Tag: motivation

articles, Writing

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

I’m sure you’ve seen it by now. It’s between Christmas and New Year. The decorations are coming down, the inspiration is building and your motivation is beginning to peak.

At this point, remember that slow and steady wins the race. Most people ignore this and jump straight in. It can be great at first, your motivation is all shiny and new, you even see results fast! However as the weeks progress, your motivation dwindles and your progress begins to plateau.

All of your intentions were right, right from the very beginning, but your execution? That could do with a tweak.

At work, we are always told to use SMART targets. It stands for Specific Measurable Accountable Realistic and Timely. It might seem like a lot more effort creating goals in this way but they can be easy to do once you’ve had a little practise. For example:

Specific – I want to run 5k / I would like to write a book

Measurable – I will run twice a week to begin with / I will create a chapter breakdown of my book’s plot.

Accountable – I will complete my runs after work / I will allow 1 hour each morning to write.

Realistic – I will use my time after dinner to achieve this goal / I will use 1 hour before bed if I am unable to write in the mornings.

Timely – I will complete a 5k run for a charity event/ I will complete my novel in one year.

If you set yourself a goal like this each month, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll achieve your goals. Not only that but you won’t run out of motivation by running straight into what you want.

Give this a go and let me know in the comments with how you got on!

Have a great New Year achieving your goals!

articles

Why So Many Writers Struggle With Character Development

I used to think I knew how to develop my characters. Writing character profiles was the way to do it. Before I would begin writing, I knew what my characters looked like, their hobbies, where they lived – I even knew their favourite food. However after reflecting on these profiles, I cannot help but ask, how have these profiles helped me? In all honestly – they didn’t. Not only was I stuck with two-dimensional characters, I had also sucked all of the fun out of my writing.

E.L Doctorow describes writing as, ‘it’s like driving a car at night: you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’ What struck me the most about this advice is how it appeals to character development. By completing character profiles in-depth, I knew the full route of my novel which in turn, made it seem boring. It has been suggested that to understand how your characters will react to certain events, they must be placed directly into them. How else would we know if our characters are truly brave? It is for this reason that I believe that only when we have finished writing a novel, that we gain a stronger understanding of our characters.

Sometimes when we really search deep for our characters, it can leave the writer vulnerable and open to criticism. It could therefore be argued that as a writer, we know how in-depth we need to be but scarcely do it out of fear of failure. Remember writers, ‘failure is the ingredient you have to have,’ argues Howard Jacobson and rightly so. How else would we know if our writing is good or bad? We need to be able to push past the failures in order to achieve success.

Judy Blume explains how significant a character is to a plot as they are inseparable. ‘Without a clear sense of who a character is […] the reader will be unable to appreciate the significance of your events, and your story will have no impact.’ With the understanding of how important characterisation is, it is no wonder that writers may struggle to leave themselves vulnerable on the page. It is however something that we all must do to develop our writing. So next time you find yourself feeling vulnerable within your writing, remind yourself that you’re growing as a writer.