) ) May 27, 2016 at 19:56
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This what I do: I give what I have to someone I trust to tell me truth. If they like it, it gives me motivation to keep writing it.

I hope this helped!

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  • It's good to have a few readers that you trust. An author I know had a few, including one whose opinion he always inverted. That is, if that reader liked his work he knew he had to redo it. :) Jun 15, 2016 at 21:10
  • @Ken Mohnkern Yep
    – DJFluffy
    Jun 16, 2016 at 1:46

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