Author Christine d’Abo

Since I posted my goals yesterday, today I thought I’d share with you some of the things I do to try and keep myself motivated to meet those goals.

1. Not give up when the going gets tough. I can be such a wimp at times. Time for me to grow a backbone!

2. Get my hubby to give me a kick now and again. He’s very good at this and helps me more than I can tell you.
3. Use my friends for support. You know I love you all.

4. Look at each day as a fresh start. It doesn’t matter what happened yesterday, today I can change things.

5. Have my kids motivate me. My kids are fantastic for this. It also helps to play with them or just sit and watch TV.

6. Revisit my goals. It’s easy to get down on yourself. I like to check in to see how I’m actually doing with my goals.

7. Exercise to regain my focus. I always feel a hundred times better when I exercise. It helps me focus and that helps my writing.

8. Get lots of sleep. I’m up early and stay up late. This does eventually catch up to me.
9. Know when to walk away. If I’m getting frustrated, I need to clue in and know when to let something sit for a while.

10. Take breaks. I don’t do this enough.
11. Adjust goals if necessary. Sometimes I set lofty goals and don’t realize just how lofty they are. I need to adjust them and not try to kill myself meeting them.

12. Accept small victories. So I didn’t write 1500 this morning. I got up and wote 500. That’s still more than I had.

13. Cut myself some slack. I’m my own worst critic. I need to just chill out sometimes.

So what are some of the things you do?

I’m starting to feel the crunch of NaNoWriMo these days, even more so now that I’m near the end of my goal. So for this TT, I thought I’d share some of the things I’m doing to try and keep myself going until the end.

1. Obsessively update my word count spread sheet. Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this?? I have my NaNo site updated too.

2. Kill off characters. There’s nothing more fun than killing off a character. Unless it’s point #5.

3. Check the progress of my fellow NaNo crazies. My friends who are participating are a very prolific bunch. Seeing how well they are doing is very inspiring.

4. Take a day off. I’ve quickly learned that I’m useless if I’m tired. I’m better taking the day off writing, than force myself to do it.

5. Write a sex scene. Oh yes…nothing fires me up more than writing about sex. Man that just sounds odd when I say it out loud.

6. Read writing comics. I love Inky Girl. Make sure to check out her site!

7. Blog about my progress. You guys keep me honest. Thank you!

8. Go back and read random parts. I do this not with the intention of editing, but rather as a way to keep myself going. There is something cool about reading a piece of your writing and saying, “wow, I wrote that?”

9. Listen to music. It’s like I’m activating another part of my brain when I do this. The images the music evokes usually gets me writing again.

10. Watch TV. This may seem counter productive, but I actually find this helps me with character development, especially if I’m stuck. It’s good to see how other writers handle their characters.

11. Read parts of one of my other stories. Sometimes when I get stuck with poor Taber, it helps to see him again as a secondary character. How did the other characters see him, and then switch things around to his POV.

12. Eat chocolate. Enough said.

13. Dream about December 1st. Oh I can’t wait for that day when I can sleep in and not feel guilty about it.