Staying motivated as a writer can be hard. I have my fair share of days when pursuing my writing goals is the last thing I want to do. Writing is a journey and there will be times that you may lack the motivation to push past those moments. It is in those moments I try to get into the right mindset … a writer’s mindset.
Remembering My Why
Remembering my WHY — When I was beginning to write, my mentor, Miriam Laundry, asked us to write down our WHY. What was the main reason you decided to write a children’s book?
My WHY has always been children. I was a teacher for many years and understand the role that children’s books play in developing children’s literacy skills. As a college professor and the literacy program director, we worked directly with children who were struggling in reading. Reading books helped these children become stronger readers. When you remember your WHY, you remember the reason you started it all. That will motivate you to move forward, even when the journey feels daunting.
Accountability
Accountability — Accountability is important for me. I have accountability partners in my writing group. In short, accountability partners are people whose main purpose is to remind you of your goals and hold you accountable to them. I need the structure of setting goals for my writing and reporting weekly my progress toward that goal. Keeping track of my weekly goals helps me to see my progress. The best part is the celebrating your progress toward your goal. I suggest connecting with your accountability partner either daily or weekly to remind you of your short-term goals. When you choose an accountability partner, they also need to choose you. Accountability is a two-way street, so you should be reminding and connecting with them too.
A Writing Mindset
A Writing Mindset – Is about developing a way of thinking that supports creativity, productivity and persistence with our writing. It is about reframing our thinking, challenging negativity and automatic thinking. Writers need a growth mindset. We need to learn from our mistakes and giving up on trying to be perfect writers. How many times have you said, “My writing is not good enough.” We need to rewrite our negative inner critic and make positive, believable statements such as, “I will do my best writing and trust that it will be good enough.” Reframing has helped motivate me to keep writing!
Learning
Learn — By reading this, you’re already one step ahead. Right now, you’re taking the initiative to learn more so you can make informed & confident decisions down the road. The more you learn, the easier the journey becomes.
Requests …
I am so glad you’re here and I thank you for taking the time to read this post. I am grateful that I can share my writing journey with you.
I’m looking forward to helping you as a children’s book writer in any way that I can. Speaking of helping — please leave a comment below and let me know what questions you have about picture book writing.
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One last request …
You can really help this author by leaving a book review on Amazon or Goodreads. You can leave a review for Gertie Saves the Day here or here. Two Wins for Wiley here or here. Reviews can be as easy as 2-3 sentences and should take about 30 seconds to leave and would make a huge difference for me. Need help? Click here.