As a writer, I’m always on the look out for the next motivating factor. The one ritual, the quietest coffee shop, the most caffeinated drink, the tastiest cake, the awe-inspiring view, or the most mind-clearing alcoholic drink that will get to me the status of writer’s nirvana and allow me to write an instant classic. The problem with motivators is, like a sugar-high (which many of them definitely are), they don’t last long. They work for a week before I have to find the newest and more improved device.
Well seeing how I’ve been through plenty, I wrote a list of my worst failures so you can do yourself a favor and steer clear of them.
Enhanced Coffee: Regular coffee blended together with purified (grass-fed-only cow’s milk) butter ghee and a special brain performance coconut oil. Okay, I was alert. But the process of purifying butter to squeeze out a few more words was not worth it. Plus, I didn’t sleep that night or the next.
Driving: While working on an opera that takes place in cars, I drove around downtown Los Angeles for hours. Until I got a ticket for texting. “I wasn’t texting, officer. I was writing opera,” didn’t go down well.
Wine Bars: The new coffee shop. If Hemingway can do it, why can’t I? Except what Hemingway probably left out of his quote, “Write drunk; edit sober,” is how much longer his editing process was than most.
I do know that successful writers say the only way to be successful is to have a routine. But don’t you have to be successful before you can do that? With day jobs, families, etc, and no cooks or maids or PAs, routines are not easy to come by, so I’m still in favor of the ever changing motivation tools.
What are you some of your failures or successes with writing motivators?