Paul Rance Banner

Old Paul Rance Articles

Staying Motivated as a Writer by Paul Rance

Share

Movies may portray the life of a struggling writer as somehow glamorous, as a writer pursues a dream despite all the hurdles put in his or her way, but, for any writer living an austere existence, then life is not quite as film often portrays a struggling writer's life to be.

Love of Writing is Essential

Most writers accept that they are not going to become successful in five minutes, and that their pursuit of success is unlikely to be without difficulties, but the setbacks are not an enjoyable experience by themselves.

What makes the tough times easier to bear is when a writer loves writing. It will be hard to remain motivated when times are tough unless you have the compensation of working away at something that you enjoy, and seeing the possibility of how good one's life will be if success is achieved in something that you love doing.

Many writers have endured hardship to varying degrees before finding success, from Charles Dickens to J.K. Rowling, and, when at a low ebb, their examples are good ones for a writer to look at as a spur to keep going.

Miserable Paul Rance
Paul Rance after a bad writing day in 1995

Have Realistic Expectations

Having realistic expectations is always a sensible approach to take for any writer. Setting unrealistic goals and not managing to reach them will leave you deflated. Setting attainable targets, on the other hand, and reaching them will give you, as a writer, a massive boost, and encourage you to keep going, and to move on to the next challenge.

When writing, just think of building up your career in small steps. Then any setbacks are small ones. Writers with their heads in the clouds, and expecting success in no time, will risk becoming disillusioned very quickly.

Try and treat writing seriously, but don't become too obsessed with success, because you may end up going down writing avenues which you may really not want to go down. You should try and write about things that interest you, and that will sustain your interest. You'll also be more inclined to work at your writing, and find any required research interesting. If you're not interested in politics, for instance, then, researching the subject for an article you don't really want to write, will just be something you'll probably find tedious.

After all the knockbacks, any success will not only be pleasing, but will help guard against complacency in the future. An easy ride to success will leave anyone unprepared for any change in fortunes.




Copyright © 2019 Paul Rance