Flirty & Feisty Romance Blog...spice up your relationships: September 2018

Tuesday, 25 September 2018

14 Reasons to Stay #Motivated to #Write Your #Novel - #Writingtips

Welcome to Writing Tips!

Dear Aspiring Authors & Writers,

Welcome to my series on motivating new romance authors to get writing.

A bit about me

I'm Stella Eromonsere-Ajanaku, author of 22 toe-curling & heart-fluttering Flirty & Feisty Romance Novels. My published collection includes, Interracial/Multicultural/BWWM/African & African American Romance as well as Historical & Paranormal Romance Stories.

My heroes are super-sexy men with big hearts and the heroines are strong, independent, flirty and feisty women. All my romance stories are page turners, a breath of fresh air dotted with unexpected twists and are set in fascinating Africa, enticing Europe and enchanting America. You will laugh, cry, get a thrill and a message when you read my books and each novel makes the perfect gift for your family, friends and colleagues.

As I promised in my last post, here are some of my personal tips on Staying Motivated Writing Your Novel.

Photo is from Bing.com

#Tip 1: Nothing can hold you back, except yourself.

You may not know this fact about me, but I will share it with you. Despite the fact I publish at least 4 new books each year, I have suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and shortness of breath for the last five and a half years.

If you ask me how I do it, I will tell you straightway, it is God’s grace + my God-given talent + Divine inspiration + Self-motivation.

Photo is from Bing.com

Nothing can hold me back, thank God.

When I’m fatigued, I write slower. On my very bad days, I can’t write, that’s when I’m feeling almost lifeless.

Now what’s your excuse for not writing and publishing your story?

It is either you won’t write or you don’t want to write.

Or maybe you can’t write because you are sick. That’s understandable. However, there is always a way out.

Last year October, I had a major surgery. I prayed hard and God heard my prayer. Through God’s grace, I published Your Christmas Gift after my surgery.

Available on Amazon, UBL (iBooks/Kobo/B & N etc.) Smashwords & Okada Books

My question to you is, how hard do you want to see your characters come to life?

Tip #2: If you want to publish a novel, put in the work, pray for inspiration and write often.

Tip #3: Writing stories must be your passion.

You have got to crave it like you would anything you love and enjoy.

For me, writing romance story is my passion, my hobby and it makes me extremely happy and keeps me fulfilled. It's all I want to do with my free time.

So my first question to you is, why do you want to write? Is it your passion? Or is it something you want to do to earn money? Is it just a hobby or you want to write because you know other authors who write?

Your answer will give you an indication of how much effort and time you want to invest in writing.

Note: If it’s not your passion, over time your interest in writing will wane except you keep at it.

Tip #4: If it’s what you would love to do, then find time to do it. Don’t entertain any excuse from yourself.

Note: The book in your head will not write itself if you keep postponing when to write or doing other more ‘exciting’ stuff like spending hours on social media.

Years ago, when I worked full time, I wrote my stories on my phone or iPad during my daily commute to work.

For example, I wrote HUSBAND TO RENT on my way to work every day.

Available on Amazon, Smashwords & Okada Books

Also, my very first published work, Loitering shadows which has now been republished as Enticed Forever was written during my many train rides to and from work.

Available on Amazon, Smashwords & Okada Books

Tip #5 Write anywhere and everywhere!

If you drive to work, you can write during your break periods. At home, you can tell your husband and children or whoever your live-in companions are that you need space to write when you get back from work. Of course that would be after you have fed your kids and showed tender loving care to your hubby etc.

To achieve your plan, you can get into bed beside your husband and when he is fast asleep, you throw back the duvet, crawl out of bed and write. Very funny. Yeah!

Tip #6: Your hope of writing will not be achieved by staring at the laptop screen or never opening it. It will only roar to life when you start typing and filling the white screen with black ink.

Oh, how I love to hear my keypads crying when my fingers fly over the keys as words flow freely in my head and heart. How I love to see the blank white laptop screen fill up from line to line across each page. Every step in my writing process gives me a fair amount of satisfaction and puts a smile on my face and heart.

Now, you might say you are tired after a hard day at work.

Tip #7: Listen to me, you don’t have to write every day to publish your story fast!!!

That’s right. I don’t write every day. So, there is no guilty feeling when I don’t write. There are days I turn out 30 pages. Thank God! There are days I only write five pages and there are days I don’t write at all.

Do you know what’s important?

Tip #8: Even when I’m not writing, I’m constantly thinking about my characters and their story line.

Say I stop writing at the end of chapter 4 today for example. In my head, I still think about what happened in chapter 4 and what I will write in chapter 5.

Anywhere I go, even when I’m in the bathroom, I think about it. In many cases, the second I get a flash about their next move, activity or dialogue, I write or note it. If I’m lying on my bed, I speak the dialogue or thoughts into my speech-to-text app on my phone. If I’m in a bus or I’m out shopping, I type it on my phone.

Why is this vital?

Tip #9: Inspiration hits without warning.

Be ready to write it down one way or another. If you don’t you might forget it and that part is lost.

Tip #10: Give yourself a pat on the back after writing every page or each chapter.

I celebrate progress alias success in small doses along the way. You can do the same. I find it very uplifting.

After I complete writing for the day, I send the word document to my email with the number of pages written or chapter where I stopped as the subject title.

I do it for two reasons. One, if my laptop were to crash for some reason, my labour of love will not be lost. Secondly, it feels good to see my progress. I say to my children or hubby do you know I wrote two chapters or 10 pages today? They would say, well done!

That is my prize and my motivation to keep writing.

You could get your friend, husband or children to cook you a nice meal or share a drink with you after every chapter you write or edit.

To celebrate, you could go and have lunch by yourself at your favourite place or buy yourself fast food. Something indulgent like chocolate, ice cream will do.

One thing is certain, you will get more driven to finish writing the story.

Don’t wait till you complete an entire book before you pat yourself on the back or give yourself a treat.

It’s a psychological thing. If you are making progress, excitement travels around your body, creating a spectacular buzz in your stomach. Then you get stirred to keep going. It happens to me.

#Tip 11: How do I stay motivated? I watch romance/drama movies and TV series. I read romance books.

Watching moves especially helps me with pacing my book. That would be for another post.

#Tip 12: You need self-discipline.

I'm self-disciplined. It's a natural habit of mine. As a writer you need to be self-disciplined. What do I mean?

Time-wasting is not on my agenda at all and it should not be on yours as a writer. Why? Because time wasted can never be regained. So I try to use my time wisely except I’m giving myself a treat or I’m too sick to write. For example, apart from writing when I'm alone at home or on the road, I also write when my hubby is home and when my children are back from school.

Tip #13: Don't forget to PRAY for inspiration and a message for your readers.

After thinking a lot about what my real motivation was, I came up with the final tip.

Tip #14: Stop wasting precious time.

I think and believe there is no time to waste and I don't have enough hours to write the stories and messages God has given me to share.

God listens. I pray before, during and after every book I write. I pray for the message HE wants me to weave into the romance story for my readers.

To me, writing is my ministry.

Conclusion

In general, writing is a gift given to you to reach a wide number of people around the world. Take your responsibility seriously like I do mine.

Before I go,

Writing makes my heart flutter with excitement. The one thing that tops that feeling is chatting with my husband, watching movies together, eating together and having hot sex. Oh yes!!!

If I have motivated you to write the story circling in your heart, please drop a comment. If not, I hope you still go on and write anyway.

If you are an aspiring author and you struggle with any aspect of writing or publishing, ask me your question and I will answer as best as I can.

Until my next post on how I'm doing with writing my upcoming Christmas Romance Story, stay blessed and keep writing.

******

Have you read my current release? It's controversial and I love it. Readers are divided. They either love it or hate it.

If you have not, you can get your copy here.