Maintaining Steam Part 4: Determination and Discipline (Patreon)

DISCIPLINE AND PERSEVERANCE

Sometimes, the issue that causes a slowing of forward momentum isn't actually writer's block. It isn't frustration or discouragement and self-doubt.

Sometimes it's just boredom and lack of focus. Everyone knows the best way to make progress on a project is to spend time writing every day, but it can be really difficult to have the discipline to do that. Especially when you reach that point where you're kinda bored.

And what happens when you're months into a project and just...tired of it?

I think we all hit that place where we've begun to fall out of love with a project.

Before we really continue on that subject, I want to stop here and talk about burnout.

Burnout is a very real phenomenon. It's when you hit a point of mental exhaustion that often leads to feeling overwhelmed and emotionally drained. 

Burnout is not boredom. Burnout is a mental state brought on by overwork and stress.

The reason I think it's important to make a distinction is because burnout is one of those terms like "depressed" or "OCD" that we sometimes use inaccurately. 

Burnout honestly requires that you take a break and rest before looking at your workload and schedule to make adjustments and changes to your habits. 

But if you're just bored or tired of a project, breaks can actually make it harder to pick the project back up in my experience.

As such, I think it's really important to identify when you're truly burned out and when you're just bored. (I do think that many of us reach a point of true burnout with very long term writing projects. But it's important to differentiate that from just being kind of bored and 'over it.')

So how do we stay focused and work every day? How do we continue to work when we're bored and unmotivated to work on a project?

Especially with so many things that can distract us from day to day - like...the entire internet. Or things like new projects that pop up right when we're getting bored of the ones we're working on.

I wish I had a reliable way to totally reignite passion for a long term project but honestly, I don't. 

When it came to Changeling, by the end, I was sick of the project. Mentally and emotionally, I was done. I still loved it - but I wanted to be finished with it. I was bored of the characters, bored of the setting, and tired of working on it every single day. The reason I finished it wasn't so much passion for Changeling so much as it was determination to have a finished project under my belt.

So, unfortunately, there's no magic button to push. I think it really just takes discipline and willpower. Like a job. 

People get tired of their jobs, but they go in daily because they want to stay employed. There's no deep meaning or magic trick they use to stay passionate about their work. They do it because they have to.

And as much as I hate to dispel the glamour behind something like game development or writing...it's kind of the same. 

I was simply determined to finish Changeling. That determination got me through the times I wanted to give up. I just really wanted to be able to say "I completed this."

I want to pause again and note that discipline cannot save you from actual, physical barriers to productivity. If you are not being productive because you are ill, you shouldn't be trying to power through that. You should be getting treatment, getting rest, and taking care of yourself.

But if you're just struggling to focus because you're sick of a project or easily distracted by cat videos, there are some things you can do to help with that.

I will say that I think what works for people is very individual based. Some writers swear by having a designated work space, or always writing at the same time of day. This kind of stuff does not help me. Like...at all.

And, in the end, discipline is a choice and a habit that you build for yourself. I can tell you what works for me, but you have to find out what works for. And, at the end of the day, you have to be willing to just power through the distractions sometimes.

I do think that a lot of people respond best to multiple techniques. So it's important to try different things Because there's unlikely to be One Technique To Rule Them All.

I'm going to talk about things that work for me. Just remember that when it comes to writing, discipline isn't about working all the time. It's about working consistently over a long period of time.

Word Count Goals

So, I use word count goals a lot. A lot. 

But I don't set some high goal for myself and try to attain that. I definitely work in levels of goals.

I usually set a minimum goal for myself for each day - this is the lowest amount I have to achieve to allow myself to say I had a successful writing day. This goal is often relatively low - for myself, it's 1000 words. Because I know I'm capable of writing that much in a day. 

I also set a 'desired' goal for myself for each day. This is the amount I want to try to reach. As long as I hit the minimum, I'll be satisfied. But hitting this goal is what's going to make me REALLY happy with my day. This is 2000-2500 words for me.

I also have my short-term goal that I am aiming for as my next  milestone. These goals are usually 10-15k increments. So if I'm currently at 25,000 words in my story, my next short term goal might be 35,000 words.

And, finally, I have my long term goal. This is usually just my overall word count goal for the project. In my visual novels, I work per route, so my overall goal is really just the words for that individual route.

I track all of this in a spreadsheet. 

I know that may seem overly meticulous for some people, but putting in my daily amounts and seeing the numbers change is actually really helpful for me. It lets me see that I am progressing in a more tangible way. And sometimes encourages me to push myself a little harder.

If I'm only 500 words from my desired goal, I'll push myself a little and write that 500 words so I reach the desired goal. If I'm 1k away from my short term goal - again, I can push myself and see if I can actually reach it that day.

One thing that causes me to burn out on a long project is just feeling overwhelmed. 

Progress with writing can be so slow that it starts to feel like you'll never reach the end. By breaking things down into smaller and smaller increments, it lets me keep focused on the immediate goal without feeling burdened by my overall goal.

It lets me see my actual progress on a daily basis instead of feeling like I'm treading water. This can be very helpful for me. And since I want to track my word counts for my games anyway, this is a very natural method to use when it comes to maintaining focus.

That said, it just doesn't always motivate me, so sometimes another method is required.

Pomodoro Technique

Another technique I actually find incredibly helpful is setting timers for myself to write. I use a sort of modified pomodoro technique because the full technique often doesn't fit my actual schedule. 

It's essentially a time management strategy that involves working in 25 minute increments with a 5 minute break in between. After the 4th 25 minute segment, however, you take a 10 minute break instead.

When I say I use a modified version it's often because I skip breaks or don't utilise the four full 25 minute segments due to real life interruptions (it's honestly rare that I can work for more than 1 hour without interruption). What is more useful to me than a rigid technique is the concept of setting a timer for a manageable block of time like 25 minutes - and making myself work for that full, timed segment.

If I have to do research or have to pause for a long period to think...I pause the timer. I've personally found this strategy extremely helpful when I'm struggling to focus. Especially when paired with word count goals.

It's sort of a way to force myself to be disciplined when I really don't want to write, and I use it in conjunction with meticulously tracking my word counts.

Creating Accountability

It can be helpful to create some form of accountability for yourself. For my VNs, this comes in the form of weekly updates. I know that at the end of the week I need to list out what I worked out. So that can help me ensure I actually do something worthy of reporting on.

This strategy may be tricky for people who are just writing a personal novel or fan-fiction project. But if you do have some way that you can create a weekly check-in, I think there is value in this type of accountability.

Everyone's situation is different so you have to think about the type of accountability that is going to work best for you.

CONCLUSION

In the end, I feel like the best way to counteract things like boredom is to really create good habits and set up a strategy that does enable you to write at least a little bit each day.

Writing is absolutely a marathon so you have to find ways to pace yourself. You aren't going to enjoy every minute of writing your poject and you're not going to wake up every day and feel ultra motivated to sit and write. You're not always going to enjoy the tedium of slow progress, nor will you be in love with your project every time you open your word processor.

Accepting that writing is work and that sometimes you have to approach it from a very methodical standpoint (IE "I'm writing because I have to/need to" rather than "I'm writing because I just LOVE writing so much I'm about to burst into a bouquet of flowers!") can really help put things in perspective.

For me, having a pretty desk with flowers overlooking a window where I can sit down at 4PM every day and watch birds and feel 'inspired by nature' or something - it's just not enough those moments where writing feels boring and tedious. It's not enough to help me through the writer's block and self-doubt.

I need a more practical approach to keep my eye on the finish line.

Whether it's scale-reducing outline techniques to help me through moments of writer's block or word count tracking and timers to get me through moments of boredom and blahs. For you, the techniques needed may be something else. 

What I think we all share in common is a need for determination, grit, and the discipline to follow through on whatever strategies we settle on.

Hopefully, reading through this all has been helpful. Hopefully, having some insights into how I view the world when it comes to writing has given you some ideas on how to get through the loss of momentum I think we all experience once we pass that "honeymoon phase" of a new project.

If any of you have thoughts or strategies, I'd really love to hear them! It's really useful to hear what helps others or to even know what struggles others are facing! 

And I think that's all for this series for now! *waves*