What inspires you to write when your not feeling up to it?

[Mbucknor]

I'm having some trouble writing something that I need to so I am wondering what gets you going when you just don't have the motivation?

[E-Frapp]

I like to write down every idea I can think of and then take a break from it. Take a shower, have a cup of tea, and go back to it fresh. I do my best thinking in the shower. If you're still not motivated, sometimes you just have to fake it until you get motivated. You can always revise later!

[DATo]

Do not even attempt to write. In fact, remove yourself from the place you usually write and put yourself in a totally different environment. Then think about what you want to write BUT do not try to work out the phrasing in your mind. Just think about the basis of the story and then put yourself into one of the character's persona. In your mind visit the setting of your story and walk around in the character's shoes. Try to imagine how the character thinks and what motivates him/her to think in that manner. Now, place your character within the plot that you intended to write.

Sometimes, by actually going into the story yourself, inspiration can spring from the most unlikely places. In the following bit of writing I found myself unable to relate to my character because, first of all, the character happens to be a 16 year old girl (check the picture on the left of this post). Also, she is living in 18th century Bavaria. She was also orphaned as a child when her mother, who she has never known, and whom she has yearned for every day of her life, abandoned her at a convent when she was an infant. She is about to play, for the first time, on a violin she has created under the guidance of a master luthier. The event just happens to occur on Good Friday (the day Jesus died) by coincidence. - don't worry, this is not a religious story.

OK ... now all of the things I mention above made me quite unable to relate to this girl and her feelings. This scene was a critical portion of my story and it was imperative that I get it right. So I just left the house and wandered to the park. While sitting on a park bench I willed myself into this girl's body as well as the time and place in which she existed. I imagined her feelings within the context of the story I wanted to tell until I could see the room she was in and could hear the music. I then returned home and penned the following ....

And so finally, on the hallowed day of Our Lord, Good Friday, and under the watchful eye of her instructor, Herr Hoffmann, Lisa Moeller affixed the chin rest and strung the strings. Her creation was complete, with two weeks to spare. With her fingers on the tuning pegs and her eyes aflame she gave Herr Hoffmann an inquiring look. He nodded and Lisa began to tune the instrument. When she finished she glanced at him again with greater urgency. Herr Hoffmann smiled and nodded.

Lisa held the violin at arms length before her smiling face, then pressed it to her breast and whispered quietly to it. And then, with draped eyelids, Lisa Moeller raised the violin to her chin and began to play. The plaintive strains of Johann Sebastian Bach's Ave Maria filled the humble cottage with an indescribably beautiful sound. Lisa continued to play as the tears fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks, for the beauty of the music she and her violin were now creating surpassed anything Lisa had ever experienced in her life. The effect was not lost on Herr Hoffmann who felt his legs grow weak. After a lifetime of listening to the most famous violinists of the world play upon the finest instruments of his creation nothing in his memory had transfixed his emotions as the music to which he was now listening. The music was the story of a mother who had lost her child - had watched him die on a cross on this very day. The sweetness, the pity, the gentle yet indefinable power of the composition was elevated to sublime heights by a young girl who had never known her own mother - the mother she thought upon every day of her life. She now sang to her mother of her love, of her longing, of her loneliness through her instrument. With every note she lay her head upon her mother’s bosom, held her hand, kissed her cheek. The Madonna’s grief was now her own, a grief which was voiced in the ethereally beautiful interpretation she brought to Bach's score. The final two notes of the song, the amen, though played ever so gently, ever so quietly, ever so tenderly, reverberated in the room like a lost, echoed prayer long moments after Lisa Moeller’s bow had ceased to move. Lisa Moeller and Herr Hoffmann stood silently together in the room for many minutes.

In my mind this scene took place while I was at the park. Not the words mind you ... just the scene and the feelings. It was the result of identification with my character and her feelings. Before I left for the park my mind was an utter blank.

[pretzelsnow]

I usually review the plotline and fill in the insignificant details and this helps me get my creative juices flowing.I also write all of my ideas. I hope this helps.It might not work for you/

[Zeal16]

I play some music and sing/dance around. Then I just search the web for images of nature or other things that interest me. If it's wamr enough take a walk or change the location you are writing in. Works well for me!

[Batesblogger]

I have found that those times when I have absolutely no ambition to write, when I feel like anything that comes out of my pen or from my keyboard will be just absolute trash, those are the times when my genius comes out. Maybe because I have to force myself beyond my comfort zone. Maybe it is the lack of confidence that pushes me to be better, do better. I have no idea. I could just be the oddball out though.

When I have that feeling. That overwhelming "ugh I suck" feeling, I sit down with a cup of warm tea or coffee or hot chocolate, my favorite old fashioned fountain pen and a notebook with the smallest, thinnest, brightest colored lines I can find and just pour out my soul. It is almost a thousand times better than anything I write when I feel like I am at the top of my game.

[Chloe]

For me, just relax for a bit, draw what I want to write and that's normally enough.

[Avid SciFi Fan]

I suppose everyone has found something unique that works for them.

For me, I find a short break (a few days at most), to occasionally daydream about the general direction the story is heading in, is usually enough to get me past sticking points. Good music and some time outside helps my daydreaming.

[ALynnPowers]

Food is always a good motivator.

[Night reader]

Sometimes the thing that motivates me is the urge to tell someone my feelings. I feel more relaxed when it's all down in paper.

[SharisseEM]

When I'm not feeling very motivated or I've hit a block, I take a little breather and just keep on writing. I just write whatever comes to mind because it's a draft after all and there's plenty of rounds of editing to be done.

[moderntimes]

What motivates me, other than the simple love of writing? Selling that book! And nobody's gonna buy your half-finished novel (unless maybe your name is Stevie King, ha ha).

Right now I've got an editor in chief who's eager to receive my revised novel -- we're in the middle of the possible sale right now -- and golly, I am spending lots of time in that revision.

By the way, it's "you're" not "your" feeling up to it.

[ALynnPowers]

Jack Daniels

[zeldas_lullaby]

I lie down in bed, because that's the only time I breathe through my stomach. Then I just wait for inspiration. Fortunately (i guess in this case), I rarely fall asleep without a concerted effort.

[ALynnPowers]

I lie down in bed, because that's the only time I breathe through my stomach. Then I just wait for inspiration. Fortunately (i guess in this case), I rarely fall asleep without a concerted effort.

Wow. Lucky you. Or unlucky you? I'm not sure which. If I lay down, it takes me like 5 seconds to fall asleep. I'm actually sitting on my bed right now as I write this, and it's a miracle I haven't fallen asleep already.