MINDSET. The fuel in the engine.
If you’ve been struggling with staying focused, losing heart, getting blocked or stuck, mindset is the stuff that will power you through it.
One of my favorite books on this, although it’s targeted at sports, is On Top of Your Game; Mental Skills to Maximize Your Athletic Performance by Carrie Cheadle.
In Chapter 2, Cheadle calls this Inner Drive. She suggests that the three main factors that can really wreck your drive are:
- feeling unskilled
- feeling out of control
- feeling you don’t belong
Pretty straightforward. Let’s look at each.
Feeling unskilled.
Cheadle suggests that “oftentimes when people assume that someone has a lack of motivation, what they have is a lack of confidence.”
If you believe that your writing isn’t good enough, and especially if you believe that no matter how hard you work, there’s no way you’re going to improve, then you’re going to be exhausting the engine that drives you. Because why bother, right? You’re not going to be a success, no matter what you do. You don’t feel capable.
Feeling out of control.
The publishing industry is well known for its instability, its unpredictability, and ultimately, for the fact that luck is in the driver’s seat a disproportiate amount of the time.
You may feel like no matter how hard you try, it’s out of your hands. Agents may reject you because they’re having a bad day. The Amazon algorithm may bury you for no discernible reason. Your editor may up and join a commune, leaving your book in the lurch.
Again: disheartening. It’s easy to lose drive as a result.
Feeling unsupported or disconnected.
Remember when we were talking about support networks? This is where that ties in.
The above two things are hard enough. But if you don’t feel like you fit in the industry, if you don’t have any friends or other connections, then you’re going to have an uphill battle no matter what… because it will be a battle, and one you’re fighting alone.
So how do you fix this?
If you feel incapable or unskilled…
You’re going to work on your performance.
That means reading reference books, working with a coach or editor, taking a class, joining a critique group that you mesh with. (The good part about critique groups? Ideally they will help you hone your skills and give you a support network. A workshop or class can do something similar in many cases.)
[NOTE: If you’re thinking “But I’ve done all that! I’ve taken classes for years! I’ve worked with coaches! I own the entire writing reference section of Barnes & Noble! Nothing is working! My writing still isn’t good enough!” then what you have may not be a skill issue at all, but a perception issue. Odds are good it’s not you, it’s burnout. That’s a slightly separate issue, and we’ll discuss it in another newsletter. Or if you’re in a hurry, you can read Write Every Day, and start doing those exercises.]
If you feel powerless because of situations beyond your control…
There are a lot of wild cards, yes. So you become mindful, and look at what you do have under your control.
You can’t control whether or not an agent chooses you, but you can hone your query letters, or decide whether or not to pursue traditional or self-publishing. You can choose your strategy and your goals.
You can’t control the Amazon algorithm, but you can work on understanding categories and keywords. You can choose to publish wide. You can reach out in other promotional venues. You can write the next book.
Again, if you’re feeling utterly hopeless, this may be a matter of burnout. Resting and replenishing are always a good option when you seem to lack all motivation. There’s a way to do that without completely losing momentum. In fact, you should build it into all writing (and life!) routines.
If you feel disconnected…
Re-read the support network newsletter. Start reaching out. I promise, it’ll help when you find your people, even if that takes a bit of time.
If you’re lacking a confident mindset, store bought is fine.
Moving to slightly more “gimmicky” sources… there are ways to “hack” drive.
Find inspirational outside sources.
I have music playlists that help me write. (Or clean, or exercise, or whatever.) Feeling down? Plug in some music that helps you feel motivated. Even if you can’t write with music playing, a quick bump of fifteen minutes of songs that remind you of your story, or simply make your heart soar, will go a long way towards getting you back on track.
Similarly, you can have a YouTube playlist of inspirational movie clips that make you want to write. (Or climb a mountain or invade a castle. Whatever makes you feel driven.) That can be anything from Aragorn pledging his sword to Frodo in Lord of the Rings, or Moana singing about finding her place, or basically whatever makes you feel like going out and doing the thing.
This may seem “cheesy” but posting inspiration quotes where you can see them, and changing them up periodically, can help enormously. (I say to move them/change them because if you’re at all neurodivergent, you will become blind to them quicker than you’d think. They will lose effectiveness and become the equivalent of beige wallpaper. Set an alarm to change them.) Personally, I have “Lose enthusiastically and fail in interesting ways” and “I want to find my happiness and share it with others” right next to my computer monitor.
Finally, choosing a role model or two can help, especially if you put a picture of them somewhere… say, your computer desktop, a nearby bulletin board, whatever. They just have to be inspirational to you, by the way. Whether that’s Stephen King or Nora Roberts or Amy Tan, or even fictional characters, just choose what works for you.
Make a highlight reel.
This particularly helps when you’re feeling unskilled.
Choose five things that you’ve done in the past that make you feel like you’ve achieved something.
If you’ve finished a complete novel, even if you’ve never published it, that counts.
If you’ve finished a novella or short story, that counts.
If you wrote a poem you particularly liked, that counts, even if you’re trying to write a novel.
A scene you’ve enjoyed. A line you’re proud of. Both count.
If you’ve gotten a “good rejection” with positive commentary, that can count.
If you’ve gotten good feedback from a teacher or critique partner, that counts!
Honestly, most people discount things because they seem too far from where they want to be. The biggest problem with that kind of mindset is when you do succeed, you become numb. Nothing is good enough. That’s exhausting, counterproductive, and ultimately damaging. Start owning your wins, and celebrating the stuff you’re proud of.
The key here? GET USED TO BEING PROUD OF YOURSELF.
You’re training your brain to be confident, and that’s part of mindset (and success.)
Nobody’s saying you need to be a raging narcissist, but if you’re worried that that’s what’s going to happen, let me reassure you. Raging narcissists never consider they might be — and honestly, never care that they are. So you’re probably fine.
Right thinking vs. right action.
There is a great quote, from Alcoholics Anonymous.
“You can’t think your way into right action, but you can act yourself into right thinking.”
What does this mean?
If you want to write, but feel daunted, or stuck, and you’re waiting for to feel better, or to figure out what the problem is and how to solve it… odds are good you’re going to be waiting a long time.
While I understand writer’s block, and I firmly believe in self-care and replenishment, I also know that after a long enough time period, the starting friction to get back into writing can be brutal.
The only thing that’s going to get your drive back is taking action. Write, even if you think it sucks. Even if it’s hard. Even if it’s only two sentences a day.
Tiny actions will build into larger ones. Momentum and drive feed on action. You can’t puzzle your way out of this. You have to do the thing.
This may seem overwhelming at first.
Finding a support group! Working on your craft! Promoting! Researching the market! All that, and all this inner drive/mindset stuff? Really? REALLY?
So what you’re going to do is break it down, one piece at a time.
- Support comes first. You don’t have to have it perfect, but you need to start building that network now.
- Write your personal GMC. What do you want, why do you want it, what do you think you’ll need to do to get it?
- Then you’re going to identify your sticking point. Feeling unskilled? Powerless? Do a gut check to make sure exhaustion isn’t talking. Then you’re going to address whatever is more pertinent.
- Do the momentum hacks. Pick something. Create a playlist. Get five movie clips queued up, ready to go when you’re feeling like crap. Have your highlight reel in a folder, ready to read. Post those inspirational quotes.
- Finally: set up a time and/or a goal to write during the week. Make it small. You’re also trying to reassure your brain that you can do what you say you’re going to do, so anything over the small goal is perfect. If you’re having mindset and motivation problems, then this is more important than any big goal you feel you need to rush towards… because without this foundation, you’re going to be hobbling yourself in a marathon. Don’t do that.
Next week: what’s really required?
Remember how I had you write down what you want, why you want it… and what you think you’ll have to do to achieve it?
That last bit there?
Is probably wrong.
In a good way.
As in, there is almost always more than one way to break into a building (or in this case, achieve a writing goal!) and we’re going to start working smarter not harder.
If there’s anything you want me to cover in a future newsletter, please email me. Thank you for hanging in here, and talk to you next week.