Stuck in the Middle...

[Monica Poling]

I had a query from a writer who has plenty of ideas about getting started but is looking for advice on sticking with a project. Since this tends to be a particular problem for me as well, I thought I'd open this up to the forum for their comments and thoughts.

When you start a writing project, do you find yourself losing interest or jumping to the next thing midway through? What do you do to motivate yourself to the end? Looking forward to a rousing conversation.

Monica

[Wendy Howard]

I find that taking a few days break and writing a flash fiction story or two during the break gets me back on track with a larger project.

[Dan L. Coleman]

No one can tell you when you're ready to complete a project. Either you are up to it or you aren't. But you won't write anything until you are ready, that's for sure. Procrastination is the condition of a beginner, understandably, and is the first hurdle you must cross before becoming a professional level writer. Nobody pays anyone for a half a story.

[Dominique]

Hi Monica!!

I call this particular thing "The Writing Season" I talked about this on my blog The POV Lounge.I wrote five articles about being in the writing season but the first article spoke deeply of this. Not all writers get in the writing season and stay there. Some times we get in when we have a great idea then when we've gotten "the writing juice" out, we go on to something else until we are ready to get back into the project. It's all natural. Check out my 5 articles on The Writing Season here. I'm sure they will help!

[Arlene Marie Longson]

I find if you are jumping around in your writing, unable to settle on a clear path toward the finish..you may still be at the creative incubation phase abd don't know it, maybe too anxious to get it done when maybe you should stil be brainstorming! Does that make any sense? We get n such an excited hurry to get the story finished that we maybe shouldn't actually be writing it yet, but rather planning it.

[Michael Mercadante]

One of my favorite projects was a comic book I created with a writing partner. We self-published and self-promoted. And we both suffer a bit from this syndrome of lost interest. So, we got motivated by committing to an unchangeable deadline. In our case, we booked at the annual Small Press Expo as exhibitors. Not only had we chunked down coin to reserve a table, but we were excited to see our names show up as "featured exhibitors" for the expo. Having both the deadline date of the expo and the extra encouragement of the free promotion kicked us into high gear and we did finish on time.

So, my advice would be to set a realistic but rigid deadline and tell the world about it. Nothing gets me cooking creatively like knowing people are waiting for me to finish. Hope this little anecdote helps!

[Steve Conover]

Often, shortly after my morning coffee, ideas for projects arise, brief thoughts of what might make a good piece. But I do not write first thing in the morning but do some meditation and other such practice for the first hour or so before breakfast. Appreciating these thoughts and not wanting to lose them via forgetfulness, I quickly enter them in my seed book to look at later. This helps, but of course is no panacea, and sometimes, like this morning, my mind struggled over such an idea would be best as an artilcle, book, or both. Anyway, I am new to this network, and am certainly happy it exists. I wish all the best success.

Steve