Motivations

I've seen plenty of writers go from optimistic world builders to burned-out self-doubters time and time again. The story keeps changing, the world keeps expanding, and the story never comes together. I've been there myself. Recently I overcame a personal hurdle that got in the way of my fiction writing. Non-fiction comes easily to me but fiction is elusive for some reason. In place of my old stumbling block is a new on, how to stay motivated.

The scariest parts of writing a book are releasing it and realizing you actually have to write it. The release for me has always been like playing an important game for the season, you worked hard so just go out there and trust that you did a good job. Putting myself to the grind to write is difficult. I know that some people will force themselves to write even when they don't feel like it and for my journalistic and research works that's fine and dandy. But fiction is a passion project, without passion I can't write. I realized that I have a gift for imagining very cool moments or scenes but that stringing that character along for a full book is daunting. My other half can sneeze out three chapters in an afternoon. I take a month to finalize a chapter if life gets hectic enough. The truth is, sometimes I don't open my project back up because I'm worried that the creative spark of the last chapter won't be there when I write today. Learning to conquer and control those fears is the hurdle I face now as I push onward into my book. I feel like a fool but I would rather be a fool with a completed book than die one day wishing I'd finished my ideas.