By Chelsea Hindle
We’ve all been there at one time or another. We’re feeling blue, our novel has left us discouraged and tired. We are ready to throw in the towel and give up.
While I talked several times about giving up in my last article, I wanted to focus this article on how not to give up. How to keep going even when the tide seems turned against you. I want to encourage you and push you toward your goal.
So, what is to be done when we feel discouraged and worthless? How do we deal with these feelings? What practical steps can we take to change our mindset and smash out our goal?
We'll delve deep into the topics of discouragement, burnout, and motivation. And you'll take away the answers to all these questions and more.
Ask Yourself “Why?”
In preparation for writing this piece, I read several articles on motivation and achieving goals. And as I read them, I noticed a theme across them all. They all gave the advice to ask yourself “why?” Why is this goal important to you? Why do you want to achieve it?
When people lack motivation, it often has to do with a lack of vision. You find yourself slumped over your keyboard at midnight asking, “Why am I doing this? Why am I wasting my life on this stupid novel?” (Yeah, been there, done that).
I suffer when I don’t have a vision in life. It causes me great distress to work for people who haven’t outlined their vision for my work. For me, this leads to motivation-killing burnout.
The same can happen with both my writing and yours. This is why we need to go back to basics and ask ourselves, “Why are we doing this?” We’re not asking this question in a despairing way but in an investigative and honest way.
Why are you writing this novel? What drew you to this story in the first place? Why did you connect with these characters and this plotline?
Why do you feel like God wanted you to write this story? What has kept you writing this story so far? What is it about the themes that resonate with you?
What do you want to get out of this novel? Is it for fun? Are you writing with publishing in mind? Is it to experiment with a new style or genre?
The truth is, it doesn’t matter why you’re writing a novel, only that it matters to you.
Write Even If You Don’t Feel Like It
Unfortunately, sometimes the only cure for discouragement is to keep pushing through. When I'm down about a novel, 90% of the time, the trick is to keep going. I'm annoyed by a slow-moving plot point or a difficult fight scene, and a bit of hard work is the only way to solve it.
Let’s face it. As writers, we have the best job/hobby in the world, but not everything about it is romantic, or even pleasant. Sometimes we need to roll up our sleeves and plunge into the dirty stuff. If this is an issue for you, I’ve outlined some steps in my “I’m So Behind! Six Steps to Catching Up on NaNoWriMo” article, which addresses this particular issue. However, here’s a few things you can try:
The bottom line is that it is essential to keep writing, even if you don’t feel like it. We will not always find writing pleasurable, but writers who abandon their novels as soon as they are bored, are writers who never finish a novel.
However, as a cautionary note, I would say do not torture yourself. If you hate the novel you are writing and it sparks absolutely no joy, feel free to Kon-Mari that beastie out of existence. There is no point in dedicating an entire month of your life to working on a novel that you feel no passion for. And, as I said in my previous article, our society has a strange stigma attached to failure and giving up, when neither are bad things.
Get Encouragement
Humans are made to encourage and be encouraged. And sometimes, when things aren’t going our way, we need someone to hand us a cup of tea and give us a hug.
As Christians, we are called to encourage one another and to accept encouragement from one another. In Hebrews 3:13, the author says,
“But exhort [encourage] one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
In 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Paul commends the Thessalonians for their encouragement of each other, saying,
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
And finally, Proverbs 12:25 says, very aptly, that,
“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” God is even described, in Romans 15:5, as “the God of endurance and encouragement”.
So, it is a biblical commandment to provide encouragement, but as Christians, we can also seek encouragement. Paul regularly expresses his desire to visit churches and to receive encouragement by seeing their faith in action. He also asks them to tell him certain things about their spiritual health to encourage him.
So, how do we seek encouragement? Here are some ideas.
Take a Break
If your novel is leaving you feeling stressed and discouraged, and a chat with a friend, or a social media scroll, hasn’t helped, you need a longer break.
Humans were not made to go, go, go 24/7. Rest is essential to our well-being and leaving it out of our day to day lives inevitably ends up with burnt-out, unmotivated writers.
In fact, God's first action after creating His perfect world was to rest. Not because He was tired (this is God, guys), but because he was setting aside the seventh day (or Sabbath) as a day of rest. While Western society values productivity and results above all else, God calls us to rest. To lay down our burdens at regular intervals, reconnect with Him and His creation.
We cannot keep going forever without letting ourselves recharge. We wouldn't expect our trust NaNoWriMo laptops to go nonstop throughout November without charging. So why would we expect our minds and bodies to do the same things?
The great thing about this tip is it is a proactive rather than simply reactive tip. Rest breaks can be scheduled to keep yourself from falling into a place of burnout and discouragement.
Personally, I like to have a scheduled rest day every week. For me, it’s easy to make this day Sunday, as my whole family usually has a rest day as well. However, if you work Sundays, or it doesn’t work as a rest day for whatever reason, choose any day of the week to be your day. If you work shift work or a casual job, it can change every week depending on your roster.
Whatever day you choose, I recommend refraining from all novel related projects on that day. Instead, focus on family, friends, church, and your other hobbies.
For example, on Sundays, I knit, hang out with my dogs, read, or watch a movie. If I’m feeling desperate to work on my novel, I’ll work on some character profiles or build my Pinterest board, or make an aesthetic collage. Resist the urge, however strong it may become, to work on your novel.
Once you've taken a break, you will hopefully return to your work feeling rejuvenated. Or at least motivated, if not exactly joyful again.
However, if you don’t feel any sort of improvement, I recommend referring to the first tip, asking yourself “why?”
Put Things in Perspective
When caught in the adrenaline rush of events like NaNoWriMo, it can be difficult to put things into perspective.
However, I encourage you to do so. After all, it can be greatly cheering to remember that nobody is going to die if you haven’t reached 50k by the end of November. The world will not spontaneously combust if our novels are not completed by the time December 1st rolls around.
Remembering these basic facts will help you keep yourself on the right track during November. Remember to evaluate what is more important to you—your mental and physical health, or your project? Your family and friends, or your novel? (I talk more about this in my “Help! I’m So Behind” article as well).
It helps to also have an attitude change towards NaNoWriMo. There’s a lot of pressure on writers to perform well during this time, and a general attitude that “if you haven’t written a NaNo novel, are you even a writer?” But in fact, being able to participate in NaNoWriMo is a privilege not all get to have.
If you stop seeing NaNoWriMo as a chore to be completed, see it as an opportunity to commit to writing a novel in a month, surrounded by other writers. It can be greatly liberating to view NaNoWriMo in its proper context. Of course, it’s brilliant to win, and we should celebrate those that do, but in the grand scheme of life, how much does it really matter?
Remember, this thing is supposed to be a source of fun, not a source of shame or distress.
There you have it! Five tips for staying committed, even when you feel like giving up.
Which of these tips has helped you most in the past? Which are you going to try next time you feel like giving up on your novel?
Chelsea Hindle
Chelsea Hindle is an almost-20-year-old writer who masquerades as a dog trainer by day and scribbles away in a notebook at night.
At the impressionable age of 15, she discovered Kingdom Pen, which changed her life in the best way possible and motivated her to pursue her dreams. Since then, she has written dozens of stories, made many mistakes, and enjoyed every second of the writing life.
When she isn’t writing fantastical tales, Chelsea can be found training her dogs to play the piano, cooking, knitting, and reading too many books.
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