2026 Motivation Thread

[RedMage]

Objectivity when reviewing your own writing can be very difficult to do. I set my story aside not to forget what happens, but to separate my emotional connection so that I may have even a little objectivity. This usually takes me either A) time away from the story, and/or B) diving into a new story which I can connect to emotionally.

@STEKI, are you a student of the "finish what you start" school? I think that's a good maxim for life, but it shouldn't be applied in each and every thing we do. We need to judge whether our stories are worth the time and effort (physical, mental and emotional) to continue working on. Evaluate them and make a determination of this is good or bad, I should/want or should not/do not want. This evaluation and judgement process needs to be the same as any other task we undertake. Does my completed school homework meet the assignment criteria? Same for the project my boss assigned me at work. Or the new flower garden you've spent weeks digging and planting.

Don't lower your expectations. Maintain them. Raise them. However, be objective in considering your completed story draft. Ask yourself these questions about it:

1. Is this a good story in its essence (i.e. regardless of the text's faults)?
2. Do I have the tools, writing and storytelling knowledge and experience, and the technical writing tools, to make this story shine?
3. Do I care enough about this story to revise it?
4. Do I have the time and physical, mental and emotional energy to revise it?
5. Do I want to revise it?
6. Are there other stories that would be a better use of my time?
7. Do I still enjoy working on it? --OR-- Am I happy when I work on it, or simply think about it?

Lastly, it is okay to set down a project before it is completed to your standards. Something else I've come to learn about stories is that each one teaches us something different as writers. Technical skill with grammar and wordsmithing, how tell the story, how much planning we need to do ahead of time, how to use first person point of view. The lesson is often not one we consciously recognize in the moment; indeed, I've only recognized a few in hindsight, years later. But that understanding came because I was able to see myself growing and improving and increasing in my writing and storytelling skills from one story to the next unrelated story.

Don't be hesitant, let alone afraid, to put down a story. Ask yourself the questions and, if you've done all you can with the story and there's other things you need (or simply want) to do, well, then it's time to move on. This story will be here if you ever want to return to it. Keep your story files together. Back them all up together. They'll be there should you want to return.

 

[RolandsFarblood]

I know that feeling very well.

For me, the exhaustion after a large project does not come only from the number of hours spent on it. It comes from carrying the whole structure around mentally for such a long time. Characters, unresolved decisions, continuity questions and possible improvements remain active in the background even when you are not consciously working.

Finishing removes the immediate pressure, but the mind does not switch out of that state at the same speed. Sometimes there is relief; sometimes there is simply an unexpected empty space where the project used to be.

What helps me is a deliberate period in which I am allowed to collect thoughts but not begin another major commitment. I might write down what worked, what became unnecessarily difficult and what I would change next time, but I avoid turning those notes immediately into a new production plan.

And I agree that one person reading the entire work matters enormously. Statistics can be abstract, but knowing that another person remained with a story from beginning to end makes the work feel real in a completely different way.

Congratulations on completing it.

 

[RedMage]

Well said, @RolandsFarblood! That's exactly my experience of the post-finishing exhaustion and what the results of finishing actually are.

Welcome to SFFWorld, by the way!

 

[Jonas Stark]

Good to hear from you, Jonas! I'm glad to hear you're doing so well. Or were, all of a month ago. How have you been since? How's Operation Ten coming along?

Sorry I didn't see your post sooner. Like @N. E. White, I haven't been around much this year.

Yeah, I'm really in on the writing at this point. Signed up for a couple forums, concerned this place had reached entropy, but haven't really interacted.

Why?

151k words drafted since June 5. This pace and duration has been beyond anything I've ever done before. What's more, I have a beta reader essentially taking in the drafts almost as I write them and the feedback has been high quality...and motivating. I do feel like that has helped propel me. And yes, all 151k are for Lyetuna, and the book is trending toward 190-200k words, so it's likely going to be split, but I think I identified where the seam is, right around the 97k word mark.

I've set aside my MG novel Sasquatch Summer and am now working on two adult market stories. One is a scifi set almost a thousand years in the future after humans have colonized the solar system and have had a catastrophic war involving all the planets, moons, asteroid colonies and stations (aka. World War I). The other is a contemporary fantasy novella following a grandfather teaching magic to his teenage granddaughter and the magical hijinks they get up to. Like you Jonas, I've taken a hard look at my writing and the career I want to build. Writing MG is still interesting to me, but I think my career needs to be established elsewhere first.

I completely get this. How have you found the transition from working on Sasquatch Summer to a couple stories that are almost entirely different, not just from SS, but even from each other? Was it jarring?

I am apprehensive about how I'll be able to jump into editing a Cold War political sci-fi after this literary war thriller. I'm hoping some of my tendencies don't rub off too hard. Very curious to hear about your experience.