Jay's Motivation Tips
( This thread was originally a reply to this post on @Wisteria's wall. I liked what I came up with, and I thought it was something that would fit right in with the Writing Tips threads! It's been slightly edited, but you can see the original version there by clicking that link. )
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I admit I've been struggling with sticking to my own writing projects recently, but I started and finished writing a 40k+ fanfiction back in November and early December. I'm not sure how helpful my advice is, but I thought it had to be a little helpful if it helped me finish a story.
One of the biggest motivators I had was a goal to finish writing by the time winter break started. I was writing my project as a pseudo-NaNo; my original goal was to write around five hundred words a day, but I keep writing more. So I think that the first step would be setting some kind of goal you want to reach - and to make sure it's one you can honestly see happening if you put the effort in.
Once you have a goal, it helps to have some kind of minimum word count/scene count that would help you reach it. For me, it was five hundred words a day in the beginning and a 1k+ chapter a day by the end. There's actually this really cool challenge @ShadowVyper's running called the #20in20 challenge. The goal is to write for at least twenty minutes day and log your writing somewhere on your wall. Doing something along those lines would definitely be a good motivator - the 100 Words Daily club also holds you to a minimum, though the minimum is a word count and not a time one.
My other pieces of advice are to find someone to geek out about the project with, and to find a story that's full of things you're excited about writing. My fic started with a "what if" conversation I had with my friend after seeing a post on Tumblr, and scheming up story ideas with her was what helped to keep me motivated as I was working through plot holes and boring parts of the story.
And, most importantly of all: take a break when you need one! There's going to be some days where you can't reach what your goal is, or you're just unable to write the scene. You don't want to take too long of a break from your story, but you also don't want to force yourself to write when you can't even begin to imagine the next scene.
Good luck on all of your writings, and I hope this helps motivate you!
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