Getting Motivated?

Oh, where to begin >.<

You're not alone.
Everybody- EVERYBODY- encounters this issue. The worst is when you have this amazing thought just bursting to get out and then you look at the paper and think 'pfft' because writing that first, perfect sentence seems like soo much effort.

Play like a child.
Creativity is as naturally engrained into our hearts as the need to breath. A lot of people believe that kids with Asperger's syndrome lack that desire to create- which things like Minecraft and Connex have proved otherwise.
Another natural instinct is expression, and expression and creativity come hand in hand. But that doesn't mean that all creativity has to be expressed, or that it has to go down onto paper in a perfect, readable format.

Sometimes when you get an idea, don't go straight to the paper. Play with it. Act it out. If anyone ever had a secret camera hidden in my house I'd be locked in the nuthouse to play with the squirrels.

As an example, let's say I had the idea of a servant in a palace who's done something wrong and is about to be punished. I create the Choremaster in my head, then I walk into my living room cowering and act out the scene.

You might imagine a palace and decide to build it with lego. Or you might imagine a paupers house and compose the lullaby to sing to sleep a child who's cold and starving.

The stubborn Muse
Your muse is, quite literally, a stubborn child. You need to let it out to play regularly, give it healthy food, nurture and inspire it. You don't say to a child 'play' and on demand they come up with an intricate story. You give them something fun to start off with, engage with and nurture them.

Sometimes they'll randomly grab another toy from nowhere. If you steal it away and say 'no I want you to play with this one' they're going to stop playing and start screaming.

Stay creative.
Another thing that happens is that you stop creating and think 'I need to write.' And suddenly you've induced a stressful factor that shuts down the expressive part of your brain and opens up the logical- so no matter how hard you try the only thing you'll get is literary constipation.

It's one of the main reasons people like to write late at night- just like in the Victorian era it was actually part of their lifestyle to wake in the middle of the night and do something fun like reading or talking, and historically bards and dancers and the likes would always perform at night, rather than at lunch time which would be perfectly reasonable.

Freewriting before you sit down to actually write helps too, for the same reason. The stresses of every day like have a way of stifling your creativity. Did you know that some people did an experiment. They sat a group of kids down before an exam. Half of them were left to sit quietly and half of them were given a pen and paper to write down all their thoughts.

The ones who wrote down their thoughts on average did 10% better in their exam.

When you freewrite you have the chance to actively weed out and put aside all the thoughts and worries that you don't even know you had. Once they're out the way the whole creative process becomes a lot easier.

When all else fails...
Every once in a while you are simply going to get stuck, and you just need to ride it out. In that case, don't worry if what you're writing is rubbish, just write it anyway. Writer slowly, or write fast, or write with your eyes closed or by hand or with fifteen marshmallows in your mouth.

The longer you sit struggling, the more of a habit that will become. It's better to leave your project alone and go sit on a bus and free-write in a notepad than to sit at your computer.

Tenyo, thank you so much! It's nice to know that I'm not just some lone wanderer, lost in the unknown that I call my creativity! I think my issue was that I was forcing myself to write, telling myself "Okay, go sit and write, right now" instead of just letting the words flow to me as they came. Hopefully I'll be able to get passed this slump I'm in, I'd love to share some of my works with all of the YWS members! (By the way, my muse is very very stubborn!)
Rosey, I think I'll try to do that, try to change what's happening within my writing, let my characters do what they wish, not what I wish, allow them to entice me, and not the other way around! c: I have that issue with so many books! I always find that boring books leave my mind to wander so I tend to be very picky when reading. ;D
Thanks for the help, both of you, it really helped open my mind, give me a new perspective on how to overcome this! c: I love this site so much!
-Vinnie

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