How to Find Motivation

As you may or may not know, I am doing an personal experiment with this story. I am trying to write at least the first five chapters 'by the seat of my pants,' otherwise known as 'pantsing.' I am a HUGE fan of organizing and creating a skeleton to work from. But, as my writing to date shows, it is possible to organize your thoughts so much that on paper they are confusing, or worse, boring.


I have been writing this story on and off for a year, according to the blog date entries, and have only gotten through chapter four. Why? Did I follow the rules of religious writing that say to force yourself to write everyday, and the story will come? Yes and no. I tried that. My husband, Brant, is a follower of this idea, and tries hard to write something most days. And for him it works. For me... I am just not that kind of person. I really... REALLY don't like being forced to do something, and the work tends to come out as, well, crap.


I write when the urge takes me, like when I have a really good idea on how to continue. How do I find motivation, that spark that makes me want to write? I simply utilize the tools at my disposal that I love to use: those things that make me happy. Recently, those have been my husband, my work, my MST3K, and even my dreams.


Most of you that have read my first chapter know that I got the inspiration by watching the MST3K movie "Werewolf." I just thought 'I can write a better story than that,' and started hammering away at the keyboard as the movie progressed. By the time it was finished, I had my first chapter. It had flaws, and apparently spacial anomalies. But it was interesting enough for the editors (The Magic City Writers group) to want to read more.


The second chapter was written while I was in a bubble bath. Well, dictated. I was totally relaxed, and sort of day-dreaming, listening to music, when I started thinking about my story. Then I turned on a recorder (yes, I had one nearby, I planned it that way) and started talking it out. Again, the work was rough but pretty good. The third chapter was written just after watching another MST3K called 'Space Mutiny.' Basically, it relaxed me so I forgot about my looming deadline and just wrote the darned thing.


This fourth chapter I wrote in pieces, not in whole as the other three. I had no idea where to take the story, now that it could go in several directions. So I split up characters basically into pairs and had them talking to each other. I used some of the problems Brant has talked to me about with the computer software he uses at work to mock up a reason why the computer is not cooperating with Ran when he needs it too. I used my work to allow the two doctors to converse with each other on how to prove a gene is one thought to be extinguished from our gene pool long ago. And I again used my husband to ask what he thought of my infection ideas, which came to me in a dream the night before. The end result: a new chapter in (really) about 3 hours of work... spread out over a few days. Brant said at the last meeting that the work in this chapter was very high quality, and only had minor editing notes about rephrasing confusing sentences (something I am prone to).


Bottom line, the 'trying to write something everyday' can work for many writers. But for those that just can't seem to do it, like me, try surrounding yourself with stuff that motivates you, and be prepared to write when any inspiration hits you.